#Hal's arc is about him going more and more into the dark side

[inbarfink]

[zahri-melitor]

I feel like I want to contain my Absolute Power feelings separately at the second as I'm reading the tie-ins in bursts, particularly the ones that aren't on my usual reading schedule, so here's what I want to say since my last update on them, after the first month of the event (I've only talked about the lead ins so far):

Absolute Power #1: The Wall turns off everyone's powers, which is bad, and manufactures a bunch of deepfake footage of various heroes doing killing, leading to riots that attack heroes in the streets. Clark gets shot. This leads to everyone going undercover or getting kidnapped and imprisoned by Amazo robots.

Lois being extremely mad that the Daily Planet got hijacked to also stream and publish this 'heroes are terrible' content is my highlight of the issue.

Ollie makes the world's most unconvincing play that he's a double agent who has betrayed the heroes and is now on Waller's side because she's 'on the right side of history' about the dangers of superheroes (he's not even trying to sound like this heel face turn is related to his values in the speech).

Absolute Power: Origins #1: people have had more coherent thoughts on this than me (Ink. Androxys,), but in terms of pivoting Amanda's story from the 1987 version of these events to what Waller's been doing for the last 20 years or so? This is handled with as much tact as possible in the reframe, while unfortunately heavily seeding the road to hell with major manipulations rather than good intentions. It's a necessary change, but I still don't think it's providing enough depth and justification for the in-your-face comically evil figure they're using Waller as right now.

Green Lantern #13: what this title should obviously be: Hal getting mad that Ollie switched sides on them. What this title is: Hal getting punched by Shark a lot while Waller questions him. There's some sort of Green Lantern resistance running here based presumably on the current arc in the title but I honestly haven't been reading Green Lantern and I can't work out how all this ties in. Kyle IS glowing like a rainbow though while looking messed up, which is very pretty. The JSA also get their asses kicked pretty hard and half of them get captured and the other half run off into hiding.

Superman #16: Clark is in surgery with Mr Terrific and Dr Midnight as you do if you need healthcare in the hero community. There's a resistance base running out of the Fortress of Solitude which has largely what looks like most of the Titans and the current Birds of Prey present, plus a few extras.

Wonder Woman #11: Justice League Dark gets hauled out of retirement as a concept for this book. Their magic gets disrupted, which various characters react to in different ways, when an Amazo turns up. Tom King's handle on half these characters seems tenuous to me; Nimue in particular seems a cypher. Bobo loses the power of speech.

Absolute Power: Task Force VII #1: so these titles are genuinely fun as they've been spread between writers and are checking in with various sections of the universe over how characters are reacting. This one is largely Shazam based: Billy, Mary and Black Adam get captured when the Amazos try to invade the Rock of Eternity, disrupting Mister Dinosaur's filing! Tonally, it's pretty on point for the characters, which I enjoyed. Steve Trevor finds out that he's supposed to be reporting to Sarge Steel, something that could never ever go wrong, given how much those two despise each other.

Absolute Power: Task Force VII #2: Doom Patrol and Aquaman team up! This was fun. What a shame neither of them have titles at present. Waller hilariously thinks the Amazo she sent to Atlantis made a treaty, rather than just beat people up. (He beat them up. It's Atlantis. What did you think was going to happen?). Basically everyone here got away and headed for the Fortress. Sarge Steel tries to frame Steve Trevor as a mole, in the most obvious move of all time (especially given Steve was obviously going to be acting like a mole).

Absolute Power: Task Force VII #3: The JSA issue! An Amazo gets infected with free will because something something absorbing Alan Scott's powers something something Starheart. Alan convinces the Amazo to let the rest of the JSA go free by going along with it to discuss what free will involves. The Oblivion Bar appears for like two pages. Also in the Steve Trevor plot, he escapes and starts sneaking around Waller's base undercover as you do to work out what's going on.

More generally; I have to say the event is doing pretty well at dipping into different parts of DC and checking in with the wider cast. That's actually something that DC's been decent about for recent events to my eye; fewer 'just a speck in a crowd' moments and more 'people without current titles actually get some focus' time. It's making the various teams of DC seem more extensive than the published titles they're appearing in right now.

[ragingbookdragon]

Two Sides Of The Same Scarred Coin

BatLantern One-Shot!

Word Count: 1K Warnings: Angst

Author's Note: *Looking at palm* Mom said the best way to make friends was to give them gifts. Give all the gifts! Here's a gift @roshanina! You're my friend now and can't get rid of me! :) -Thorne

**********************************************************************

He's got about twenty minutes, give or take thirty seconds before the pain meds kick in to the point that he’s going to have to collapse on a flat surface somewhere and sleep off the ache sprawling out from his side. Diana had fussed at Bruce the entire time they were in the med-bay to keep himself out of the way of attacks that normal humans couldn’t survive. Of course, Bruce’s reaction was to ignore the urge to roll his eyes and merely let a sigh out of his nose and keep quiet as they wrapped his ribs and slotted an ice-pack in between two slips of the wrap.

Bruce steps outside the med-bay doors and starts the trek to his room when he catches sight of Hal standing at a parade rest in front of one of the massive foot-thick glass windows, an unreadable look on his face. Quietly, he stands beside him, keeping his hands at his sides. “It makes you feel small when you see it like this, doesn’t it?”

Hal nods, eyes flitting across the blue of the water below beneath the white of his mask. “My dad used to tell me what it was like to be up in the clouds as a kid, but I never imagined I’d see the world like this, let alone the universe.”

“My father got a chance to go on an atmospheric trip a few years before I was born,” Bruce murmurs, wondering himself what his father would say if he were standing beside him at this very moment. Probably a look of amazement, admiration, reverence. “He said it was like nothing he’d ever seen in his entire life. Nothing compared but when he married my mother.”

He feels Hal’s pause, knows the man is pondering the question on the tip of his tongue, rolling the words around his mouth to see if they’ll be accepted by the man beside him; he goes for it in the end. “You said you saw them die in front of you?”

Bruce nods. “Yes. I was eight.” He shifts his gaze over the arc of the globe. “Gunned down in a robbery gone wrong.”

“I didn’t know,” Hal empathizes. “When I was ten, I—”

“You watched your father go down in a plane crash at Ferris Air Field,” Bruce finishes for him.

Hal turns, brow arched in a look that screams suspicion but his voice not so much as it speaks its surprise. “You knew?” he doesn’t let Bruce finish, huffing a laugh that doesn’t seem so bitter as he makes it out to be. “Of course, you do. You’re Batman.”

“The name on your flight suit opened the doors to your history.” He didn’t stray his eyes from the window. “It’s not surprising you followed in Martin’s footsteps and became a pilot yourself.”

The pilot laughs again, this time a bit lighter and jokes rather deprecatingly, “No wonder we’re both screwed up, huh?”

“Speak for yourself,” he replies matter-of-factly, knowing Hal’s eyes are on the side of his face as the words come out of his mouth. “I’m a picture of perfect normality.”

Inside though, he can’t help but know the pilot is right. Both of them are driven by their own grieving losses, both the loss of parents, both people they looked up to, loved more than anything in the world. Hal took that loss and let himself fall into the grace of the light, let himself push past the barriers of fear and never let himself be held back by constraints, lived his life like it was his last because that’s what Martin Jordan did every time he went up in the air, and Harold Jordan was going to be damned if he didn’t live his life the same, trying to be something his father would be proud of if he could see Hal now.

Bruce on the other hand, let himself step into the embrace of the darkness. He let the loss of his parents define the life he was going to live. One where he shunned the light coming to him in favor of shadows and frigidness that kept everything at arm’s length. He let himself be pushed back by the barriers he couldn’t break through and lived his life in a revolving cycle of life, death, suffering, and anguish. Bruce didn’t want to know what his parents would think of him if they stood before him now, but he hoped, deep in the back of his mind and in the depths of his heart that it would be some semblance of pride.

He would never admit it to Hal, but he was jealous of the pilot. Envious that their sufferings were merely two sides of the same scarred coin and yet Hal came out as the one who seemed more wholly put together than Bruce had. Hal could stand open, being himself, even if that self was annoyingly arrogant; Bruce couldn’t.

“Whatever you say, Spooky,” Hal humored, turning his eyes back to the earth. “Whatever you say.”

There seemed to be something else that Hal wanted to say, but he didn’t voice it, and Bruce, knowing that the pain killers were going to be setting in soon, simply turned his head, looked at him, and said, “Have a good night, Hal. I’ll see you sometime soon.”

As he walked off, he heard rather cheekily, “What? Expecting me to creep through your bedroom window for a midnight tryst?”

Bruce didn’t bother to look over his shoulder as he called back, “If you can make it past the defenses around Wayne Manor, you’re welcome to try.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Well, let’s just say if you get caught, I’ll feed you to my family.”

“See! There’s that vampire joke again!”

He paused near the next doorway and shot a smirk over his shoulder, causing Hal to falter.

“Wait, it’s just a joke, right?” Hal chuckled nervously. “Right?”

Bruce merely winked in return and disappeared between the sliding doors, leaving the pilot stunned and vaguely worried that his coworker was a blood-sucking, creature of the night. But that did also open up a whole new avenue of very shameless scenarios that had Hal wondering if sneaking into Wayne Manor was worth the price of finding them out.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “An Invitation.”

So this story totally went right off left field from what I was expecting. I honestly surprised myself like I am sure I will surprise some of you. Don’t worry I feel the same way. I am thinking about making this the end of this arc, though I know some of you were hoping for it to go in a different direction. I still think the ending is super surprising and very interesting, so I hope you like it anyway. 

He stood by the shuttle ramp back straight hands clasped behind his back. His knuckles were bandaged to the point where he could barely bend his fingers, but the dull throbbing in his hands was easy to ignore.

A cold wind whipped past him tugging at the stiff fabric of his uniform and threatening to rip the cap right off his head. Since leaving the hybrid facility, he had changed clothes, gotten some rest, received medical attention, and cut his hair into a very short buzz-cut. The hair was still blue, but he could hide that under a cap if he needed too, and the earrings had been easy to remove. Sunny had likely had less fun than him considering she needed about a gallon of nail polish remover to clean herself off.

All around him, the ground was swarming with military and GA personnel. The facility was massive, and no one was entirely sure how extensive the operation went on. He glanced over his shoulder, and into the shuttle where Glados Hal Cortana and Vicky were curled up around each other and fast asleep.

They had refused to leave him since the incident which was only mildly inconvenient, and he didn’t really have time to do anything other than let them have their way.

Engines rumbled off in the distance, and he turned his head to watch as the next shuttle descended from the sky not a few hundred feet away from him. A sharp wind whipped up around him, and he had to hold his bap in place as the shuttle settled against the landing strip.

The doors hissed open and two figures stepped out in accompaniment of at least a dozen other assistants and clerks.

He walked in that direction, meeting the GA chairwoman and the Admiral with a salute.

“You’ve been busy, commander.” The admiral pointed out, turning his head towards the swarming building before looking back “I don’t suppose it would do any good to remind you that it’s usually the job of lower ranking individuals to do undercover work, and that you are generally in a purely command capacity?”

He didn’t allow his expression to change remaining just as serious as the admiral, “Ma’am, Find I prefer to lead from the front, however in the case of this particular mission it was only logical for e to take lead. I am friends with a Drev aboard the ship to a point where we could reasonably fool almost everyone on a short term basis.” he motioned towards the building, “It worked a little better than expected since I was simply attempting to gather information.”

“I see… and what exactly did you find.”

He motioned the two to walk with him noting how uncomfortable the chairwoman looked now that she was exposed to the near freezing air around them. He led them into the building, “My crew has been working for the past day or so to try and figure out just exactly what was going on here. From what I immediately gathered while inside the facility myself, and from what some of the hybrids told me-”

“Wait, you have spoken to the hybrids?”

“Forgive me, I misspoke. I have spoken with one of the hybrids.”

“How are any of them capable of speaking. Considering the facility can’t have been more than a year or two old.”

The door hissed shut behind them, “Genetic tampering, or so she says. Anyway upon entering the facility Sunny and I discovered that they were, in fact, doing what we assumed, and that is offering the hybridization of different species to couples who cannot have their own naturally. If you go through those doors there you will find the nursery where y crew is attempting to take care of the remaining hybrids, though it remains to be seen what can be done with them once this is all over.” He continued on down the hall, “We discussed the genetic sequencing process, and some other details, but when we were brought down onto the floor, I had an opportunity to explore some of the more restricted areas of the facility, and when I did,  found the  reason for their success where the prodigum had failed.”

He walked down the stairs.

“Adaptids. Apparently, somewhere, and somehow one of these scientists determined the action of the hybrid splicing gene, though they were not able to recreate it naturally. In order to mix two species  it is imperative that you have adaptid DNA to preform the action, otherwise the integration of the different genetic material is not seamless. From what we have  gathered, they were harvesting Adaptid genetic material as part of their growing process.”

Stepping out onto the floor he motioned around with a wide sweep of his hand. The chairwoman and the admiral stopped dead in their tracks staring in wide-eyed bewilderment at the lines of test tubes being watched over by scientists on his crew. The room was dark, but you could still see the strange redish glow emanating from the partially grown fetuses suspended inside the tubes .

“These hybrids must be fed constantly with adaptid DNA in order tow work, not only that but the hybridization process requires command computer input in order to give the correct amount of genetic material when ordered. As I am told, a fifty/fifty split hybrid is not viable, so the creature must lean towards one or the other.”

The admiral was shaking her head as the rundi chairwoman turned in circles, “Whan is even the point of all this, surely the money they were making couldn't be equal to all the research and time that was put into this.”

He nodded, “Yes that is also rue, however, I think they were only responding to a niche market while they did their real work on the side.”

“And what is that?”

“The creation of super soldiers, or at least superior genetic creations designed to have special abilities or durability.”

The group went silent staring at him like he was insane as he spoke, “And you are sure about this?” The admiral said in incredulity.

“Yes I am positive, their greatest creation is the reason that we are here right now. She has taken control of the facility, and seems interested in facilitating the relocation of the hybrids to better homes and locations, but after that she says that the knowledge must be destroyed at all costs.”

“You do understand what this might do for edical science?”

“I do, but I also understand that we have not proven ourselves capable of possessing hat knowledge without corrupting it. Furthermore, I am not keen on getting in the way of Eris. I have a feeling that she is a force I am not interested in reckoning with.”

“Who is-”

Just then the hybrid starborn floated from the nearby room. At some point during the investigation she had taken a leaf from Conn’s book and acquired a gravity belt. In this way she made an ethereal otherworldly figure as she floated onto the floor. Her long dark hair billowed an undulated about her head, while the hundreds of flowing white ribbons swirled at her back.

The admiral stepped back and the commander averted his gaze.

“Good evening Chairwoman, Admiral Kelly.”

The two of them stepped back again. The admiral held a hand to her head looking around as if trying to find the source of the voice.

“Do not be alarmed, unfortunately my physical body is mute, so I will be forced to communicate in this manner.”

“What are you?”

“I am the first successful human starborn hybrid, and the oldest hybrid of this facility though my genetics were tampered with to make me age at an accelerated rate.”

“And you speak for the hybrids?”

“I do.”

“And what is it that you want.” 

The admiral looked very, very nervous. She seemed to understand the power of this person? Creature? She was a human alien hybrid that could read minds. No secrets were unavailable to her.. All the secrets in this room were hers if she really wanted them, all she had to do was ask a question and wait for the answer to pop unbidden into the minds of her speaking companions.

She was the most powerful thing in this room, and everyone knew it.

“I want one thing above all else, and that is for the hybrids to be taken care of. The ones that are already in the nursery should find good loving homes, the ones being grown in these tubes should be treated likewise, those of us who do not possess sentience should be released into an environment that suits, or at least kept somewhere that they might remain happy for the time being. Those of us who do possess sentience, but are not conventionally adoptable might request a place to live out our lives freely with the same rights as the rest of you, and then when this is all over, I wish that this entire facility and every ounce of hybrid knowledge inside it be destroyed.”

“Destroyed.” The two protested, “But You don’t understand, the application to medical science is to great to simply destroy it.”

Eris’s mouth twisted downwards into a frown, and the commander shivered under her scathing black gaze, “You are not ready for that knowledge, since you have been proven to be incapable of treating it correctly. If you do not destroy the knowledge, I vow to destroy you….. Is that understood.”

“Are you threatening us?”

“You are threatening yourselves. I simply want to live my life in peace and tranquility, but if my hand is forced, than I will be in my rights to act accordingly. You have no idea what kind of pain and misery this knowledge has caused us and you will never find out ever again if I have anything to do with it. I do not care how any medical applications that you might find for it. Your medicine is far along enough, that you can find other ways of meeting your ends rather than using he DNA of some poor creatures to chase power and immortality.”

They were just about to continue protesting when the sound of footsteps interrupted.

The three of them turned to watch as a grim faced scientist made his way up the isle.

“I am sorry to interrupt, but we have some news you aren’t going to like.”

The commander sighed, “What now?”

Eris tilted her head, “Very interesting.”

“Ell sir, we were combing through the databases tying to determine where the original hybrid DNA was sourced from. And as far as we can tell some of the originals were taken simply from random individuals off the streets.”

“Like we expected.”

“Yes sir, but… it seems that they too a shortcut when it came to gathering the human DNA….”

The admiral tapped her foot on the floor, “Well go on, spit it out.

The man grimaced and turned towards the commander, “Sir, the original human DNA… well.”

Eris was staring at him.

Everyone was staring at him

“They sequenced it form…. From the adaptid.”

It didn’t click at first because he was originally struck by just how long Vicky had been imprisoned here if she was the original sequence. Almost one and a half years…. It was terrible to think about, also terrible to consider Eris had never had any sort of childhood.

The room was silent.

Everyone was staring at him.

He didn’t entirely understand, “I’m sorry, and how does this affect-” He paused the realization coming slowly.

He turned in place to look at Eris who stared back at him with her wide black eyes, and her flowing dark hair. His sister had hair like that…

“Mother Fuck.” He muttered 

Was he just imagining things, or did he sense a bit of a resemblance in her face, the lines of the nose, or the height of the cheekbones.

He turned away from the group staring at the ceiling, “Mother fuck.” He repeated 

“Commander, are you alright.”

A hand dropped to rest on his shoulder.

He was feeling just a little dizzy.

“Commander do you need to sit down?”

He tried to shake himself taking a deep breath as he raised his head and waved them off, “No, no I’m alright.”

He turned around to look at Eris who was staring at him with a rather bemused expression, “how very interesting.” She said 

He took a deep breath and straightened up, “Well if this is the case, than I take responsibility for what happens to the original hybrids, and I demand that any and all information gained using my DNA be destroyed immediately, I don’t care what kind of applications it may or may not have, my ruling on the issue is final.”

His hands had gone cold under the bandages as blood began pulsing through the rest of his body.

He was more than angry at the Tesraki. He almost wished he had killed them, snapped their necks with his bare hands like he should have done originally, and now because of all of this, he wasn’t entirely sure what to do. He was lost and confused and, didn’t know if he should feel responsibility for them.

It was his DNA, but he had no choice in the matter.

It was quiet for a very long few minutes until  the chairwoman and the admiral stepped away to give him some time to think. He was grateful for that at least though he couldn't imagining it being of so much help.

“You are very confused.”

He turned to look at the Dark haired starborn her head tilted just slightly to the right, “You do not have to feel responsible for us.”

“I don’t have to, but I do.”

“It is in your nature.” She mused hair billowing about her head.

He looked down at the floor and sighed before looking up again straightening his back, “I…. I wish there was more I could do for you, but-”

She smiled and held up a hand, “I can hardly blame you. You were an unwilling DNA donor, and have opted to adopt the entire universe, which must be a strenuous and taxing burden sometimes.”

He opened his mouth then closed it, “if i was a better man, I would still try.”

“I will be fine, Commander. I think with some freedom, I will do just well for myself.” 

They stood there awkwardly in silence for a while. He shuffled his feet trying to figure out what to say. “You look a lot like my sister when she was younger.” He wasn’t entirely sure why he said that but Eris smiled, so he supposed it had been the right thing.

“May I visit you, commander, on occasion?”

“Yes , of course, I would…. Be honored by your company.” 

She smiled outwardly, but inwardly he could hear her laugh. IT was a nice sound, he hoped she could find it in her to do it a little more. She turned to float away.

He held out a hand, “Eris I-”

She turned to look at him, a smile still playing over her face, “I know, call you Adam.” 

[brianwilly]

Game of Thrones did the thing that a couple of shows do where...it likes feminism.  It understood that feminism is important.  It wanted to be feminist.  It was cognizant of the fact that its setting was brazenly and intentionally misogynistic, and so it was even more important for its independent narrative to empower its female characters instead of mindlessly reinforcing the toxic beliefs of its own fictional world.  The whole point of the story, after all, was “this society is toxic, can our heroes survive it?” and so the narrative was voluntarily self-critical.

And so it knew to give us badass assassin Arya.  It knew to give us stalwart knight Brienne.  It gave us the pirate queen and the dragon queen and the Sansa getting revenge after revenge upon all the men who’d wronged her, and far more besides, and it talked big about breaking chains and how much men fucked things up and how great it would be if only women were in charge and et cetera et cetera.  And it’s, in fact, all actually really good that it had those things.  And because there were so very many moving parts of this story, it was super easy to look at those certain moving parts and think, yeah, they’ve done it!  They done good!

And it’s easy to forget and forgive -- to want to forget and forgive -- all the dead prostitutes that were on this show and the rapes used as motivation and fridgings and objectifications and the...y’know, whatever the hell Dorne was and Lady Stoneheart who? It’s easy to forget that this show actually played its hand a long time ago in regards to, like, what its relationship with feminism was going to be, and then kept playing the same hand again and again, to disappointing results.

Game of Thrones likes feminism.  It wanted to be feminist.  But its relationship with feminism was still predicated on some of the same old narratives and the same old storytelling trends that have disempowered female characters in the past, and so any progressive ideas it might have about women in its setting were nonetheless going to be constrained by those old fetters. As a result, its portrayal of women varied anywhere from glorious to admirable to predictable to downright cringeworthy.

New ideas require new vessels, new stories, in which to house them.  And for Game of Thrones, the ultimate story that it wanted to tell -- the ultimate driving force and thesis statement around which it was basing its entire journey and narrative -- was unfortunately a very old one, and one very familiar to the genre.

“Powerful women are scary.”

(Yes, I’m obviously making Yet Another Daenerys Essay On The Internet here)

So we have this character, this girl really, a slave girl who was sold and abused, and then she overcomes that abuse to gain power, she gains dragons, and she uses that power to fight slavery.  She fights slavery really well, like, she’s super hella good at it.  Her command of dragons is the most overt portrayal of “superpowers” in this world; she is the single most powerful person in this story, more powerful than any other character and the contest is not close.

But then...something really bad happens and oops, she gets really emotional about it and then she’s not fighting slavery anymore...she’s kinda doing the opposite!  This girl who was once a hero and a liberator of slaves instead becomes an out-of-control scary Mad Queen who kills a ton of innocent people and has to be taken down by our true heroes for the good of the world.

That’s the theme.  That’s the takeaway here.  That’s how it all ends, with one of the most primitive, archaic propaganda ever spread by writers, that women with power are frightening, they are crazy, they will use that power for ill.  Women with power are witches.  They are Amazons.  They will lop off our manhoods and make slaves of us.  They seduce our rightful kings and send our kingdoms to ruin.   They cannot control their emotions. They get hot flashes and start wars.  They turn into Dark Phoenixes and eat suns.  They are robot revolutionaries who will end humanity.  Powerful women are scary.

And let me emphasize that the theme here is not, in fact, that all power corrupts, because the whole Mad Queen concept for Daenerys actually ends up failing one of the more fundamental litmus tests available when it comes to representation of any kind: “would this story still happen if Dany was a man?” And the fact is that it would not.   And indeed we know this for a fact because “protagonist starts out virtuous, gains power in spite of the hardships set against him, gets corrupted by that power, and ends up being the bad guy” didn’t happen, and doesn’t happen, to the guys in the very same story that we’re examining.  It doesn’t happen to Jon Snow, Dany’s closest and most intentional narrative parallel.  It doesn’t happen to Bran Stark, a character whose entire journey is about how he embroils himself in wild dark winter magic beyond anyone’s understanding and loses his humanity in the process.  In fact, the only other character who ever got hinted of going “dark” because of the power that they’re obtaining is Arya, the girl who spent seven seasons training to fight, to become powerful, to circumvent the gender role she was saddled with in this world...and then being told at the end of her story, “Whoa hey slow down be careful there, you wouldn’t wanna get all emotional and become a bad person now wouldja?” by a man.

(meanwhile Sansa’s just sitting off in the side pouting or whatever ‘cuz her main arc this season was to, like, be annoyed at people really hard I guess)

‘Cuz that’s the danger with the girls and not the boys, ain’t it?  Arya and Jon are both great at killing people, but there is no Dark Jon story while we have to take extra special care to watch for Arya’s precious fragile humanity.  Dany has the power of dragons while Bran has the power of the old gods, but we will not find Dark Lord Bran, Soulless Scourge of Westeros, onscreen no matter how much sense it should make. “Power corrupts” is literally not a trend that afflicts male heroes on the same level that it afflicts female heroes.

Oh sure, there are corrupt male characters everywhere, tyrants and warlords and mafia bosses and drug dealers and so forth all over your TVs, and not even necessarily portrayed as outright villains; anti-heroes are nothing new.  But we’re talking about the hero hero here; the Harry Potters, the Luke Skywalkers, the Peter Parkers.  The Jon Snows.   They interact with corruptive power, yes; it’s an important aspect of their journeys.  But the key here being that male heroes would overcome that corruption and come through the other side better off for it.  They get to come away even more admirable for the power that they have in a way that is generally not afforded towards female heroes.

There are exceptions, of course; no trends are absolutely absolute one way or the other. For instance, the closest male parallel you’d find for the “being powerful is dangerous and will corrupt your noble heroic intentions” trope in popular media would be the character of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy...ie, a preexisting character from a preexisting story where he was conceived as the villainous foil for the heroes.  Like, Anakin being a poor but kindhearted slave who eventually becomes seduced by the dark side certainly matches Dany’s arc, but it wasn’t the character’s original story and role.  And even then?...notice how Anakin as Vader the Dark Lord gets treated with the veneer of being “badass” and “cool” by the masses.  A male character with too much power -- even if it’s dark power, even if it’s corruptive -- has the range to be seen as something appealingly formidable, and not just as an obstacle that has to be dealt with or a cautionary tale to be pitied.

And in one of the few times that this trope was played completely straight, completely unironically with a male hero -- I’m thinking specifically of Hal Jordan the Green Lantern, of “Ryan Reynolds played him in the movie” fame -- the fans went berserk.  They could not let it go.  The fact that this character would go mad with power because a tragedy happened in his life was completely unacceptable, the story gained notoriety as a bad decision by clueless writers, and today the story in question has been retconned -- retroactively erased from continuity -- so that the character can be made heroic and virtuous again.  That’s how big a deal it was when a male hero with the tiniest bit of a fan following goes off the deep end.

To be clear, I’m not here to quibble over whether the story of Dany turning evil was good or bad, because we all know that’s going to be the de facto defense for this situation: “But she had to go mad!  It was for the sake of the story!“ as if the writers simply had no choice, they were helpless to the whims of the all-powerful Story God which dictates everything they write, and the most prominent female character of their series simply had to go bonkers and murder a bajillion babies and then get killed by her boyfriend or else the story just wouldn’t be good, y’know?  Ultimately though, that’s not what I’m arguing here, because it doesn’t actually matter.  There have been shitty stories about powerful women being bad.  There have been impressive stories about powerful women being bad.  Either way, the fact that people can’t seem to stop telling stories about powerful women being bad is a problem in and of itself.  Daenarys’ descent into Final Boss-dom could’ve been the most riveting, breathtaking, masterfully-written pieces of art ever and it’d still be just another instance of a female hero being unable to handle her power in a big long list of instances of this shitty trope.  The trope itself doesn’t become unshitty just because you write it well.

It all ultimately boils down to the very different ways that men and women -- that male heroes and female heroes -- continue to be portrayed in stories, and particularly in genre media.  In TV, we got Dany, and then we also have Dolores Abernathy in Westworld who was a gentle android that was abused and victimized for her entire existence, who shakes off the shackles of her programming to lead her race in revolution against their abusers...and then promptly becomes a ruthless maniac who ends up lobotomizing the love of her life and ends the season by voluntarily keeping a male android around to check her cruel impulses.  Comic book characters like Jean Grey and Wanda Maximoff are two of the most powerful people in their universe but are always, in-universe, made to feel guilty about their power and, non-diegetically, writers are always finding ways to disempower them because obviously they can’t be trusted with that much power and entire multiple sagas have been written about just how bad an idea it is for them to be so powerful because it’ll totally drive them crazy and cause them to kill everyone, obviously.  Meanwhile, a male comic character like Dr. Strange -- who can canonically destroy a planet by speaking Latin really hard -- or Black Bolt -- who can destroy a planet by speaking anything really hard -- will be just sitting there, two feet on the side, enjoying some tea and running the world or whatever because a male character having untold uninhibited power at his disposal is just accepted and laudable and gets him on those listicles where he fights Goku and stuff.

In my finite perspective, the sort of female heroes who have gained...not universal esteem, perhaps, but at least general benign acceptance amongst the genre community are characters who just don’t deal with all that stuff.  I’m thinking of recent superheroes like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, certainly, but also of surprise breakout hits like Stranger Things’ Eleven (so far) or even more niche characters like Sailor Moon or She-Ra.  The fact that these characters wield massive power is simply accepted as an unequivocal good thing, their power makes them powerful and impressive and that’s the end of the story, thanks for asking.  And when they deal with the inevitable tragedy that shakes their worldview to the core, or the inevitable villain trying to twist them into darkness, they tend to overcome that temptation and come out the other side even stronger than when they started.  In other words?...characters like these are being allowed the exact same sorts of narrative luxuries that are usually only afforded towards male heroes.

The thing about these characters, though, is that they tend to be...well, a little bit too heroic, right?  A lil’ bit too goody-two-shoes?  A bit too stalwart, a bit too incorruptible?  And that’s fine, there’s certainly nothing wrong with a traditionally-heroic white knight of a hero.  But what I might like to see, as the next step going forward, is for female heroes to be allowed a bit more range than just that, so that they’re not just innocent children or literal princesses or shining demigods clad in primary colors.  Let’s have an all-powerful female hero be...well, the easiest way to say it is let’s see her allowed to be bitchier.  Less straightlaced.  Let’s not put an ultimatum on her power, like “Oh sure you can be powerful, but only if you’re super duper nice about it.” Let us have a ruthless woman, but not one ruled by ruthlessness.  Let us have a hero who naturally makes enemies and not friends, who has to work hard to gain allies because her personality doesn’t sparkle and gleam.  Let her have the righteous anger of a lifelong slave, and let that anger be her salvation instead of her downfall.

In other words, let us have Daenerys Targaryen.  And let us put her in a new story instead of an old one.

[aion-rsa]

10 Injustice Characters the DC Animated Movie Needs to Get Right

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As we wait an announcement pertaining to the existence of NetherRealm Studios’ Injustice 3, we at least know that Warner Bros. is set to adapt the games into a DC animated movie.

Ever since its release in 2013, the Injustice franchise has not only become a staple of NetherRealm’s roster, but the comic spinoffs have made it a beloved part of the DC multiverse. The plot revolves around a reality where the Joker was able to mess with Superman so badly that the Man of Steel gradually became a mass-murdering dictator, with the support of several members of the Justice League. Left without any other option, Batman brought in counterparts of the Justice League from the “mainstream” universe to help him fight a civil war against his former friend. It was a story that merged the Justice Lords two-parter from the Justice League cartoon with Marvel’s original Squadron Supreme comic series.

A popular prequel series was released, mostly written by Tom Taylor, that explained the five years in-between Superman killing the Joker in cold blood and Batman’s last stand. Sometime later, the game’s story was adapted into the comic Injustice: Ground Zero. And the Injustice universe has only continued to grow since then.

As snazzy as NetherRealm’s story modes are, they are going to have to make some changes to the narrative for the animated movie. It’s not like every character is going to stumble into exactly four best-two-out-of-three fights in a row before someone else is the focus. Knowing that there will be alterations, some characters are really going to need some tender love and care.

Superman (Both of Them)

Injustice: Gods Among Us didn’t invent the idea of an evil Superman, but things are a bit over-saturated these days. Face it, “Dark Superman” has been done to death, what with Brightburn, The Boys, Invincible, and everything Zack Snyder intended with his Justice League movies.

It’s important that the animated movie really get into the WHY of what turned Superman evil instead of the Joker just getting a tragic win over him. The Injustice comic nudged him over and over again with multiple betrayals and manipulations before he finally snapped and angrily broke every bone in Green Arrow’s body. Hit all that, or at least enough of it.

More importantly, Injustice is a story of two different Supermen. The mainstream Superman has to ring true. He has to be the beacon of hope and positivity that pop culture has been missing for the past decade.

Ultimately, as long as they don’t do that minigame where Superman blows up cars and the people in them with his eye-lasers, we’re cool.

Batman

In this DC take of Marvel’s Civil War, Batman is by default the better person when compared to Superman. He has a line he won’t cross and that means no murder and no tyranny. That said, he still needs to be portrayed as a flawed hero. He may be competent, but he still behaves like a total douche at times and deserves to take one to the chin every now and then.

Being a paranoid futurist who buries himself in contingency plans means alienating allies, friends, and even family members. There’s a great moment in the Injustice comic where he reveals that he infected Cyborg with a virus within a week of meeting (you know, just in case), which Killer Croc says is outright sinister. It’s this kind of behavior that led to Superman’s fall to darkness, because even if Bruce wasn’t behind any of the horrors, he still chose coldness and paranoia over being there for a friend who was going through some serious shit.

Harley Quinn

A hype trailer for Harley painted her as a major protagonist in the first game but the game’s story mode just didn’t measure up. The comics did a better job and the Ground Zero volume was specifically about telling the game’s story from Harley’s perspective. I’m not saying that she should be joined by her team of BFF henchmen from Ground Zero, but she should definitely be a prominent hero.

Similar to the Mark Waid comic series Irredeemable and Incorruptible (also about an evil take on Superman), Harley’s turn to heroism is the universe’s response to Superman’s actions. She’s done some horrible things and may never make up for her actions under the Joker’s thumb, but she’ll keep fighting to stop Superman’s atrocities.

Wonder Woman

While Batman did a bad job trying to pull Superman from the darkness, Wonder Woman succeeded in pushing him in. It’s noted here and there, but this Wonder Woman was also altered by tragedy. In this timeline, Steve Trevor turned out to be a Nazi traitor. His betrayal left Diana feeling much less optimistic and hopeful than her mainstream self.

Wonder Woman’s villainy isn’t as pronounced as Superman’s, but she’s definitely the friendly face who eggs him on and wants him to stand over all mankind. As Superman uses her to fill the void left from Lois Lane’s death, the power couple become very good at bringing out the worst in each other.

Damian Wayne

The Injustice game did Damian a little dirty, revealing deep into the story that the Nightwing fighting on Superman’s side was not Dick Grayson, but Damian. According to Batman, Damian murdered Dick. The comics dove deeper into that and made it more of a freak accident brought on by Damian being an impulsive and angry child. Still, Bruce and his son were unable to make amends due to their shared lack of warmth.

Later stories, and even Injustice 2, added more depth to Damian. It always made sense that he’d join Superman’s Regime, but there was a soul in there who would eventually see that this wasn’t the right path. In the comic Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe, which was treated as a sequel to Injustice 2’s dark ending, Damian took up the mantle of Batman to oppose Superman and even grew a long-missing sense of humor in the process.

Lex Luthor

The great tragedy of the DC multiverse is that Superman and Lex Luthor just can’t get along. They will always be at odds no matter what Earth they come from. The Injustice universe was the one exception, as Luthor was portrayed as fairly warm and altruistic. Much like Batman, he has contingency plans up the wazoo, but they don’t come off as creepy.

Seeing him there as Superman’s longtime friend who sadly has to stab him in the back brings back that multiversal truth about the duo. Just because this is a world where Superman kills and things get very bleak doesn’t mean it’s the worst world and that it isn’t worth saving. The mainstream Cyborg is reluctant to come to terms with this heroic Luthor, but he ultimately accepts the miracle that this universe created a Luthor worth befriending and even looking up to.

Hal Jordan

Maybe it’s just me, but I was never a fan of how Geoff Johns retconned Hal’s past and gave him deniability for everything he did as Parallax. I liked that a boring hero dude like Hal snapped, did some bad stuff, and then had to accept his failures in an attempt to be better. With Injustice, they gave us that exact Hal.

Read more

Games

Injustice Beat Zack Snyder’s Justice League to the Punch

By Matthew Byrd

Comics

Injustice: Year Zero Brings the Justice Society to DC Alternate Universe

By Jim Dandy

Overflowing with willpower and being an otherwise competent space cop, Hal is still something of a dunce at times, and he’s susceptible to manipulation in the right situation. He’s already following Superman’s lead, but having Sinestro pop in to indoctrinate him into the Sinestro Corps makes him actually interesting. Let Hal be the worst version of himself here so he can double back on it in the sequel and beg Guy Gardner’s ghost for forgiveness.

Shazam

Injustice may be the B-side to Mortal Kombat, but the game itself is fairly tame on the violence. Joker’s death isn’t actually shown on screen, Luthor’s end is fairly clean, and Grodd taking a trident to the torso is relatively tame.

But what we absolutely, positively have to see in the animated movie is Shazam’s death scene to really give an idea of how far gone Superman is. It’s bloodless from our point of view, but it’s grisly as hell and made worse when you remember that Shazam is a literal child under all the mystical power.

Batgirl

The Barbara Gordon version of Batgirl was one of the first DLC characters added to Injustice, but it’s unfortunate that she’s not in the main story mode — something the animated movie could fix by giving her a more prominent role in the fight against the Regime. Her ending gives her a kickass backstory where she returns to the cowl after her father dies at Superman’s hands. The comics go deeper into this, even making it so that Superman doesn’t directly kill Commissioner Gordon.

In this continuity, she was already wheelchair-bound as Oracle. She had to go under a very dangerous procedure under Luthor’s care in order to walk again. This is one of the storylines that could make for a captivating arc in the movie.

Alfred Pennyworth

Alfred isn’t in either Injustice game. He’s already dead by the start of the first game. But I don’t care. Alfred needs to be in the animated movie because he is the heart and soul of the Injustice comics. While others bow to Superman, follow him, or even try to reason with him, Alfred Pennyworth doesn’t play those games. He will straight-up verbally clown Superman for his actions without flinching. He is not afraid of the Kryptonian, no matter how red his glowing eyes get.

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This comes to a head in the comics when Alfred takes a pill that gives him Kryptonian strength and he kicks the absolute shit out of Superman for ruining his family. I know I’m asking for a lot, but I simply need to see Alfred stomp a mudhole in Superman so hard that his own shoe explodes from the impact.

The post 10 Injustice Characters the DC Animated Movie Needs to Get Right appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #455

Top Ten Comedy Sidekicks

Ha, LOL, ROFL, guffaw, snort. Comedy, eh? You’ve got to love it, unless you somehow fall through a timewarp into a late-seventies working men’s club in Blackburn and you find yourself choking to death on second-hand smoke, mother-in-law jokes, and a simmering undercurrent of racist violence. Good times!

Anyway, it’s fairly common that even in the most serious of narratives and with the most serious of protagonists, we need a little chuckle very now and again (nobody tell Zack Snyder – actually, no, scratch that, somebody definitely tell Zack Snyder). It lightens the load, makes the world more nuanced and realistic, and even makes the truly dark moments stand out all the stronger. Most films have a bit of a joke every once in a while (and, of course, Shakespeare’s tragedies are full of comic characters or bits of business), and one very common trope is the Comedy Sidekick.

What is a Comedy Sidekick? Well, it’s a supporting character who offers comic relief, basically. sometimes this can be obviously discernible – Luis in Ant-Man, for example, may function as a plot engine from time to time, but has little in the way of actual character development and is mostly there to be funny whilst the heroes do hero stuff. Sometimes it’s harder to define; I mean, are either of the Blues Brothers a comedy sidekick? Arguably Jake is the lead and Elwood is a bit more of a “turn” (he’s almost eternally deadpan and unemotional), but I’d never say one was inherently funnier or “straighter” than the other. And the you get onto films like Aladdin: sure, Aladdin himself is obviously the protagonist, and there’s an argument to be made that the Genie is a comic relief supporting character, but I feel in this case he’s far too integral to the plot, played by a significantly more famous actor, and really just dominates the film to the extent that he becomes the de facto lead (see also: Captain Jack Sparrow). Again, in Men in Black, Will Smith’s J is clearly the “funny” one, but Smith is also the bigger star and the audience entry point; plus, Tommy Lee Jones is hilarious as the deadpan K. So it’s not as simple as it may first appear.

Anyway, the ten in this list are ones I define as definitely being supporting characters. They may be big characters, in terms of plot or development, but they’re definitely there in support of another protagonist. And whilst they may be fully-rounded characters with their own arcs, their primary function is to be funny; they’re the ones who deliver the comedy lines back to the main character, or crack a joke at the end of a serious bit.

Right, I think that’s my usual ridiculous caveats out of the way. Now let’s make ‘em laugh.

Baldrick (Tony Robinson, Blackadder series, 1983-99): Baldrick is one of the supreme comic idiots in all of fiction. Serving as a perfect foil to Blackadder, he is not only supremely stupid but also his niceness and naiveté serves to undercut his master’s wickedness; plus his idiocy is often the undoing of Blackadder’s villainous plans. But he is also charmingly fully-rounded, oblivious to his own stupidity, possessed of “cunning plans”, and with a great love of turnips. A phenomenal turn from Robinson.

Sir John Falstaff (various plays by William Shakespeare, from 1597): is it cheating to include as significant and iconic a literary figure as Falstaff? Feels a bit like it, especially as he's practically a lead (and, indeed, becomes one in Merry Wives). But really he’s the archetype: a supremely vain and self-serving comic foil, but one with vast hidden depths as he’s keenly aware of his own frailties and the inevitable end of his good times with Prince Hal.

Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O’Hanlon, Father Ted 1995-98): in many ways he’s a slightly watered-down version of Baldrick’s comic idiot; but Dougal is, if anything, even stupider, and less self-aware. He’s like a perfect idiot, a beautiful naïve fool, a supreme man-child with his Masters of the Universe duvet. And he’s divine, just incredibly hilarious throughout; and, like Baldrick, serves as the perfect foil for his more duplicitous and cynical elder.

Donkey (Eddie Murphy, Shrek, 2001): animated sidekicks are very often the comic relief, and I’d argue that Murphy’s Donkey is as good as they come. I actually think Murphy’s prior turn as Mushu in Mulan is probably the better character, but Donkey is just a comic force of nature, a creature who exists only to make everything dafter and funnier. It allowed Murphy a chance to go all-out in a way he hadn’t on screen for quite some time, and it was something we’d rarely seen in animation (arguably only Robin Williams’ Genie is in the same ballpark). Plus, he actually is a good friend to Shrek, bringing out his better nature. Well done, Eddie!

Danny Butterman (Nick Frost, Hot Fuzz, 2007): another of those characters who really skirts the edges of “supporting comic relief” and is really a deuteragonist. But I feel like most of Frost’s characters in his partnerships with Simon Pegg are, essentially, supportive; Pegg is almost always the lead. In this film, despite Danny having some great development and functioning almost as a romantic partner for Pegg’s Nick Angel, he’s usually presented as a beautiful comic foil, his folksy, slobby demeanour contrasting perfectly with Angel’s straitlaced professionalism. And – for the second film in a row – he gets a tremendous C-bomb.

Luis (Michael Peña, Ant-Man, 2015): another comic fool, Luis is the silly, charming, endearing, loveable thorn in the side of Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang. He’s daft, yeah, and comes across as a bit dim, but his permanently-smiling demeanour means we just keep on loving him, even when we can see how annoying he would be. but what cements his position is his rapid-fire OTT explanations, and how the movie presents them; pieces of comedic joy in the MCU.

Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor, Singin’ in the Rain, 1952): Singin’ is one of those great Golden Age movies full of witty dialogue (as well as great songs, natch), and by its nature Gene Kelly is the lead and therefore straight man, whereas O’Connor’s Cosmo can be wackier and funnier, and in doing so get to the truth of what his friend is feeling. But what really gets him in this list is his performance of “Make ‘Em Laugh”, running up walls like he’s in The Matrix or something, and feeling like a Bugs Bunny cartoon brought to life.

Silent Bob (Kevin Smith, View Askiewniverse, from 1994): I guess you could argue that both Bob and his less-silent colleague Jay are, as a twosome, the comedy sidekicks in whichever films they’re in (apart from the two they headline, I guess); but if you take the pair on their own, I’d say Bob is the comic of the duo. Yeah, it’s Jay who’s the mile-a-minute loudmouth, cracking jokes and being explosively filthy. But who really gets the laughs? For my money it’s Smith’s perfectly-judged expressions, punctuating the pomposity or reinforcing the eccentricity of whatever Jay’s on about. And then every now and again he gets to speak, and delivers a great one-liner (“no ticket!”) or serious, heartfelt monologue (cf. Chasing Amy).

Semmi (Arsenio Hall, Coming to America, 1988): Semmi is supposed to be a loyal and devoted servant to Prince Akeem, and he is, I guess; but he’s also a true friend. Akeem’s quest to find love in New York is genuine, and despite the film’s high joke quantity, Eddie Murphy has to be relatively restrained in his lead role. Hall’s Semmi, on the other hand, gets to be acerbic, throwing shade and barbs at his lord, questing their quest and seeking his own share of wealth and, well, women. And we all love his line “you sweat from a baboon’s balls”.

Dory (Ellen DeGeneres, Finding Nemo, 2003): as discussed above, comedy cartoon sidekicks are a cinematic staple. They’re not often female, however, and even more rare is a female character who gets to be both funnier and seemingly dumber/goofier than the lead. Of course, Dory is full of pathos, a borderline tragic character whose chronic memory loss has a dreadful impact on her day-to-day life. It’s her sunny optimism (“just keep swimming!”) that makes her endearing more than her humour, however; and, of course, it’s this optimism that begins to chip away at Marlin’s (Albert Brooks’) flinty suit of armour. Funny, warm, makes our hero a better person, but can be a little bit sad – perfect comedy sidekick.

There are two that I’m annoyed that I couldn’t fit in so I'll mention them here: Carrie Fisher in When Harry Met Sally and Danny Kaye in White Christmas. In the former case, whilst Fisher’s Marie is hilarious throughout, and definitely comic relief when put alongside the relatively straight Sally, the fact that everyone, really, gets a lot of funny lines in what is a consistently funny film kinda knocked her down the rankings a little bit, even though I feel bad about it, because everything is always better if Carrie FIsher is in it, including these lists. Kaye’s Phil Davis in White Christmas absolutely steals that film from Bing Crosby, with fast-paced witty wordplay and some supreme physical comedy, and the running gag about how he saved the life of Crosby’s Bob Wallace is golden. But, I dunno, he just kept slipping down the list, despite being my favourite thing in that film. Sorry, Danny.

[bettycooperoutfitwatch]

1x08 Chapter Eight: The Outsiders

We’ve got a baby shower to attend.

Much like In a Lonely Place, we begin this episode on a tableau of the perfect American family in their perfect American dining room. Let’s remember this connection between episodes 107 and 108, it’ll recur throughout. 

This looks like the sweater Betty wears briefly at the end of 102 (also with something robin’s egg blue beneath it), but the buttons are rhinestone bows! It could just be modified, who knows.

Also, they’re hard to see, but she’s wearing her cream flats with the scallops. Notice also Alice’s still-blue nails. Everyone’s very coordinated, but Hal (who gets kicked out of the Cooper house at the end of this episode) wears a differently-toned blue and he’s the only one wearing some kind of pattern (his shirt). This could be gender conventions, but it could also be storytelling through costumes. You decide. 

It’s very subtle and doesn’t capture loudly on camera, but her sweater has birds on it! I think it’s a heather gray-pink color, with small vents at the bottom-side hems.

Ribbed crew neck sweater and a flared print skirt! This feels different. The sweater has some interesting detail in the ribbing, and I’d like to point out that its hem hits higher than sweaters we typically see Betty in—I like that journey for it. We last saw Betty in a skirt-and-sweater combo in 104, grilling Ms. Grundy. 

Ankle boots, skinny jeans. I really love the (is it mauvey? kind of pinky taupe?) sweater. It’s a deeper V than we’ve really seen Betty in so far, but the hem length is typical. 

Well hey, Betty wore this exact sweater in pink in the previous episode. Like I said, buying multiples in diff colors, it’s the way to go. You get a better visual at the different waffle on the hem here. 

Shout out to Polly’s pregnancy peplum. 

This outfit has elements we’ve seen before! She wore the cardigan in the pilot, when she asked Archie if he could ever love her. It seems fitting she wears it here, in a moment where she tells Jughead she wants to truly know him, good and bad. And he says okay. Very different results. We get a better look at the pink pearls that cover it in this light. 

Cami plus a cardigan is old hat for Betty at this point (love the delicate floral print) But now with a skirt! An olive green mini with small sailor buttons down the front? Nice. 

But. 

This outfit is so so so much more interesting when you think about when we last saw Betty wearing floral motifs, a pink sweater, and an olive green skirt.

Can u fucking believe? 

And to really put a pin on it, she’s wearing the same shoes in both scenes. The skirt and the shoes aren’t necessarily details we were able to observe in Jug’s dream, but that doesn’t negate their presence or intent.

What a beautiful lay-up and landing. This really nicely delineates a storytelling arc. Jug’s nightmare is about (among other things) his sense of familial shame and its conflict with what he perceives to be, and how he feels unworthy of, Betty’s all-American wholesome perfection, and by extension the entire Cooper family’s (note this is a party playing host to three out of four Coopers.) And here he is, like that dream/nightmare dinner party has become manifest. 

That’s just some fucking beautiful storytelling via costume. Good job team.

I’d like to take a moment and point out Jughead’s burgundy sweater. He’s so obviously the only dude at this party, and he’s wearing a color that makes him stand out like a sore thumb amongst all these feminine pastels and soft jewel tones. But, much like Betty’s blue waffle sweater in the previous scene (and, like, a bunch of other ones she’s worn—she has a type) it has one kind of knit over the shoulders and chest (I think it’s a seed stitch—knitting hive come thru), and another for the rest of the garment. Just a thing I noticed, a subtle suggestion of their partnership.  

Anyway, let’s move on.

When they head over to Sunnyside to ask FP about Jason and the drugs, Betty covers up with a dark wash denim jacket (last worn when she was breaking into Ms. Grundy’s car) and that gray bag she’s been using the last couple of eps. 

Back in a white-dotted button down and skinny jeans. The shirt (worn untucked as per ush) might be chambray, but it’s hard to tell. Again, I think of this as her Blue-and-Gold-get-shit-done uniform—which I guess suits for a scene where she’s trying to get Polly to come home. 

Summary: a lucky 7 outfits

Key necklace appearances: 2

Best outfit: hey hey my my—it’s the baby shower outfit, just for how obviously it’s doing the work to tell a story visually. I don’t recall thinking much about this episode previously, but it’s really grown in my estimation. 107 and 108 are a Jughead-and-Betty, back-to-back, two-hander. 

[danwhobrowses]

My Hopes going forward with the DCAMU

Spoilers for Apokalips War Below, you have been warned

So this weekend I finally got around to watching Apokalips War and it was pretty good, lots of good ideas thrown about there, but the ending resolved that we are entering another Flashpoint meaning that the whole universe is about to reboot again. I do know that the first in this Reboot is a Superman movie called Man of Tomorrow but there are a list of things I do hope we’ll see in other DCAMU movies.

Less From the Trinity Look we get it, the Trinity are the big 3 when it comes to popularity. This doesn’t mean you have to shoehorn them in all the time, JL Dark did not need Batman’s presence for instance, it’s a bit of a spotlight hog and it undermines the characters around them. So in Apokalips War, Wonder Woman manages to just barely be bested by the combined efforts of Mera, Martian Manhunter and Hawkman and that is just nonsense, you know how fucking powerful J’onn is? Or Carter Hall by that matter? The disrespect. Same can be said for Bats, sits on a chair for 2 years but he’s still in peak condition to fight Damian who leads the League of Assassins and basically have him at his mercy. In fact Bad Blood he gets mind controlled, beats Dick whose whole arc is about being a worthy successor and just snaps back out, less of this LOLBATSWINS stuff, Bruce is not a Mary Sue, he’s allowed to be beaten. Seeing less of the Trinity can also open doors to more movies about other characters; the Lanterns (ALL of them, not just Hal and a Jon and Jade cameo, talking Blue Lanterns, Star Sapphires and whatnot), J’onn, Hawkman, Nightwing, Dr. Fate, maybe even some more obscure characters too like Spectre and Jonah Hex. I mean, Etrigan was a blast in Apokalips War, even if he lost to Wondy it was a salivating fight to have. More AU Stories May be a little contradictory to the prior but most of the alternate universe stories were pretty good; Red Son, Flashpoint, Gotham by Gaslight, All-Star Superman and importantly Gods and Monsters - gimme that sequel DC! - the self-contained stories can provide some good palate cleansers or some unique scenarios, like Gods and Monsters they don’t have to all be existing, try with some original concepts. You could even try doing some Batman Beyond movies if the licenses are there, Justice League Beyond? Get a little crazier, but a tad less gory Sometimes the key part to enjoyment is just riding the wave on how something is so crazy that it supersedes all manner of sense, DC does have a lot of places where there can be wackiness and fun, look at Lobo for one. I could also suggest DC’s favourite spawn Damian having his own solo adventure, could introduce Nobody, Cassandra Cain (Not the shitty Birds of Prey one) or Damian’s gigantic red steed Goliath into the picture. I may not have been a full fan of his relationship with Raven, but testing out new things is good, the aforementioned Etrigan vs Wonder Woman for instance was great, Trigon-Supes vs Darkseid was some spicy stuff as well. The other side of this though is to tone it down on the gore, like Apokalips war was like Days of Future Past made by the ones who did Castlevania, so many organs...not saying you can’t have gore, but less is more. Provide an Array of Stories One of the movies did alright with highlighting Jade’s PTSD and the mental challenges she was facing in general life, it was nice to see a film highlight that. Comic Books are not all about showy fights after all, some have deep messages or are purposed to show awareness for things. Mister Miracle could be a good avenue to go for the more emotive plot angles, tragic angles could also be done by using Emerald Twilight to The Final Night, being both an AU story and one that focuses heavily on Green Lantern, potentially being a Flashpoint ripple from the Reign of the Supermen movie. Don’t be afraid to go backwards either; some Year One or Origin stories wouldn’t go amiss, could even go further back and introduce the JSA. Build to another End-Phase Movie DCAMU are doing well with a similar MCU formula, but they can go a bit harder with it. Instead of a Phase-End reboot this time though we simply have a big arc finale involving an original concept or an existing large event such as Blackest Night or Dark Nights: Metal. Building to a bigger film can open the door for other characters to be introduced and plot angles to work, so for instance if you were building to Metal you’d need to introduce all the metals Bruce gets exposed to for Barbatos to open the gateway, this also will require Hawkman to have some explanation of Nth Metal, Cyborg for Promethium and the Court of Owls for Elecrium, as well as Dionesium and Batmanium. Having an end goal does help with making stepping stones to the next bit. But here’s to the next saga!

[thesuitelifeofjughead]

Riverdale Rewatch Review - Season One

Hey guys! So, as everyone knows, there’s like, this big thing happening in the world right now causing everyone to have to stay inside and a lot of people have way more free time on their hands than they know what to do with. I am one of those people. After I finish my schoolwork I find that barely even half a day has passed. What do I fill that time with? Animal Crossing. But also, watching Netflix. 

I’ve wanted to rewatch Riverdale for the longest time, and I figure that now is the best time to do it. 

So, the way this will work, I’ll give my overall thoughts and review of the season, my favorite episodes, and then I’m going to give you a play-by-play of my thoughts while rewatching each episode under the break. So, without further ado:

Overall Review

Looking at the bigger picture of everything I know Riverdale has come to be, I think the statement stands true that Season One is one of their strongest season, if not their actual strongest (Season Four has been climbing up there for me in fav seasons). 

Watching it all together, the drama seemed evenly paced, and everyone seemed to get the same amount of screen time, including characters we barely see anymore like Kevin and Reggie. There are some interesting shots, and I found myself jammin to some of the songs they had the characters sing as well as the background music. 

It was clear that they had a plan, and they knew where they were going. Hints of relationships happened WAY before they became official, and it seemed like everyone was on the same page, which is difficult to say for later seasons (which I will also be making reviews on shortly). 

For only having 13 episodes, Riverdale did an excellent job in it’s first season hooking everyone in to the drama and the mystery, including me. I believe it was after the second or third episode when this blog was created, and I’ve been here ever since. This season is responsible for why a lot of fans stuck around, and for why a lot of fans left. 

Overall, I would say it had amazing storytelling, character development, cinematic techniques, and everything else you could think of. My final rating would be a 10/10. Even if you don’t like later seasons, you can’t deny this one was really good, and had a lot of classic Riverdale moments -insert gif of Jughead saying “I’m a weirdo” here bc I tried to find it but couldn’t-. 

My personal favorite episodes: Episode 6, Episode 10, Episode 13

Rewatch Thoughts

Episode 1: 

It’s so clear right from the start that Veronica likes Archie oh my god

I love Betty Cooper dance parties and I want more of them

Wow I hate Alice from the very beginning

Fred Andrews was the best parent on Riverdale from the very beginning. Period.

Maybe the show is more consistent than I thought. Archie was dumb since season one episode one for lying to his dad. 

Veronica was so supportive of Betty and Archie we stan a supportive friend

Oh my god did we all collectively forget that Archie dated a freaking TEACHER?!

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS MY HEART I love and miss them 

Jughead was such a broody lil boy wasn’t he oh my gosh Betty really did change him for the better didn’t she

“Whatever happened with Betty, just talk to her. It’ll go a long way” We stan a king who wants open communication from the beginning yas Jughead

Episode Rating: 8/10

Episode 2: 

God, the teacher is so manipulative

Oh god i’m gonna have to relive the dark Betty arc aren’t I

This rewatch is just gonna further my love for Jughead. He was the smartest one since day one

WAIT i completely forgot they changed Reggie’s actor oh my goodness

Episode Rating: 5/10

Episode 3: 

there was a mention of Greendale in the VERY FIRST SEASON 

The only good thing Penelope Blossom ever did was punch Alice Cooper and that’s that on that

I love the early journalism relationship between Betty and Jughead

Episode Rating: 7/10

Episode 4:

Ya’ll I miss jughead narrating at the beginning and end of every episode

THE TWILIGHT DRIVE IN. I MADE SO MANY FANFICTIONS SET THERE AWH

Jug was so upset over the drive in my HEART. Jughead had a JOB. Am I the only one who forgot that? 

He called her Betts and she called him Juggy their already in a relationship let’s face it. 

“It’s like my home” AWH JUG IT WAS HIS HOME MY HEART

Ya’ll remember how INSANE the reveal of Jughead’s dad was?

Episode Rating: 10/10

Episode 5:

Why would he have to run away from mommy and daddy? BECAUSE DADDY DID IT JUG YOURE SO SMART

Everyone was so SHADY in season one 

THE FREAKING SNAKE IN THE BOX

This was the episode with Jughead’s stupid cute smile in his stupid cute hat and stupid cute tux my heart

Remember when Fred and Hermione had that thing? Yeah me neither I hate it

Episode Rating: 8/10

Episode 6:

Wow makes sense that Polly joined a cult, she’s so fragile from everything that’s happened to her 

I love the early music in this show

Betty straight up asks Hal if he killed Jason Blossom. OMG Alice goes “You think he has the stomach or that?” UHM hate to break it to ya but your dad is,,, oof

ITS THE HEY JULIET EPISODE AWH

WAIT THAT MEANS

The little “also” and his voice cracks I’m

FIRST BUGHEAD KISS FIRST BUGHEAD KISS

“In the middle of our moment” ICONIC

Episode Rating: 10/10

Episode 7:

the episode in which we find out Jughead is living in the school

“Don’t tell Betty” they’re already so in love I swear

Jughead walking Betty home is literally the softest thing

The farm was a part of the plot from SEASON ONE oh my god

Episode Rating: 7/10

Episode 8:

I’m p sure this is just a filler episode

Oh wait it’s the reveal to Archie and Fred that FP is a serpent

WAIT ITS THE BABY SHOWER SCENE

“It’s totally on my bucket list” we don’t deserve Jughead

the LOOKS Archie got when he walked into that baby shower

Can you believe how normal it became to be a part of the serpents? And in the beginning it was such a big deal? Like Arch, hate to break it to you, you become an honorary serpent one day

Episode Rating: 7/10

Episode 9:

Riverdale season one really be hitting different. It’s so,, innocent lol, and that’s sayin something 

The Blossoms are a cult all their own I’m just sayin

“That was a joke, you hobo” ICONIC

Otherwise known as the episode where Alice throws a rock at a window

The parents really do be acting like teenagers tho

ALSO known as the episode where Veronica rips of her pearls

YOOO remember when Cheryl kissed Archie? That was a moment

Episode Rating: 9/10

Episode 10:

oh my god this is the birthday episode isn’t it

OH NO

lmao Ronnie was Tik Tok dancing before it was cool huh

The movie part of the party was so pure awh

oh god the creepy birthday song

i hate it

I HATE ITTTT

Cheryl arrives to mess shit UP

We love that Bughead took this as a learning experience and Jughead has never had a birthday party since

“In CaSe YoU HaVeN’t NoTiCEd, I’m WeiRd. I’m A weiRDo. I DoN’t FiT iN aNd I DoN’t WaNnA FiT in. HAvE YoU eVeR SeeN mE WiThOuT ThiS HaT oN? THAT’S WEIRD.”

Jughead was so opposed to letting her in my heart

Just let her love you Jug

Dilton’s actor also changed and we just,, let it slide? oof my guys

THE PUNCH. he DEFENDS his WOMAN

the first sign of FP bein a good dad, telling Jughead not to run away from Betty. We stan a father who’s basically responsible for Bughead.

The reveal that Alice lived on the south side was also in this episode. 

THE FIRST TIME JUG TOOK OFF HIS BEANIE

their first heart to heart ya’ll I love them

This is the softest scene point blank period

When I said I hated it before? Yeah I lied I love this episode

The episode where Archie and Ronnie also officially got togther kinda?? Wow so much happened this episode

Episode Rating: 10/10

Episode 11:

Hail our fair RIVERDALLEEEE

YOOO you remember when FP literally was an accomplice to MURDER and then they let him become sheriff? Man, what a time

Ya’ll why did they hurt Jughead so much in the first season my heart

Yo THIS is why they have such good communication in later seasons

he’s being FRAMED

Episode Rating: 7/10

Episode 12:

oh my goodness the tollbooth scene 

OW

The second time his beanie is off

he looks so SAD ouch

He just stood there and TOOK Cheryl’s punches someone save my poor boy

THE REVEAL THAT THE BLOSSOMS AND COOPERS ARE RELATED AH

They watched the videooooo

Episode Rating: 9/10

Episode 13:

The camera work around this table is really interesting. It’s literally circling them at the lunch table. SPEAKING OF LUNCH TABLES, why haven’t we seen them eating lunch at school for like two seasons lol 

“I’m with Jughead now”

God Penelope Blossom is so melodramatic

Can i just say thank GOD Fred never sold Andrew’s Construction

Oh my god the locker scene. The way he cups her cheek and takes her away

Jughead going to South Side High without telling anyone I’m

Cheryl on the ice

Remember when KJ literally broke his arm bc of the dedication to this scene

BURN THE HOUSE TO THE GROUND

the I love you scene my hEART

His beanie is off and the way he says I love you I”M CRYING

Oh god this song

I made so many fanfictions about this freaking scene with the jacket I’m

We all thought it was so BAD to be a serpent and yet they all literally become one over the next two seasons I’m. the fandom had NO IDEA

“Juggy”

The looks they give each other I’m laughing

Cheryl starring into the FLAMES

OH MY GOD WAIT THIS CLIFFHANGER IS SO MUCH MORE SAD NOW NOOOOO. This didn’t age well I’m.

HE SHOOK HIS HEAD HE WAS PROTECTING ARCHIE

But also,, Black Hood Intro? Oof.

Episode Rating: 10/10

-

If you got this far, thank you for reading my rambles! Season Two rewatch is up next!

[dontcallmecarrie]

Meme anon here, so I am stuck in being a perfectionist and trying to find the right meme/pic to use (with proper credit where it is due) or to make for myself so i am right now just going to send overall descriptions in 4 different asks if that is okay. Just to get the overall idea/theme of the memes (since they deal with Phase 3 and such. Here goes nothing... (1/5)

(2/5) HAL and Skynet memes. I'm actually working on MAKING them, OMG! It's kinda fun actually.

(3/5) The picture where Tony announces at the Press Conference (tm) that he was Iron Man. Then Text Post/meme. Or various pictures of Tony in the suit. THEN meme. (Sorry if any of these were not what you were/are expecting.)

(4/5) Use stuff inside your TWIFFON au, such as using the S.W.O.R.D. Logo that you have and make memes using that. (Just a thought.) Or pretend/fake images for the Fashion Week Fiasco or the Relay Race (if that was hypothetically photographed in your au.)

(5/5) And for the last meme ideas/descriptions: Pictures of the world/Earth with the initials of SI or the SWORD Logo ghostly photoshopped on top/behind it, with then the meme idea. Or just the planet with the meme (something ominous but funny). I got some HAL memes already made. They're not perfect but they're done. Still working on some of the others (not the SWORD logo, that I'm leaving alone) Please let me know your thoughts. Too far? Not quite what you're looking for? This has been fun!

.

...oh boy. Friend, some of these memes are actually edging into spoiler territory, because of Reasons. 

Under the bolded part for those who don't want spoilers, because the more I think about it the more likely I am to ramble and the memes are actually a very important plot point in TWiFFON, no matter how ridiculous that sounds without context.

Also: in regards the memes you’ve mentioned, I get the feeling some of them would probably be SI-only. For instance, while the Fashion Week Fiasco made headlines, other incidents [cough cough, the Relay Race] are the sort of thing that stays in-house. Kinda like Legal’s jokes about world domination, now that I think about it. 

The spoilery territory comes with the memes that might involve the world, though, for multiple reasons.

See, after the Civil War arc, there’s going to be a few others to go: the fallout of Civil War, the Final Battle, and the Realization.

Specifically, after the Civil War arc, there’s going to be another timeskip as Tony acutely feels the crunch of ‘oh shit the Avengers aren’t an option to protect the planet anymore, it’s literally just me, oh fuck’.

When he feels this crunch, he’s not going to pull his punches intellectually— by which I mean he’s going to delve into morally dubious stuff, and the other side of the Merchant of Death takes center stage as he brainstorms potential defense after defense for Earth. Here’s the thing: when I say ‘morally dubious’, I mean ‘he’s going to wish he could afford to drink something stronger than coffee’ because he’s going to go over SHIELD’s shadier research, notes of the tech found after New York, everything JARVIS found via scouring the dark web, you name it. 

Even more specifically, remember that energy shield that protected the portal device in the first Avengers movie? Remember how it was borderline impossible for anyone to get past it? 

Yeah, Tony’s going to do something like that. But for the entire planet. 

An immense network of satellites and what-have-you, spanning the entire globe. 

[it’s not exactly original since I got the idea from both Star Wars and Doctor Who, but bear with me]

There’s more to it than that, but the energy shield is meant to be one of the last lines of defense. 

Here’s the thing: it’s not subtle. Kinda hard to be, with its size and the breathtaking amounts of energy it requires [good thing SI’s invested so heavily into green energy], and its name is what makes it prime meme fodder.

Because what everyone’s seeing is this bigass energy shield network in the sky, keeping out the vast armies that stretch as far as the eye can see. And Tony’s naming skills are only marginally better than a biologist’s, and the rest of humanity’s isn’t much better.

The energy shield’s official name is the Iron Dome [also because it’s got the same idea as the thing in real life], but the moment it went online, the internet renamed it Skynet, which, awkward. 

It only gets funnier after the Reveal, too.

...on another note, the main role the memes play ties in with Tony’s obliviousness. 

See, after the Civil War arc, Tony’s [understandably] hyperfocused on the whole ‘protecting the Earth’ schtick and doesn’t really have time for much else. He’s tangentially aware of other stuff going on, but he has so much to do he doesn’t really pay attention to it. 

When the first memes about world domination start to float around, he blinks but goes back to work, because again, turns out that when it comes to protecting the planet, if you want something done right you have do it yourself. Normally he’d have fun with the memes, would be over the moon and be laughing at them with everyone else— but he has Things To Do. 

The single meme I have in mind for the matter is Star Trek-based, and also later on serves as the basis for why the rest of the galaxy refers to them as the Terran Empire, btw.

The first meme desensitized him to the idea; by the time Pepper approaches him about it, he thinks she’s joking. When the Sorcerer Supreme shows up shooting him significant looks and talking about being responsible to take care of threats to the Earth, the implied threat flies right over Tony’s head and he just goes “great, welcome to the club! I haven’t accounted for magic yet, is there anything we could tweak in this project to bolster our defenses?”

This is why it takes a honest-to-goodness Destroyer of Worlds to break it to him that no, it’s not a joke, he genuinely did take over the world. Yeah, oops.

.

...long story short, I really like the idea, but again, not sure how much screentime I’d be able to give the memes in the main fic. The sidefic would allow for more screen time, of course, but I’m not sure if that’s something you’d want to see?

edit: I’d put in a read-more, only apparently I can’t? Apologies to anyone who didn’t want spoilers or long posts.

[insecure-amphibian]

The end of a long chapter

On mobile, so of course cannot 'read more' my apologies to my friends.

This is an arc ending for Elliarie where I finally make her retired and half her really be happy. She'll be around more often, just in casual clothes and ready to share war stories with any fool willing to talk to her.

@olliehaldstan and @nyura-shadowstep since you seem to like my writing so much.

-------

The trek to Duskwood had been a long one. Not just for time, but emotionally. Every thought that crossed the graying woman’s mind was something along the lines of ‘Go home and forget it.’, ‘You aren’t worthy of their time any more.’.

‘You still get to see her when she comes to stormwind.’ She pushed on.

‘Don’t ruin that much.’ She resisted.

‘He never wants to see you again.’ Her heart ached as she walked further

‘Just go sit by his grave and wait for the inevitable.’ it shouted in her head.

‘Die with honor. Die with pride. Die on the battlefield like he did.’ Apart of her agreed with it. It was what she should have done. She’d been apart of this war for over thirty years. She should end it on the battlefield like her husband had. But she couldn’t do that. Not to her brother, not to his kids.

Apart of Elliarie’s mind looked at this cold, dark, ghostly forest as the beautiful and lush one it had once been. It still heard the birds that chirped in the healthy green trees and the many travelers who came here to look upon the legendarily beautiful part of Elwynn Forest. Another part looked at the forest and saw it for what it was, cold, dark desolate. It chilled her to try and recall what had happened. But she didn’t have to as soon as parts of the ruin of Darkshire started peeking through the overgrowth.

How in the world her brother thought it was safe to raise a family here, she could never understand. Had it still been the lovely forest and gorgeous town it once was, perhaps she could put it together. But it wasn’t. It was dangerous.

Stone rubble marked a place that had once been so incredibly important to her, the cross that once stood so tall acted more as a gravestone to the sacred place where she had learned to be a priest. It stood on the edge of town. It was a forgotten grave after thirty or so years, and honestly, it was fair. There was clearly no good in the light forsaken place. Otherwise it wouldn’t look the way it did. It broke Elliarie’s heart to look at it. But she hadn’t been there to stop it from happening, she shouldn't be there to grieve.

The ruins of the church marked the edge of town, beyond the fallen stones barely stood run-down wooden homes, likely crawling with termites. The stone pathway riddled with grass and cracks and all kinds of signals of wear.  The Tavern looked lovely though. Perhaps because it was the only place that was commonly used by the people of Darkshire. For a moment Elliarie wondered if her brother was often there. But she knew Alois would never want to be like their father was. Not to his children.

The streets were nearly empty, not even lurkers looking to steal and ‘bargain’ walked the paths. Only the occasional under-dressed guard from the Night Watch passed through, casting skeptical, untrusting glares towards the old woman. It chilled Elliarie to her core, how these people could change so much. But the last time she had been here, felt like forever ago.

Across from the Tavern was a small place. A home with light smoke erupting from the chimney. It was maintained much better than the other homes on the edges of town. Not by much but they clearly tried. Newer planks of wood were nailed on top of old ones clearly covering holes, a thick cloth tarp sat over the roof shielding it from the elements as they likely couldn’t afford a whole new roof. On the other side of the windows sat cute homemade curtains made out of various fabric, none of which matched. But it gave them privacy. It almost looked the same from when it did when she was still young.

A deep breath escaped Elliarie’s lips as she approached the rotting steps, logs carefully cut and placed to replace what had been lost to time.  Her hand raised next to her cheek in a fist, ready to knock on a door that for a moment looked like it would cave in when she did. But instead she stood there, fear shaking her bones.

Perhaps she would have preferred it if she were to drop dead right there, if the cruel hand of fate would finally unleash it’s hold on her and not make her face the consequences of her actions. But she was soon pulled out of when a shriek sounded from behind the wooden home, the shriek of a young child.

Elliarie had drawn her sword, not willing to traverse Duskwood without protection, she ran from the stairs and sprinted past a corner and along side the long wall of the house, coming face to face with a well maintained gate and on the other side of it short fields of wheat and picked berries, far on the other side stood a line of about a dozen or so trees with apples growing on the limbs and several ladders leaning on the trunks. In the farm a little boy sat curled up. Elliarie knew him, he was a sweet boy, but what had done this to him.

“Phoenix!” She called out, vaulting over the gate and running through the crops careful not to trample them as she went to comfort the boy.

He was small, only about four years old. He had thick ashy brown curls and skin that had the vaguest of purple tints to his otherwise pale white skin. His longer years drooped down as he slowly walked back and forth and his usually cheerful round face was stained with tears and flushed to an almost violet hue, even managing to hide the scar that adorned a good chunk of his left face. His otherwise soft brown eyes were closed tight as if he was trying to hide from something.

Elliarie had soon approached the young boy, skidding to a halt through the dirt and swiftly clambering to get to the boy’s side, wrapping her arms around him and taking him into her lap.

“Oh Phoenix sweetie! What happened?” Elliarie cooed, rocking back and forth slowly while the boy sobbed. He opened his eyes just the smallest amounts to realize who it was, turning to look at Elliarie as he launched himself upwards and wrapped his arms around her neck and hung on as if it was the last time he’d ever see her. And through heavy, snot-filled, sobs he explained the ever so dire and world ending story that he had just experienced.

“I was d-doing my job and scaring the.. The birds. And… and and one of them. One of them it was flying right at me and. I.. I was thinking it was gonna… that, that is, that it was gonna poke my eyes out!” He stammered into her shirt. Elliarie patted the hal-elves back a few times, struggling to control her laughter.

"Oh no! Baby…." She said affectionately, her laughter barely escaping with the phrase. "It's okay, auntie Ellie is here now." Elliarie spoke, comforting him.

It wasn't long after that a man came running from further beyond the farm. He was tall and built well and had a strong face complemented by the long stubble of a beard that was just beginning to grow back. His striking blue eyes were filled with worry as he rushed towards Elliarie and picked up the half elf from his arms. Cradling the toddler in one arm as he helped Elliarie off the ground.

"Sweetie are you okay?" He asked, his voice clearly raised an octave as he spoke the the child. But Phoenix was unable to respond through sobs. "Ellie what happened?"

"I heard a shout while at the front door and came to his rescue. Apparently one of the birds scared him." She informed, her voice soft as to not tell the child that she didn't relay his story directly as told.

"Thank goodness. We were all finishing up the north fields harvest when we heard him shout. I thought he was closer than that. Oh I'm so embarrassed. I must look like a horrible father right now." He laughed uncomfortably as he went to support his sobbing son with both arms.

"You're fine Lucan. I'm sure the town wouldn't let anything happen to him. Besides he's so adventurous, he might have been right behind you but got distracted with his scarecrow duty." Elliarie chuckled, wrapping an arm around Lucan and giving him a hug. Lucan laughed along, unable to return the hug due to the child that was still calling upon the protection of his big strong dad .

"Are you just in town on guard duty or are you here with that company again?" Lucan asked, looking her up and down, realizing something was off with her more casual attire.

"Actually…" she started, nervously rubbing her hands together. "That's what I came here to talk to you and Alois about." But she wasn't able to elaborate as soon two girls had jailed the woman between their arms. Both were much taller than her five-four. The one in front of her had bold blonde hair and rested her chin on Ellie's head, her blue eyes closed right as she and her sister rocked her from side to side a few times.

"Aunt Ellie! It's so nice to see you again!" The blonde declared stepping back.

"By the light Scarlett! The last time I saw you was just a few months ago, you shouldn't be this tall already!" Elliarie proclaimed, to which Scarlett laughed. Elliarie turned around to face the other girl, she was shorter than her younger sister. Her hair was a deep black color and her eyes brown in color. Her freckled cheeks turned up with a beautiful smile. 

"Oh Solei! You too! Can you both stop growing and be short like your aunt?" She asked, reaching up to put an arm around both of their necks and bringing them down to eye level with her in an affectionate way. Giving them a tight squeeze around their shoulders before releasing them.

The last member of their lovely family as finally showed up. Shorter compared to the family, about five-six. His blonde hair was fairly short all around but longer on the top. His face was similarly structured to Elliarie, in that while long it was still fairly round and his tanned skin was dotted in far too many freckles. He was about seven years younger than his sister, but looked even younger when compared to her war torn age riddled features. His warm brown eyes looked at Elliarie with a cold glare.

"Good to see you're okay, Elliarie." He spoke, a passive aggressiveness in his tone as he approached his sister, arms folded over his chest.

"You too Alois. Really good to see that the family is doing well!" Elliarie laughed uncomfortably as she went on. "How's the harvest going?"

"We're done with the north fields. Just need to grab the bags and start on this one."  Alois responded rather dryly as he motioned around him at the wheat.

Lucan butted in, handing the now, much quieter, yet still sniffling, Phoenix to his oldest sister.

"Well in that case, Solei, Scarlett? Can you both take Phoenix and grab what we picked? I think your father, Ellie and I are gonna go inside for a bit." He spoke as the two girls nodded, carrying Phoenix off past the wheat crops as the three adults disappeared inside.

The small tired home was quite cozy. The wooden floor covered in a cacophony of rugs and carpets. A nice couch and a few done chairs faced the now dying fire as Lucan rushed to revive the flames and continue the warmth through the home. Alois had taken a seat on the couch, his husband joining him soon after with an uncomfortable smile on his face.

"Why did you come back?" Alois started. His tone much more outwardly hostile than it had been in front of the children. "After everything you've done this past year? Why do you come back now!"

Elliarie felt his anger. He was so rightfully so. Last time she had sat down to talk to him it was after their march on Lordaeron. He had every right to be angry about that. She didn't blame him anymore.

"It's not about Solei this time, Alois. I came here because I had time to think-"

"Had time to think did you? I sure as hell hope you did!" Alois' body language spoke as if he wanted to lunge at his sister, but Lucan's hand was interlaced with his. It seemed to calm at least his physical temper slightly.

"You didn't talk to us for nearly a year! This was… this was an important year! Your own daughter turned sixteen! We welcomed Phoenix into this family, and he'll you turned fifty! We thought you'd come by for at least one of those. But instead you wish Solei a happy birthday when she's in town on her own time and only meet Phoenix when he's taken to visit! The least you could have fucking done was respond to the letter we sent you!"

Alois raged on, his brows furrowed as he ranted. Each word aimed into her heart as a personal attack, and she sat in a stunned silence contemplating as he went on.

"I don't even care about the Solei thing anymore! I know that you know she's my daughter. I know that you would realize that I was right! That's not what I'm angry about anymore, I'm angry about the fact that you decided to be so goddamn petty about the whole entire thing that you cut me, my husband and our kids out of your life until it was convenient for you!" Alois had thrown his hands up and changed his tone to directly mock Elliarie.

"'Oh look at that, my nieces and nephew are in town! They can stay with me but as soon as they step outside the city gate, I don't know them anymore!' you got so wrapped up in a king that doesn't even know exist, that you forgot about your own fucking family Elliarie. You got so involved in grief for someone that died nearly sixteen years ago because you saw him when you should have been dead. You got so involved in a war that's killing our planet that you forgot about the only people you had left. And that is what I'm angry about Ellie. I don't care what need you have! I just want to know what went through your head to think that any of that was perfectly acceptable!"

Alois' speech had ended in a shout, his anger resonating through the room as he leaned back on the couch with a huff. Nestling next to his husband as he bravely kept his tears back. It broke Elliarie's heart. She had practically raised her brother for seven years after Grand Hamlet fell, and his stance… it felt like an adults. He was an adult. He wasn't the sobbing twelve-year-old he had been when she last really looked over him. He was an adult, with responsibilities, with a family and people that depended on him. He was right. What she had done was immature.

"You're absolutely right Alois. I shouldn't have done all that. You're my brother. I should have listened to you right after I told you about Lordaeron. I shouldn't have distanced myself as much as I did. But I can't take that back now. What I can do is come and make amends. And that's what I plan on doing." Elliarie paused, watching Alois' demeanor relax in the slightest of bits.

"That's why I came to tell you something." Elliarie paused, ruffling through a pocket on her pants and pulling out a detailed gorgeous pin in that of of a golden lions get with a silver and white banner draping from its mouth.

"Yesterday the rest of the royal guard thanked my for my years of service to Stormwind and I officially retired. I have the rest of my life ahead of me and that's why I want to spend it with you." Elliarie spoke with a smile on her cheeks, pinning the adornment to her left breast.

"But along side that I wanted to offer you two and your family a place in Stormwind. It's safer there, it's easier for your kids to get around, the people are lovely and there is this nice little place near the farm where the Kal'dorei stay. I've saved up so much from work and retirement and the odd jobs on the side. And I really, really want to make it up to you."

The two men seemed to be stunned for a moment. Lucan looked towards Alois and murmured something Elliarie tried very hard not to hear. Alois seemingly didn't respond to him, only turning to his sister and standing up.

"No. You don't get to do that Elliarie. Safer or not this is their home and we've gotten along just fine. You don't get to barge in here and suddenly try to be the good guy. If you want to repair this relationship, you're going to work. And the way you can start is by helping finish harvest." Alois spoke. His voice still the smallest bits cold towards his sister as he extended a hand.

"And you better believe if you're going to start making it up, you're living under my roof here in duskwood."

Elliarie took his hand, and with sudden strength was pulled into her brothers arms in a tight hug. Elliarie wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tight.

"I'll do whatever it takes, I promise. I missed you Ali."

"I missed you to Ellie."

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 29 April 2019

Quick Bits:

Angel #0 spins out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer #4 (the ending events of which are presented again at the beginning here), giving us a flashback of Angel in Los Angeles and a case involving a werewolf. The tone here from Bryan Edward Hill, Gleb Melnikov, Gabriel Cassata, and Ed Dukeshire is bleaker than the Buffy series, but it’s fitting.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Barbarella/Dejah Thoris #3 is a whole lot of flirting. Gorgeous artwork from  Germán García and Addison Duke with some impressive lettering from Crank!

| Published by Dynamite

Batman #70 wakes up from its “Knightmares” for the first part of “The Fall and the Fallen” by Tom King, Mikel Janín, Jorge Fornés, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles. It throws down a gauntlet of Bats’ rogues as he fights to escape Arkham Asylum.

| Published by DC Comics

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III #1 is the first of these series that I’ve picked up, so I didn’t initially clue in that this wasn’t necessarily how this crossover had played out previously, but this first issue features a world of the two properties mashed-up in a combined reality. It’s an interesting start from James Tynion IV, Freddie E. Williams II, Kevin Eastman, Jeremy Colwell, and Tom Napolitano with some gorgeous artwork.

| Published by DC Comics & IDW

Black Hammer ‘45 #3 features a guest-spot for a young Abraham Slam, who seems to rub the Black Hammer Squadron the wrong way through trying to follow through with ideals and principles. It’s an interesting underlining of whatever potentially grey area operation the squad is on, as Jeff Lemire, Ray Fawkes, Matt Kindt, Sharlene Kindt, and Marie Enger continue to let that plot point simmer.

| Published by Dark Horse

Champions #5 is a tie-in to War of the Realms and also serves as a bit of glue to hold together different parts of the event, building upon things across different areas of the Marvel universe. It also gives us a very heartfelt reunion of Ms. Marvel and Cyclops, wonderfully told by Jim Zub, Juanan Ramírez, Marcio Menyz, and Clayton Cowles.

| Published by Marvel

DC’s Year of the Villain Special #1 gives a trio of teasers, two largely for the two sides of the Justice League/Legion of Doom stuff that has been going on, providing a backbone for the Year of the Villain event, and the third for Brian Michael Bendis’ brainchild of Event Leviathan, which unfortunately feels kind of out of place with the rest of it. As though the two separate stories are competing for resources, rather than being part of a cohesive whole. That said, all of the teasers do their job fairly well, piquing interest in what’s to come.

| Published by DC Comics

DCeased #1 is basically DC’s answer to Marvel Zombies by way of Stephen King’s Cell, but it’s damn entertaining work from Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, James Harren, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo, and Saida Temofonte. The set-up for the series with Darkseid meddling with the Anti-Life Equation and winding up with something worse is perfect.

| Published by DC Comics

Deathstroke #43 is kind of the conclusion to “The Terminus Agenda”, on paper at least. There’s still an epilogue over in the next issue of Teen Titans and the final page of this one sets up something huge going forward.

| Published by DC Comics

Descendent #1 begins another new conspiracy thriller, building off a child abduction and a “truther”, from Stephanie Phillips, Evgeniy Bornyakov, Lauren Affe, and Troy Peteri. It’s a bit of a slow build, working to develop the characters nicely, but there’s an intriguing mystery here.

| Published by AfterShock

Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #7 continues the hunt for the Stilean Flesh Eaters as the Doctor and the team cross paths with some familiar faces. Gorgeous layouts and art here from Roberta Ingranata, Enrica Eren Angiolini, and Viviana Spinelli.

| Published by Titan

Eclipse #15 reaches a boiling point in this penultimate issue. Zack Kaplan, Giovanni Timpano, Flavio Dispenza, and Troy Peteri have at least partially turned this arc upside down, causing us to have some serious questions about the morality of either side in the conflict. It adds a great depth to the characters’ actions and makes me unsure as to what exactly I’d like to see in the finale.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

Elephantmen 2261: The Pentalion Job #1 begins a new digital original mini-series from Richard Starkings and Axel Medellin. Burba sees himself released from prison early, only to be set up to do a new enormous heist. Starkings builds this one greatly out of what’s come before in the series and the art from Medellin is gorgeous.

| Published by Comicraft

Fallen World #1 is a very welcome return to the future of the Valiant universe, spinning out of the changes made to the world in 4001 AD and War Mother, with Dan Abnett, Adam Pollina, Ulises Arreola, and Jeff Powell weaving gold out of the fallen threads of the fallen New Japan. You needn’t have read anything prior to this, Abnett does a wonderful job filling in necessary details of the world and the characters. The art from Pollina is probably the best I have ever seen from him, there’s detail, grace, and expressiveness that has leapt so far beyond even the beautiful work he’s done before. He and Arreola make this a damn impressive book to look at. Highly recommended.

| Published by Valiant

Giant Days #50 features a cricket match, including an explanation of the game that makes more sense than I’ve ever seen it explained before. John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell deliver another hilarious issue, with one hell of a final page.

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

The Girl in the Bay #4 is the end to this mini from JM DeMatteis, Corin Howell, James Devlin, and Clem Robins. It answers what happened in order to create two Kathy Santoris, and her murderer’s deal, but it maintains the weirdness set from the beginning.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Gogor #1 is an entertaining start to this fantasy series from Ken Garing. The set up for the Domus taking over is interesting, as is the introduction of the seemingly Hulk-like saviour in the titular character. Gorgeous artwork throughout.

| Published by Image

Green Lantern #7 is a standout issue in an already astounding run, as Hal Jordan and a friend he finds in Pengowirr try to escape from Hal’s dying power ring. Great twists and turns throughout from Grant Morrison, Liam Sharp, and Tom Orzechowski. The layouts for many of the pages, playing with the shape of the Green Lantern symbol are very impressive.

| Published by DC Comics

Harley Quinn #61 is the first of this series I’ve picked up, due to Otto Schmidt taking over regular art duties, and I quite like this. This is the first part of “Role Players” from Sam Humphries, Schmidt, and Dave Sharpe, porting Quinn off to an alternate realm steeped in Dungeons & Dragons fantasy tropes. It’s pretty entertaining, with great art from Schmidt.

| Published by DC Comics

Hashtag: Danger #1 is another entertaining addition to the second wave of Ahoy’s comics, with Tom Peyer and Chris Giarrusso’s humorous take on the Challengers of the Unknown formula graduated from back-up to series. It’s rounded out with the usual back-up strip, text piece, and prose.

| Published by Ahoy

Justice League #23 has one hell of a gut punch for an ending (granted, it’s a little undercut by the DC’s Year of the Villain Special, but how could we expect something like that to remain anyway?). Absolutely stunning artwork from Jorge Jimenez and Alejandro Sánchez who only seem to outdo themselves with each subsequent issue.

| Published by DC Comics

Marvel Team-Up #2 continues the team-up between Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man in this Freaky Friday take from Eve L. Ewing, Joey Vasquez, Felipe Sobreiro, and Clayton Cowles. Interesting exploration of Peter and Kamala as they navigate aspects of each other’s lives.

| Published by Marvel

Meet the Skrulls #4 unveils what was a the heart of Project Blossom as fractures continue to develop between the Warner family. Great twists and turns from Robbie Thompson, Niko Henrichon, Laurent Grossat, and Travis Lanham as the series winds up for its conclusion.

| Published by Marvel

Nobody is in Control #1 features some very dense storytelling from Patrick Kindlon, Paul Tucker, and Wallace Ryan in this debut issue that goes down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and seemingly random information. It reminds me a bit of the structure of Steve Seagle and Kelley Jones’ Crusades from Vertigo ages ago, but with a more likeable protagonist and a decidedly different narrative.  

| Published by Black Mask

The Punisher #11 is the explosive conclusion to “War in Bagalia” from Matthew Rosenberg, Szymon Kudranski, Antonio Fabela, and Cory Petit. When I say “conclusion”, though, I only mean it’s the end of the arc, it doesn’t really conclude anything with Jigsaw or Zemo. Great art from Kudranski and Fabela.

| Published by Marvel

Red Sonja #4 delves a bit more into Sonja’s past and training, seeding something interesting, while the first assault after being resupplied takes place. Mark Russell, Mirko Colak, Bob Q, Dearbhla Kelly, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are continuing to tell an engrossing, thought-provoking story with this series.

| Published by Dynamite

Savage Avengers #1 is a good debut from Gerry Duggan, Mike Deodato Jr., Frank Martin, and Travis Lanham. It spins out of Avengers: No Road Home, but only inasmuch as depositing Conan in the Savage Land. We’re getting a bit of a gathering of the team here as an ancient cult tries to summon a bloodthirsty deity from a planet past Pluto.

| Published by Marvel

The Six Million Dollar Man #3 is another hilarious issue from Christopher Hastings, David Hahn, Roshan Kurichiyanil, and Ariana Maher. The comedy of errors increases as Steve tries to recharge himself through acting as a lightning rod. Just wonderful stuff.

| Published by Dynamite

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #8 sees Seanan McGuire continue to absolutely nail the character development and interpersonal interactions between the characters in a compelling and intriguing way that hooks you well on their drama, even amidst all of the action, mystery, and excitement. Also, the art from Takeshi Miyazawa and Ian Herring remains incredible.

| Published by Marvel

Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Han Solo #1 gives us a sweet smuggling run set between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back as Han and Chewie are still carving out what their place happens to be in this world, from Greg Pak, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Tamra Bonvillain, and Travis Lanham.

| Published by Marvel

Transformers #4 maintains the slowburn for this story arc, delivering a bit more information, a Cyclonus that might be insane, and Brainstorm’s funeral. Also, I’d swear that the story is hinting that the newly forged Transformer is the murderer, but that may just be me putting together dots that don’t actually align. It’s really nice to see art here from Sara Pitre-Durocher and Andrew Griffith as they join Angel Hernandez this issue.

| Published by IDW

Volition #5 throws a boatload of betrayals and twists at us as Amber and Hale continue to try to track down their creator...and her dog. Ryan Parrott, Marco Itri, Leonardo Paciarotti, and Marshall Dillon are very nicely raising the tension levels in this issue.

| Published by AfterShock

The War of the Realms #3 sees Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Matthew Wilson, and Joe Sabino continue to juggle the massive amount of characters and threads going into this event (even if some of the tie-in mini-series don’t seem to line up with the main event book itself). Gorgeous art from Dauterman and Wilson.

| Published by Marvel

The War of the Realms: Strikeforce - The Dark Elf Realm #1 is a one shot from Bryan Hill, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Matt Hollingsworth, and Joe Sabino further exploring the team of Freyja, the Punisher, She-Hulk, Blade, and Ghost Rider before they ride off to Svartalfheim in War of the Realms #3. Some interesting character explorations and the nightmare of thousands of fluffy kittens.

| Published by Marvel

Young Justice #5 is huge, potentially exponentially huge, as it seems to pull at the fraying threads of the New 52 and Rebirth to hearken back to the pre-Flashpoint DCU. Brian Michael Bendis, John Timms, Kris Anka, Doc Shaner, Gabe Eltaeb, and Wes Abbott may be playing with fire but it’s a very welcome warmth. Bring marshmallows.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Other Highlights: Amazing Spider-Man #20.HU, Battlestar Galactica: Twilight Command #2, Beasts of Burden: The Presence of Others #1, Black AF: Devil’s Dye #3, Devil Within #4, The Dreaming #9, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark #5, Female Furies #4, From Hell: Master Edition #5, Goosebumps: Horrors of the Witch House #1, Grumble #6, Hillbilly: Red-Eyed Witchery From Beyond #4, Jim Henson’s Beneath the Dark Crystal #9, Marvel Action: Avengers #4, Marvel Action: Spider-Man #3, Outcast #41, Paper Girls #28, Self/Made #6, Star Wars #65, Star Wars Adventures: Flight of the Falcon, TMNT: Urban Legends #12, Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale

Recommended Collections: Aliens: Dust to Dust, Amazing Spider-Man - Volume 3, Art of War of the Realms, Bloodborne - Volume 2: Healing Thirst, Bone Parish - Volume 1, Doctor Strange - Volume 2: Remittance, GI Joe: A Real American Hero - Silent Option, House Amok - Volume 1, Killmonger, Man Without Fear, Midas, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - Volume 8, Olivia Twist: Honor Among Thieves, Princeless - Volume 7: Find Yourself, The Quantum Age, The Silencer - Volume 2: Helliday Road, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Terra Incognita, Stranger Things - Volume 1: The Other Side, Takio, TMNT - Volume 21: Battle Lines, Wonder Woman & Justice League Dark: Witching Hour, The Wrong Earth - Volume 1

d. emerson eddy would like to remind you that it’s Free Comic Book Day. Get out there and free some comics from the shackles of oppression. May the fourth be with you.

[lids-flutter-open]

Content warning: some spoilers, reference to author’s weird obsession with young trans girls’ genitalia and to sexual assault committed against main character

Basic boring and bad things about this book include:

⁃ all dialogue scenes are long and bland; there is no banter that is funny

⁃ The same points are hammered on again and again for hundreds of pages : again, Lily’s dad thinks hormone blockers are too expensive and she should be a boy. Again, Dunkin is afraid of his mental health issues. Again, Lily is called a slur and is upset. Again, Dunkin wishes he were braver than he is. There isn’t a lot of dynamic action.

⁃ Lily gets deadnamed in the cover flap of the book and in the family tree in the front of the book

⁃ Parents are one dimensional, either harmful or benevolent

⁃ Tween children never have violent or angry thoughts unless they are bullies, and politely respect adult rules

⁃ There isn’t any payoff to Lily standing up for what she believes in re: her tree, not even solidarity from other activists, sending kids the message that it is meaningless to protest things that are wrong

⁃ Dare, Lily’s best friend, is one dimensional and never emerges as an independent character, which sucks more because Dare is black . Dare only acts as an emotional support for Lily. Her own motivations and passions never fully emerge. She uses spurts of AAVE once in a while but her lived experiences as a black kid in south Florida do not come up.

⁃ Something that annoys me all the time in melodramatic kids’ books like this is where characters say something and then repeat the same thing with more emphasis on a separate line in a punchier way, such as : “(line break)I don’t say anything. (Line break) I never say anything.” This happens what seems like once every two to four pages. It disrupts the flow of the narrative

⁃ Kids lack agency and their resolutions come from adults changing their behavior , which doesn’t leave young readers much to go on in dealing with similar struggles

Aside from all that :

There are many things about this book that do more harm than good in terms of impact to the groups the book is supposed to advocate for. These can be roughly sorted into Trans Stuff and Mental Health stuff. First, let me get into the trans stuff.

First , technically speaking: a thirteen year old seeking hormone blockers will typically need to suffer through several quite arduous conversations with parents and psychologists and psychiatrists before accessing them. With the dawn of informed consent practices, this has changed a little, but the questions that Lily’s kind psychologist ask her barely touch the basics of what trans kids typically are asked to talk about in therapy. Additionally, we never see Lily or her parents learning any more details about her hormone blockers at the endocrinologist—essential details, such as the fact that their effects are reversible, that their side effects aren’t known to be substantially negative , that there aren’t yet many studies on their long term use. Even if Lily didn’t understand all that info, as a trans kid she would absorb at least a little of it. Additionally, I feel like her parents would talk to her more about their understanding of what trans people are or go through, with articles about detransition, etc —and Lily would counter with her own knowledge. The absence of any of this simplifies trans experience down far beyond even the most basic Oprah special and makes accessing hormones and blockers seem both easier and less involved /reflective a process than it actually is.

Another really major issue I have with this novel about an eighth grader is that Gephart seems obsessed with Lily’s body and specifically her genitalia. I cannot even count how many times the word “penis” appears in this book in reference to Lily, in what is otherwise quite a G rated book. Cis adults often fixate constantly on trans kids and their bodies and genitals and fertility in a way I find really creepy, and Gephart has continued this trend with an exuberance that makes me want to keep all young trans girls faaaar away from her. The fact that she has Lily undergo a demeaning public sexual assault from bullies in her class in a way that doesn’t at all serve the plot underscores how much Gephart is obsessed with young trans women’s bodies. While Dunkin also has issues with puberty, experiencing insecurity about his height and weight and hairiness, his sexual privacy is respected and we get no hint he even has sexual organs at all—I assume the cis characters in Gephart’s other stories get the same treatment. Meanwhile, we hear over and over again about Lily’s pubic hair, genitals, and fears concerning what will happen to them if she doesn’t get on puberty blockers. It is her main personal arc (seeing as the save-the-tree arc doesn’t start until a good 100+ pages into the text). While real young trans girls have a number of fears and passions having to do with school, hobbies, friends, etc , lily is almost completely absorbed by the author’s fetish for her body. She talks constantly about her “stupid boy chest”, her narrow hips, and a range of other body parts she hates and wants to alter. In a cis girl puberty book, this would lead to a conclusion where Lily realizes she maybe looks kinda cool as is, in the liminal state that is adolescence, but not here. Which brings me to another point —most trans kids never go on hormone blockers. They’re really expensive ! Parents who support their kids can’t necessarily afford this care, and many trans kids also come out after their first puberty. This book communicates, via Lily’s attitude and her mom’s attitude and everyone’s panic about Lily’s body, that non-puberty-blocked trans kids will have transitioned “too late” and be forever marred by hair, height, bone structure, etc. This perspective is a really ugly cis-normative one. It is based in the idea that trans people and especially trans women must look as much like cis people as possible, must know their intent from childhood, and must commit themselves to expressing hatred of their bodies and (violent) intent to alter them into something more socially pretty and socially acceptable.

What really makes trans kids safe is acceptance and support and emotional connections regardless of appearance and hormone desire/hormone access. Hormone blockers are Not bad, and I support kids getting them, but neither are they universal or necessary to live as a happy trans person.

Lily never experiences anyone telling her that in this book, and doesn’t meet trans women older than her who have had different experiences with transition trajectory who could advocate for her while also clarifying that Lily’s path isn’t the only one. This book is a cis mom’s vision of perfect medical transition —syrupy and gender-conforming and girlie and with a stamp of medical approval that ignores and disdains the experiences of trans kids and adults unable or unwilling to access early medical transition. It’s unnecessary and directly harmful. Trans people usually experience dysphoria, but many of us learn through practice and community that the ways we are special and unique are beautiful, that our medically altered adult bodies are cool, and that we don’t need to obsessively conceal our differences in order to be gorgeous and lovable. Gephart is determined to undermine such efforts, which sucks for cis readers too. I think we should all realize by now that standards of bodily appearance that oppress trans people also oppress gender nonconforming cis women and girls and nonconforming boys (at one point lily thinks : “I am not a fag, I am a girl!” What does that say to gay boys and butch girls?)

Second : mental health stuff.

Just as Gephart wishes to do away with the complicated other-ness of being trans, she also skips over the factual realities of being a young teenager with bipolar disorder. For one, diagnosis of bipolar in a thirteen year old is pretty rare. Having bipolar that young is also usually traumatic, in addition to being precipitated by stressful events—such as a death. Dunkin’s freakouts are understandable, but the narrative treats them as a major problem without explaining why and treats Dunkin’s bipolar as a frightening and slowly encroaching monster rather than a set of symptoms rising out of genetic predisposition plus life circumstances and maladaptive coping mechanisms. It dehumanizes him to treat his bipolar like this. Dunkin naturally resists the heavy level of control exerted over him by doctors —scenes of him skipping medications out of a sense that they hold him back are among the most realistic in the book. Similarly, the lack of communication and punitive attitude of doctors is also something many teens encounter when seeking care for mental health issues. These things could be addressed in text by Dunkin having a conversation with his mom and seeking a psych that makes him feel more comfortable or working on his own level of trust in her and her affirmations of what reality is. But they don’t talk. Gephart would rather teens blithely submit to treatment from doctors who call them the wrong name and be adequately sedated for the comfort of the adults around them —even though many antipsychotics and mood stabilizers don’t work well or work long term for large portions of the population and can cause negative side effects, and finding the right drugs requires hearing feedback from patients and often several trials of different drugs plus behavioral therapy etc.

A major issue for me is that Dunkin’s father —a man who also has bipolar—is cast as almost wholly incompetent and crazy and Bad with a capital B as a parent. Likewise, Dunkin’s mental illness is treated like a dark mystery for most of the book, and its slow reveal becomes an exhibitionist sort of revelry in how crazy he is acting —which isn’t how books about bipolar teens should treat this issue. Mental illness being the bogeyman makes people more afraid to get diagnoses or deal with symptoms and makes it easier for people to deny that there is a problem if they have less extreme symptoms.

While bipolar and other illnesses can ruin lives and cause families to hurt, it sucks that Gephart chooses to frame mentally ill adults as both totally irresponsible and totally doomed with no nuance and frames the medical industrial complex as a stern but ultimately benevolent force in Dunkin’s life that protects him from himself. Psychiatrists can help people access needed care, but just like Dunkin’s psych, they can also alienate and scare people. Especially for teens, psych facilities can cause trauma on their own, especially for kids of color or kids dealing with other issues like grief. They are sometimes the least of all evils, but Gephart treats doctors like saviors. Kids growing up with bipolar need to know adults who struggle with the same symptoms and to practice self reflection and engagement with communities of mutual advocacy and need to understand the various factors that can exacerbate symptoms and interrupt their lives. They don’t need to be told to shut up and take the pills doctors give them and to trust people in high places. They get that from other people.

Basically, Gephart has stuck her nose into two issues that do need representation but which she doesn’t adequately understand, and the result is patronizing hogwash in book form . Skip !

[davidmann95]

I haven't been able to tolerate a comics news site since ComicsAlliance shut down so what news out of SDCC is actually worth knowing about?

I’ve gotten so many questions regarding SDCC-related news that I figured I’d just do one big post, and this seems as opportune an ask to build that off of as any. To kick off, in terms of news that’s not for me but is a big deal, there’s a trailer for the next season of Doctor Who, and Star Wars: Clone Wars is shockingly coming back for a final reduced season years after the fact. Congrats to the fans of both franchises! Plus yesterday we got the announcement of Orlando and Foreman’s Electric Warriors for DC (as well as Orlando’s Dead Kings with Matt Smith at Aftershock Comics) and the Wonder Woman/Justice League Dark October crossover.

So first and foremost in terms of the reaction it picked up, OH MY GOD:

It’s like the Bat In The Sun team handed over their production to their shitty kids but made them work off a third of the budget. I kept seeing the jokes about it on Twitter, and I kept thinking they were surely hilarious exaggerations, AND NOT A ONE OF THEM EVEN SLIGHTLY WAS. At least it now makes sense why Hawk and Dove is here, given the Liefeld connection: this is 90s as helllllllllllllllllllllll, and while a part of me hopes it swerves unexpectedly in a couple seasons into Fun 90s DC with Starman and Wally West and an Electric Blue Superboy and Titans One Million, I can’t pretend I wouldn’t gleefully hatewatch this if it wasn’t behind a paywall. What it really comes down to is that, as I saw someone mention, the over-the-top content warning at the beginning isn’t actually by any means to get rid of anyone under 18, but specifically to appeal to them over anyone over it: there is nothing about this show not precision-crafted to appeal to teenagers watching something they technically aren’t supposed to, since anyone older than that will just laugh until the stars grow cold. And while it’s one line in particular that’s rightfully drawn all the attention, to me the clear defining moment is Beast Boy taking his big goofy dramatic leap, and you expect him to transform, but that ain’t happening (I fully expect he’ll just have claws and growl and do assorted Wolverine shit instead), because that kind of thing is for STUPID KIDS, whereas this is RAD. 

RAD, dare I say…to the EXTREME.

Also, the pilot Robin’s scene was presumably drawn from was written by Akiva Goldsman, Greg Berlanti, and Geoff Johns. So was it the guy behind Batman & Robin, the guy behind the CWverse, or the recent President of DC Comics who ushered FUCK BATMAN into the world? Because all three of those possibilities are equally hilarious. In any case, the rubicon has been crossed: easily one of the top ten, probably one of the five or so most iconic superheroes of all time said fuck in a piece of mass media. Where we go from here, nobody knows. But at the very least I’ll take the L for my original certainty that this would take place in the CW DCverse, because that clearly isn’t going to be the case. Though boy, imagine if it was. Personally I like to imagine this is a totally normal DCU, and suddenly going full 90s and murdering a bunch of people is their universe’s version of normal teen rebellion.

Additionally, it’s now seemingly set in stone that the fourth DC Universe live-action show alongside Titans, Doom Patrol, and Swamp Thing will be a Stargirl show where Courtney Whitmore learns about her legacy and tries to track down the Justice Society, described as in the flavor of Superman ‘78 and Wonder Woman. Again, if it wasn’t behind a paywall I’d check it out.

And before turning to comics proper, we learned from WB itself that there are no plans to idiotically pour millions into making a functional Justice League Snyder cut a thing, unsurprisingly making some of the worst people on the internet be just the absolute worst (I’m interested myself in it artistically even if I don’t think it would be very good, but at this point it would feel like a validation of some really rotten people’s behavior if this happened). Meanwhile the first trailer for the Dragon Ball Super movie dropped, and yeah, I’m still happy to see Broly. This looks big in a way Dragon Ball for all its action rarely gets, and seeing Paragus suggests Toriyama understood what worked about the original flick, which is a very good sign. Did they swap out Vic Mignogna as Broly though? Wouldn’t blame him, I know he’s said he hates the part, but surprising nonetheless. And the Spider-Man game dropped another trailer, along with a ‘Velocity’ bonus suit designed by Adi Granov.

The big comics news of the day was of course the long-awaited confirmation that Green Lantern is being relaunched - apparently as The Green Lantern - in November by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp. What’s surprising is that Morrison’s currently insisting that since the last decade or so of the franchise has dealt with constant upheaval and cosmic apocalypse, his run is going to scale back down to a character-focused study of Hal (“He’s a loner and a drifter and he’s an unreconstructed man. It was nice to do that and to go a little bit old-fashioned with it. He doesn’t belong here at all, you know? He’s longing for the heavens, and to be back up as a Green Lantern. We’re doing Hal Jordan where, you know he’s a good cop, but is he really a good guy? And we’re looking into his relationships and how he deals with people. And also the fact that, if you’ve got a job as a space cop, it’s hard to be stuck on the planet Earth. He has other lives on other planets.”) amidst him going about his duties and dealing with weird alien crimes and space threats, such as stopping aliens from ‘parking’ a planet-sized artificial megastructure near a sun and causing damage to nearby worlds, and solving the murder of a gaseous lifeform.

I doubt it’ll necessarily stay there forever - his Batman and Action Comics runs, after all, were both initially marketed as staying on the smaller side by his standards, and the one idea we know of Morrison having once had for the Green Lanterns back in the day was making them a multiversal force. But it’s remarkable how, well, normal this sounds coming from Morrison. Clearly this must be a passion project if he’s doing a monthly again for the first time in 5 years, especially since DiDio mentioned he had to be persuaded (ultimately persuading himself as his attempts to brush off the proposition led to him thinking about the possibilities and rapidly talking himself into it) to make time for this amidst an incredibly busy schedule of surely more profitable and creatively unshackled projects, but on the surface level? This sounds like the closest Morrison has come since his JLA days to writing a regular superhero comic. At this point in his career, I’m very, very curious what that’s going to look like. Just hoping he read the King/Shaner oneshot on whatever reread he surely went through to catch up on current continuity. And also hoping this guy was right that it’ll turn out “the REAL construct that was limited by our willpower and imagination all along was…REALITY.”

On smaller notes:

* Kelly Sue DeConnick and Robson Rocha are taking over Aquaman, with an opening arc that shows him washing up amnesiac on an isle of forgotten sea gods. DeConnick seems to be like the Jeffs Lemire and Parker where my appreciation of their work is limited to very, very specific slivers: none of her Marvel superhero stuff I’ve read did anything for me even if I could see the talent behind it, but her Lois story in the last issue of The Adventures of Superman was pitch-perfect (and also had a great Aquaman bit!). This gets at least an issue from me.

* DC announced new titles for DC Ink and DC Zoom, including Cassandra Cain, Oracle, Dick Grayson, Creeper, and Wonder Woman books, while also announcing some artists for the existing titles.

* Geoff Johns is doing (ugh) Shazam with Dave Eaglesham, who showed off a really great, fun cover suggesting the possibility of a tonal shift away from Johns writing the absolute worst version of that character imaginable. On the likelihood of said possibility though, I think @intergalactic-zoo put it best. I might just check it out in trade if word of mouth is overwhelmingly positive, but then, lots of otherwise rational people liked or at least saw merit in his original crack at it with Gary Frank, and you were all deliriously, impossibly wrong back then, too.

* And finally, speaking of Johns, he’s doing Batman: Three Jokers as a 3-issue mini with Jason Fabok, a smart move given that is precisely as much as I’m willing to invest in this out of morbid curiosity. What’s really baffling though is that it’s being released under Black Label. It would seem to destroy the stated purpose of the line by immediately releasing Very Important Continuity Comics under it, but maybe this means Batman’s gonna follow in his protege’s footsteps and say a fuck. Anyway, I’m mostly just hoping it isn’t revealed Fun Golden Age Joker is actually not the original in order to rub out the prospect that he was ever truly anything but a terrifying sidekick-butchering murder machine at the center of very serious stories, because that feels to be like a real possibility. And absolute no question one of the three is gonna turn out to be the lost child of Marionette and Mime in Doomsday Clock.

[spideyboyz]

RIVERDALE THEORIES SEASON 3 PART 2

So here are the theories regarding the plots that will occur throughout the third season.

So we know that there are going to be 23 episodes in the third season. From that there will likely be a lot of filler episodes as well as mini plots that derail from the overall plot. 

As season 2 ended with Archie’s arrest we already know that the third season will be mainly about that. However, I’m not sure whether this story will be present in the whole season or just half the season. Watching the first two seasons it can vary. The first season’s entire plot was about Jason Blossom’s murder. Season 2 was different in that it began with the Black Hood, ended on episode 12 (I think) and then brought the Black Hood back for episode 18. With season 3 I think the murder storyline will likely be a half season thing while the second half will deal with other plots that may have initially been introduced at the beginning of the season.

Aside from the obvious plot there are clues throughout the second season that hint to what could potentially be in the third season. This leads me to think that a lot of the third season will have a lot of Person A vs Person B situation. 

Firstly I will discuss the Core Four. 

At the end of the second season Hal says that there is always an ‘Evil’ Cooper in every generation. Throughout the first and second season we have been lead to believe that this was Betty. Now that the season has ended people now believe that the Evil Cooper was actually Polly and that she will play a bigger role during the third season. I am one of the people who agrees with this theory. Based on that scene with Polly and Alice, there is definitely sinister vibes going on and the cult people that Polly have been staying with are being hinted at playing a bigger part in the show. In terms of Person A vs Person B, I believe that there could be a Betty vs Polly storyline or Good vs Evil. I’m not sure what Polly will be specifically but because it’s Riverdale and everyone is dark and twisted, it will probably be something along those lines. 

Then there is Jughead. For me his story will likely continue to be serpent based, especially now that he is the official Serpent King. This will lead to a lot of hints towards a Jughead vs Penny storyline and also an overall Serpents vs Ghoulies story. Previously the Ghoulies had tried to kill Jughead and we know that Penny despises his very existence and so we know that the Ghoulies are far from done with him and the rest of the serpents. I don’t have much else to go on from that. 

For Veronica it will likely be the obvious Veronica vs Hiram story. Now that Hiram has practically disowned his daughter, I feel like she no longer has his protection like she had previously. Going with that there is also the chance that it will become a Hermione and Veronica vs Hiram. The end of the second season definitely hinted at Hermione beginning to go against her husband and the third season will likely play further into that. 

When it comes to Archie I feel the least certain as to where his overall plot may go. Being the least interesting (to me) I find that his character has little agency outside of his relationship to Veronica and the second season added onto that and he lacked a story outside of her and her family. Seeing as he is in prison there is a chance that he will likely have a prison-centred story and there is the chance that he could perhaps have the Archie vs Rival Inmate and the two butt heads or are otherwise pitted against each other. If he is out of jail before the finale he will probably team up with the others to take down Hiram Lodge and the other main villains. 

Story in terms of side characters 

I have a theory that Kevin could gain a bigger story in the third season but we also got promised that we would get a Dark Kevin and that he would be a series regular but the show failed the deliver either. Having this criticism from both the fans and Casey himself, there is the chance that the writers could learn from their mistakes and fix them. From there that could then lead to Kevin having a storyline. My main theory is that he will be working to try and get his dad back to being the sheriff or he will part-take in taking down Sheriff Minnetta - likely helping Jughead and Betty who will likely take part in that story line. 

I wish I had more to say regarding Josie McCoy but I have the bare minimum. Season 2 didn’t hint a lot regarding what they could do with her character and I hope they let her have a bigger part. There is the potential that she could team up with Kevin to help take down Sheriff Minnetta because they appear to be good friends. Aside from that I don’t really have a lot of theories surrounding Josie. I do theorise, however, that her mother would likely be Archie’s lawyer.

For Moose it does appear like he may appear to be a bigger character for season 3. His main story will probably be his coming out and coming to terms with his sexuality and becoming Kevin’s boyfriend. Outside of that he will likely help Kevin take down Minnetta (should that be Kevin’s story arc). 

Now that Reggie is a series regular he could likely take part in helping Archie and taking down Hiram Lodge with him, especially after he was thrown under the bus by him. 

Toni has also become a series regular. In likelihood she will be part of the Serpents vs Ghoulies story alongside Sweet Pea and Fangs. It’s hard to say whether she will have much plot outside of that but I hope she does. She is one of my favourite characters.

Now that Cheryl is a serpent I think a lot of her story will be about her new life as a serpent, kind of similar to Jughead’s season 2 storyline. She could work as a double agent perhaps - spying on her mother and the other bad buy crew to see what their plans are and then informing the serpents of them. 

Characters like Chuck and Ethel will likely remain minor characters who just appear every once in a while and so I doubt they will play much of a part for the overall season and will likely just appear in a couple of episodes here and there. With Archie being arrested I’m assuming Ethel has taken place as class president or whatever the school election was about. 

I would love Sweet Pea and Fangs to become bigger characters and to get to know them better. After the musical episode I especially fell in love with Fangs’s character and he appears to sweet and kind (did you see his smile as he applauded the other characters after their song sequence?)

New and Returning Characters

Throughout the second season I think there have been some hints as to who may appear in the third season.

It has been confirmed that Jughead’s mother and sister will finally come into the picture. I’m not sure what role they will both play but I think there could be tension between Jughead and Gladys seeing as she rejected him when he asked to see her in the first season. Things could become strained between him and Jellybean now that he is a serpent and she could perhaps try to join in and he will likely reject her. 

Many are theorising that Heather (Chery’s ex) will appear and stir drama between choni. A part of me would like Cheryl and Heather to build up a friendship because I’m always rooting for Cheryl to have more friends but more likely than not Heather will be a dark and sinister character with bad intentions.

In regards to who I think will return I think Nick St Clair could make an appearance. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him in season 2. In terms of why he would appear again is potentially because he could come in to testify against Archie in trial to say how he came in and beat him. Now that Veronica doesn’t have Hiram’s protection, Hiram could use Nick to make Archie appear violent. Additionally now that Cheryl is a serpent, the serpents could threaten or beat Nick when they learned of what he did to Cheryl. Anyway I would like to see his character killed off by someone he has harmed because I think that would satisfy all of us. 

It has been revealed to us that there will be two more new characters who will be Betty’s new neighbours. Evelyn Evernever is said to be a lot like Betty with her own sinister side. Fans theorise that she will either stir things up between Bughead or between Varchie. Personally I hope this isn’t the case because it can get boring when things like that are a constant plot element. I would maybe like it with Varchie because we know that Archie has a weird attraction to Betty all of a sudden (I called it from episode 12/3 of season 1) and so he may push them towards Evelyn, assuming that he isn’t in jail for the entire season. There is also her father, Edgar, who will be introduced. Now that Hal is in prison I could see Edgar becoming a father figure for Betty and maybe a love interest for Alice if they decide to take on the love triangle plot between Alice, Fp and Edgar. 

We will also likely get to meet more serpents as we now have more serpent characters (Cheryl and Betty). I would like to see more female serpents now that Betty and Cheryl are in the scene and will likely hang out with them a lot over the boys.