#Leah Williams

[nerdsleaze]

Gotham City Sirens returns this August from DC, but this time it has a Wild Wild Twist!

In the new story, Harley, Ivy, and Catwoman are going on a Western themed adventure out by Gotham’s county line, facing off against the likes of Punchline, and a quartet of mysterious new villains called the Nasty Boys, a “cowboy-henchmen sensation soon to be sweeping the nation,” according to DC’s news release. Or, as Williams puts it, “ominously horny half-naked cowboys with automatic assault weapons.”

Source: Polygon

I'm seriously just happy to see Punchline again! Please, DC keep her and make her the badass she deserves to be! 💜

[avengerscompound]

Steve Rogers & Tony Stark

Gwenpool Strikes Back (2019)

[rei-ismyname]

X-FACTOR 2020 Highlights 1

The Krakoan X-Factor was a fantastic little book, though it unfortunately was cancelled at short notice due to factors outside creator control after only 10 issues. On the positive side, those 10 issues were excellent. This post will be all issue #1 because it's one of the best team building issues I've ever read and lays a very solid foundation for what comes next. It's also a very queer book.

Issue one is all about building the team and the premise. Wasting no time, the first page is a splash of Northstar sensing Aurora's death via twin telepathy. He immediately flies to Arbor Magna and demands the Five bring her back, pissing off everyone in the process.

He follows Hope's advice and learns the last place she was seen was the Green Lagoon, but hits a dead end. Fortunately Lorna overhears and throws in, neo-noir style. Daken happens to be lying on the floor and joins the team too, though they aren't very happy to have him. The three put the word out via flyer and the band assembles!

Rachel Summers, the recently resurrected Prodigy, and... EYE BOY round out the squad bringing the number up to 6 + Amazing Baby, Rachel's warwolf that Betsy gave her in the pages of Excalibur. Prodigy uses his superpowers of common sense and deduction and they're off to Bellingham, Washington.

Rachel uses her oft-forgotten Chronoskimming to see Aurora's most recent moments in a motel room she rented while Daken 'interviews' the guy at the front desk and the team start to explore how their powers interact/pick up clues.

By their powers combined they track down the barrier Aurora smashed through into the water. Eye Boy earns his keep by narrowing down which of the many underwater cars it could be and Polaris pulls them out of the water. Plates are matched with the motel rental receipt and voila! Interestingly it's Daken who pulls Northstar back from searching for his sister's corpse directly, signposting his arc will be one of emotional and social growth. He has the skills, he just hasn't been using them.

Northstar rushes off and *ahem* presents proof of death to the Five. Luckily the Five understand he's going through some shit and his team has his back. The best X-Men stories are about found family and soap opera, and this ad hoc team has plenty of both.

Daken and Northstar's clash of personalities starts to soften a little and the rest of the team get their CSI: Krakoa on in front of the Quiet Council. Despite Emma's scorn, their impressive display turns out to be a job interview.

Turns out there's a lot of missing and dead mutants or just people lacking proof of death. Resurrection protocols stress avoiding resurrecting 'dupes' and so far the labor involved handling it informally is disrupting The Five's workflow. They're swamped. The team's actions demonstrated a need for X-Factor and their suitability for the mission.

The Quiet Council approves and X-Factor is (re)born! Lorna, despite having lead X-Factor before, knows she's not in a space for leadership right now, nominating Northstar and unofficially becoming his XO. In a nod to Polaris' inconsistent characterisation over the decades, she renders Magneto speechless by asking him to describe her personality. Lorna's arc is established as one of self actualisation and coming to terms with the difficulty of being Lorna Dane AND Magneto's daughter - no dancing around the fact he's been a shitty parent. However, he is trying to be better. Krakoa is a fresh start for all.

Lorna calls back to Giant-Size X-Men, speaking directly to Krakoa about their long history (she yeeted it into space if you didn't know.) Together, they build The Boneyard, X-Factor's headquarters and living space. The Five drop by with a gift and Forge shares his invention of fleet seeds, allowing anyone to submit a case to X-Factor. The Boneyard immediately fills with pink bubbles/cases and they realise they have a lot of work ahead of them - validating their commitment and giving them all purpose.

As I said in the intro, X-Factor #1 is one of the best team building issues I've ever read. Aurora's death is the inciting incident on page one and the team is formed by page three. Instead of stretching the investigation out into the first arc/five issues, it's resolved in 1 and we get to explore the team dynamic and workflow in real time. They don't need to grow into individual competence because they're already there. It's a strong statement that the investigations are a backdrop for character work and growing into an unlikely team/family unit.

Two of the issues are part of X of Swords. An event crossover usually threatens to knock a limited series off course but the connectivity inherent to The First Krakoan Age (plus X-Factor's links to the Five and Quiet Council) instead provide opportunity to explore existing themes and put the characters through the wringer. But I'm getting ahead of myself - that is a subject for part 2.

Next time - war, murder, and ACAB. Plus, Aurora's back!

[peterbscaprisweatpants]

remember when the symbiote poked around in eddie's mind to unearth his desires and found 2 venomized t-rexes frenching?

[Image description: Two screen caps show segments of panels from Marvel Comics Presents (2019) #5 that depict the venom symbiote exploring Eddie's subconscious. The first shows Venom, with the symbiote in charge, moving in front of a reddish background representing the inside of Eddie's mind. The symbiote says, "LET'S GET A GOOD LOOK AT WHAT EDDIE REALLY LIKES." The next image shows several venomized creatures, including more out of frame. The focal point is two venomized creatures that resemble t-rexes, their claws clenched together, tongues entwined outside their open jaws. Next to them, the symbiote's narration reads, "EDDIE LIKES BEAUTIFUL HORRORS..." End image description.]

[evilhorse]

Don’t look at me. His idea.

(Power Girl Special #1)

[reddslym]

"Gotham only has room for TWO pits, and they're mine!"

Power Girl Special #1, written by Leah Williams, art by Marguerite Sauvage

[oraclenthusiast]

"chip zdarksy is ruining batman" "tom taylor is ruining nightwing" leah williams i am BEGGING you to step away from power girl 😭

[moonofvandar]

Listen. Listen. I don't know who this frumpy, nerdy, meek wannabe is supposed to be, but this is NOT Power Girl. Power Girl is stylish, brash, bold, in your face, and confident. The body language here is all wrong, the dialogue, the attitude, everything is just OFF. None of this is right at all, this isn't the same character as Power Girl.

It feels like Leah Williams really wanted to write Supergirl but got 'stuck' with writing Karen instead.

(And yes I'm still calling her Karen, it'll be a cold day in hell before I ever refer to her as Paige goddamn Stetler.)

I get that every writer is going to do their own take on a character, but it's important to at least get the core of the character, the soul of the character. This? This feels so soulless to me.

Being a Power Girl fan is suffering. (Source is Power Girl (2023) issue #2.)

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Gotham City Sirens #1 by Leah Williams and Matteo Lolli. Cover by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson. Variant covers by (2) W. Scott Forbes, (3) JeeHyung Lee, (4) Rahzzah and (5) Jason Geyer & Alex Saviuk.

Gotham City Sirens #2 by Williams and Daniel Hillyard. Variant covers by (1) Lee and (2) Forbes.

Gotham City Sirens #3 by Williams and Lolli. Variant cover by Lee.

Gotham City Sirens #4 by Williams and Hillyard. Variant cover by Tirso Cons. All four issues out, weekly, in August.

"When a violent and highly illegal energy drink-sponsored hunting operation threatens the lives of wildlife and the residents of Gotham City alike, the only ones fit to save the day are the criminal trio of Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn. Back together again for the first time in years. Sometimes the only way to fight bad is with even worse! With special appearances by White Rabbit, Punchline, and introducing the himbo cowboy henchmen sensation soon to be sweeping the nation known as 'The Nasty Boys!' Get your chaps, spurs, and hats out cause it’s hunting season! By the end of story you’ll be covered in guts, goo, and grit! Featuring the talents of Leah Williams, Matteo Lolli, Daniel Hillyard, and more! If you’re not chanting 'Hot tubs and headshots and hotties, oh my!' by the end of this four-week-long series, you’re doing it wrong!"

[karenxmenfan]

X-Factor, Eternals (drawn 2021, colors 2023)

[smashpages]

From DC's April 2024 solicitations: Power Girl #8 by writer Leah Williams and artists Eduardo Pansica and Júlio Ferreira is part of the House of Brainiac crossover event and features the return of Lobo's daughter Crush.

cover by Yanick Paquette

[avengerscompound]

Gwenpool Strikes Back (2019) #3

[scarlet--wiccan]

You've mentioned Leah Williams before, but what racist/ableist things has she wrote (if you ofc don't mind explaining)

X-Men readers, specifically, have noted that Wiliams has a history of making offensive, crude, and sometimes fetishistic choices with East Asian characters, which is, unfortunately, nothing new for this franchise, but it's still worth criticizing. More specifically, she garnered outrage for the finale of X-Factor (2020), which involved an incredibly tone-deaf story about the sexual assault and murder of a Black bisexual man. I don't have the capacity to get into here, but she did everything categorically wrong that she could have done in that story and, to my recollection, the did white woman classic of hiding behind a veil of misogyny and, in this case, biphobia when people rightfully decried her work. For me, personally, the fact that this storyline led directly into Trial of Magneto didn't win her any favors, either, as she continued to make insensitive and ignorant choices about Romani death and grief throughout that series as well.

[mysteryonearth52]

Absolute Power Task Force VII #1 - Last Son by Leah Williams & Caitlin Yarsky

Cover: Brad Walker (variant)

[evilhorse]

I researched hot college girls in my area.

(Power Girl #6)

[illyanarasputinfan]

What If? Magik (2018) MARVEL

The results are in, and the majority of you voted Illyana Rasputina of Earth-18133 as your favorite Magik variant. Thank you to everyone who voted!