#Simon spurrier got it

[chaoswxlson]

i seriously cant believe how misunderstood Constantines character was by most of his writers. Hes essentially the meaning of “everyone who is human makes mistakes” and preaches about how we are not good or bad by our actions, and about how tragedy changes someone (in his case there is magic involved)…..but nooo edgy dark lord of magic who sleeps around a lot is the representation we get by most of the mainstream writers

[victorsandvanquishers]

In Dreams Until My Death, I Will Wander On

Fandom: DC Comics

Ships: Bart Allen/Kon El

Ratings: T

Warnings: cosmic horror, mental illness on 9000, tasteful nudity that is not at all sexualized, area man becomes a god and has a hard time processing it despite having a hot babe of a boyfriend

Summary: After Bart’s realization about his part in the Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths, he wonders if he can keep it together long enough to complete his end of the bargain with The Great Darkness and The Speed Force. It’s a bargain he doesn’t even remember making, but it’s the one keeping Kon safe. And maybe, it’ll help him find the rest of his friends and family too.

[post-House of Brainiac; disregards Simon Spurrier's The Flash; direct sequel to 'The Deification of One Bartholomew Henry Allen II'; written for 2024 BartKon Week (Heart & Bones Edition), Day 6 - Realizations & Confessions + Only Lovers Left Alive]

~~~

Title gently borrowed from Audioslave's Like a Stone.

To appreciate this story to its fullest, I recommend reading/rereading Zero Hour: Crisis in Time by Dan Jurgens. That, or at least look up what happened with Hal and Ollie. :'>

If you want a playlist running in the background as you read, I recommend playing Audioslave's Like a Stone, Goo Goo Dolls' Iris, and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Can't Stop on loop. :3

This is probably my MOST self-indulgent story in all of the DC Comics fanfiction I've written this past year and a half. I wish Bendis and Gleason got to finish their story for Bart and Kon, but alas, we carry on. Mayhaps in another reboot ten years down the line, they will finally kiss in canon. Until then, I will fill in the blanks :'>

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the shipweek! Don't forget to leave a review~ (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[whipbogard]

do you have a bruharvey comic reading list ?

Lmfao I personally feel like every Harvey-centric comic is somewhat a BruHarvey comic if you squint 🤣🤣🤣🤣

This list is in no way exhaustive and I'm pretty sure I've missed out some very important stuff but nevertheless, this is what I could think off at the top of my head:

Disclaimer: I'm bad at continuity. And I won't call some of these excellent writing but they did give me all the delicious bruharv moments.

Batman - A Lonely Place of Dying - Some nice parallels between Batman and Two-Face were made in here when they're busy trying to outwit each other. This is mainly focused on Bruce's angst post-Jason's death and it is rather delicious for the angst-lover. And also origin story for Robin Tim.

Batman: Year One - That infamous scene where Batman hid under Harvey's desk. That's it. That's big reason enough for you to read it. (Harvey is also exceptionally hansum in here. Will always be one of my fav Harveys).

Two-Face: Year One - Chummy college days, Bruce hanging out at Harvey's office late and night and also the one where 2F didn't listen to the coin and spared Bruce's life :^)

Batman: Eye of the Beholder - The one where Jim introduced Harvey to Batman and then they started hanging out together and left Jim out. JK JK JK LOL but it sure felt like that 🤣 In all honesty though, this is one of--if not--the best Harvey story out there so please read it anyway!!!!

Batman: Face The Face - This takes place sometime after Batman: Hush (where if you recall, Harvey betrayed Tommy to save Bruce's ass uwu). Harvey is somewhat "cured" now that his face is fixed. He go about protecting Gotham in Bruce's absence. And oh, Harvey recalling the 30 days whirlwind of a romance with Bruce where they trained together and also went for dinner dates and movies (I KID YOU NOT)---and obviously got 2F very upset LOL.

All-Star Batman: My Own Worst Enemy - The one where Bruce and Harvey went on a cross-country trip while being handcuffed together. Also a look into their childhood together at that very weird school lol

Batman and Robin #24 - #28 (The Big Burn) - This is 2F's origin story for current continuity. The one where Harvey called Bruce a Prince (while looking at his own reflection on a knight armour) and Bruce called Harvey "dummy" affectionately. Also here we learn that Harvey had known that Bruce is Batman since forever and has been protecting that secret from 2F.

Detective Comics #989 - #993 (Deface The Face) - My beloved Gotham Justice Triumvirate reuniting and working together!!!! The ending to this arc truly fulfilled my love for that chasing game between a hero and a villain tbh uwu

Detective Comics #1020 - #1024 (Ugly Heart & Prelude to Joker War) - It started out weird enough with 2F having a cult of some sort and having real weird erotic ritual involving the coin (lbr you know I'd join this cult in a heartbeat LOL). Again, this arc emphasized on Harvey's struggles to protect Bruce and his identity from 2F. And Harvey teaming up with Bruce to beat Joker's talons!!!!! It ended with 2F being suppressed and a somewhat "reformed" Harvey in Blackgate being visited by Matches. I like this arc for a lot of shippy reasons lmfao ("Promises, promises" hehe)

Detective Comics #1062 - present - The current craze. An excellently written Harvey by Ram V and Simon Spurrier. I look forward to where this is heading! (As of now, seems like Harvey has stopped making an appearance but I sure hope he'll come back again!!!)

ADDITIONAL MENTIONS

The Doom That Came to Gotham - This is a depressing Elseworlds story with Lovecraft elements but the BruHarvey in here is absolutely golden and even more so in the movie version.

Batman 1989 Newspaper Comics - I have yet to go through this tbh but there are a lot of good bruharv moments in here and thIS ONE RIGHT HERE I s2G GETS ME ALL THE TIME

THAT IS ALL!!! Thanks for asking me this because now I have a proper record to refer to since I'm so bad with arc names and issues etc 🤣

[kilowogcore]

Heya poozers, it's time fer Kilowog's pick a' the week! This is where I pick the best comic I read this week and give ya' a non-spoiler review of it. Keep in mind I really only read DC comics. I want to read more, but I ain't got the time. This week was another tough one, because Batman's arc finale was amazin' and actually made me love Batman, which ain't easy ta' do, but ultimately I had ta' go a different direction.

Kilowog's Pick: John Constantine: Hellblazer: Dead in America Vol. 1 #6 by Simon Spurrier, Aaron Campbell, Jordie Bellaire, Steve Wands, Matthew Levine, and Chris Conroy.

This whole series has been fantastic, with Simon Spurrier showin' he can write horror an' Aaron Campbell showin' he can illustrate it, but this issue really took the cake fer me.

They play around with metacommentary an' fourth wall breakin'. That's something we see all the time from people like Deadpool an' Harley Quinn, or from writers like Alan Moore an' Grant Morrison, but when they do it it's makin' big serious points, or else bein' silly an' goofy.

This is about horror. It's a horror comic. A twisted tale a' obsession with story an' obsession with makin' story perfect, the madness of bein' able ta' change things narratively, an' some fantastic art that takes full advantage of the comics medium to show the fourth-wall-breakin' an' reality-warpin' powers at play.

Yeah, any time there's a fourth wall break comic it's kinda whimsical, but whimsy can turn ta' horror easily under the hand of a good writer, an' Simon Spurrier is a good writer.

The issue ties in with the larger plot of this series, but the metacommentary stands alone an' I think it'd be enjoyable even fer people who ain't readin' the rest of it.

An that's my pick a' the week!

[heckcareoxytwit]

A preview of Uncanny Spider-Man #4

UNCANNY SPIDER-MAN #4

SPIDER-MAN’S A MUTANT! Okay, not that Spider-Man, but we got your attention, eh? Orchis’ Stark Sentinels are wreaking havoc across Peter Parker’s home turf, and it’s not just mutants in the crosshairs now. But while Peter and Kurt thwip and bamf their way around the murderous machines, another set of eyes watches from the shadows. Secrets will be revealed in this penultimate issue!

Written by: Simon Spurrier Art by: Lee Garbett, Matt Milla Cover by: Tony S. Daniel, Yen Nitro Page Count: 28 Pages Release Date: November 22, 2023

[constantineshots]

Hey, what is your top 10 hellblazer issue?

TOP TEN HUH.

well, i wouldn’t put them in order, nor do I remember issue numbers off the top of my head. more specifically moments. it’ll be under the read more for a long, long post. some trigger warnings for abuse.

i like the first issue for nostalgia and the way it manages to show us john constantine as a character, and somewhat to outsiders. we see him as a human . . . and then his descent into what he see him doing every day because he’s a bit silly (racists are scared of him, for example, but that doesn’t really have to do with the magical aspect of john and more of his political one). it shows us who he is without necessarily delving too deeply into the world of magic, even if it’s just a glimpse.

another that really tickles my brain is technically a couple, but the specifics of newcastle. throughout hellblazer, it’s very much up in the air what actually happened and we only know the end results, because no one talks about it. however, while it is early on in the series, we get to learn about why this affects john as much as it does, and afterwards, how most of it was just pinned on john because of course the police don’t know much about the magical world. i think my favorite aspect is how, when we see him in ravenscar, magic is more of an ‘addiction’ of his as opposed to being a tool. yet he’s in there because they think he’s “loony” as it’s put then, but that’s a separate issue. count that one in this list of ten too, i think.

okay. i know. this one’s less traumatic and technically isn’t part of the original 300 of hellblazer. but. i thought the unicorn thing was actually hilarious. though honestly, i think since the original run ( and let’s be honest, even among some of the writers for the original ), simon spurrier is up there with some of the best hellblazer authors. BUT. i thought the pretty unicorn murdering people and shit was kind of amusing. sorry. i loved it.

another one of my favorites is the one where john is,,, so there’s this lesbian couple that wants to get pregnant. and one of them decides to essentially flirt with john and try to get him to sleep with her, and of course, it turns out with john being like “you could have just asked.” and it puts into perspective a lot of the things that he deals with, the ways people treat him. the things he faces. it’s a lot to take in. and the whole thing about wanting someone to hold you so you feel less alone….

tumblr is fucking with my spacing. how cruel. sorry for the squished lines </3

but anyways, onto number seven i think. personally, i really like the one where he broke ho with kit, and it’s because of two reasons: one, because it shows kit. i love her! but what i mean is that she is a take no shit kind of girl, and while she’d already explained this, it really shows it. people have said “oh fuck you john” and yada yada and end up back in his life again (no shade, chas). kit? she said “john, if you get magic into my home, i’m OUT.” and she fucking meant it too. she got attacked (and she handled it! love that for her) and then kept that boundary. i love her for being a strong character- not physically, necessarily, but keeping her boundaries, too. and also, it shows us what john is like when he’s losing something he really cares about. he acts like a cornered animal. he shouts and tries to say shit that will hurt you (like calling kit cold) because he’s scared. while we already knew this, it’s a very big throw in your face moment about how much of a piece of shit john can be, especially because this was a long-term relationship. and then, of course, he ends up depressed and homeless and doing his best to drink away his problems.

and i know this is going to sound horrible, but the one where john is like. literally discussing how he pretty much made his father sick with a spell and a dead cat (if i recall correctly) because of all the shit that his dad did to him and how he was treated. to me, it made sense. he found a way to defend himself. magic was that outlet of his own protection, his own defense, a way to try little by little to keep himself safe. really connected to me in a way- growing up, i had an abusive parent, and i could understand why he did what he did, because i wouldn’t have done any different.

AND THERE’S THIS ONE WHERE. john makes a statement about not trusting priests because of the fact that one attempted to assault him, but there’s a story where john is going through that story, and john sees the priest again. he has a panic attack first and foremost, and i think, to me, it’s one of the very first depictions of a mental health struggle. not necessarily in hellblazer- mainly because this is a story that handles a lot of hard topics and, depending on the writer, it’s done rather well- but in comics overall. it also shows that yes, priests can be villains too and take advantage of people, and that was a rather controversial topic during that time period. hell, it’s even controversial now, and we have stories of it happening all the time.

and ten. honestly, picking these was a bit difficult because i love a lot of hellblazer, but here we are. i, personally, enjoy mike carey’s run a lot (i LOVE lucifer. so i already knew i was in for it.) the arc where we’re seeing how much john cares for his sister and that he’s literally going to hell (okay maybe this isn’t that impressive because he’s always there) to get her back. with nergal! the fucking asswipe! but it also focused a lot on tony being very religious, and gemma, and how affected everyone was. gemma wanting to be like john and john shooting her down. there’s a lot to handle- like john’s…. children… that came about from odd circumstances…. maybe i’m biased here. ANYWAYS. good fun!

but i despise. and i mean DESPISE. anything after 250. i will never touch it again. i barely got through it the first time. again. DO NOT READ. ANYTHING PAST 250.

and i hated the original justice league dark run. probably because of milligan. fucking hate that guy. but regardless. you asked for hellblazer issues. technically some of these are arcs. BUT HEY! here you are :D

[fezwearingjellybananas]

Hi! Hope you are well! I am not really familiar with comics as a show fan and I know you are, could you "rec" some issues/runs of The Flash as a starting point? I really love Barry & Iris and would love to read their comics dynamic. Have a nice day!

Thank you, I hope you have a nice day too!

I have read a few comics but not all of them, so there are more people who know a lot more than me, but I will give it a whirl.

I think as a general starting point for Flash comics in general, I'd probably recommend The Flash: 80 Years of the Fastest Man Alive. It's one of several books DC released as an anniversary thing (I also have Green Arrow: 80 Years of the Emerald Archer), and it has in it a selection of comics, so it has Jay's first appearance, it has Showcase #4 which is Barry's first appearance, it has Wally's (as Kid Flash), it sort of has Bart except it's the back of his head (my one note is Bart is quite neglected in this book), as well as a handful of others picked from the Flash runs of the three of them (my icon is actually from this book), and commentary by various writers so it gives you an overview and lets you read a little bit then decide which you'd like to read.

Carmine Infantio wrote the original Flash run with Barry, DC also released a 4 book Silver Age omnibus (I like books), that gives you the starting point of Barry's story. This is being written in the 50s and 60s, there are going to be things that are dated as with reading anything from a while ago, I suspect in 50 years people will be saying the same thing about what we're writing now, but I do have such a soft spot for the Silver Age. If you're specifically looking for Barry and Iris they are introduced here as already together before Barry gets his powers, and I quite like that they never go the love triangle with the secret identity route here, Iris knows the Flash through work kind of, but she's not really interested, she's got Barry. Also she can fly a plane.

I haven't read enough of Cary Bates' Flash run to know yet, only a few bits here and there, but this is getting into Iris and Barry are married, this is probably worth looking up, I do keep meaning to

Crisis on Infinite Earths doesn't have Iris in it, but it is an important story for Barry, and I quite like it. I am still upset about how many pages there are between Barry dying and anyone outright saying they're going looking for him.

Geoff Johns' Flash: Rebirth is also probably not a bad place to start for Barry, this is a comic set after Barry's been brought back to life, his history has changed, there are all these people who he doesn't really know, it's him trying to find his feet into being alive again. And also Eobard Thawne is here to Cause Problems On Purpose. I don't like all of Geoff Johns' comics, but this one is good.

Flashpoint is again apparently a majorly important comic in Flash mythos. I might try reading it again, I last read it a few years ago, but honestly I'm not a huge fan of Flashpoint.

Skip New 52 if you're looking for Barry and Iris. There are a few parts of New 52 that I like, but Barry and Iris aren't dating in New 52 (Barry dates Patty Spivot) and it's New 52, you can skip it. Though if you've watched the show, maybe Out of Time (Robert Venditti ect, it's Volume 6 in the TPs, which is #30-35, Annual #3, and The Flash Futures End #1), that's the arc with the Future Flash.

I love Joshua Williamson's Flash run, I am sure I have said so many times, I would definitely recommend that one, and again, this is post a soft reboot DC did after New 52 kind of flopped, so it's probably not a bad place to start either.

Jeremy Adams' Flash run was Wally based so had some fun moments but probably not what you're looking for, and Si Spurrier I have the first TP next to me to read once I've finished reading Blackest Night, I'll have to get back to you on that one.

As one-off comics rather than getting into the whole thing, there's United They Fall (Gail Simone), it's an Elseworlds but because it's just one comic rather than continuing on from something started in 1956 it might be good to try if you haven't read comics before just to see if you like reading them? I also enjoyed New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke, that's not exclusively Barry and Iris but they do feature, and again it's set in its own timeline rather than main continuity so it can be read as a stand-alone comic (also it features a very cute kid Hal Jordan and has made me feel very strongly that Hal Jordan should have been allowed to join NASA)

I think in general comics have been going for a really long time and there are a lot of them so at first glance they can seem daunting to get into, but also, there's so many of them it would be frankly unreasonable for people to expect you to read every single one ever. I think the best way to start is probably to pick a writer, any of them, and start at the beginning of their run. They will build on things that have happened before (even Barry's original Flash run brings up things that happened in Jay's Golden Age comics), they will have characters show up who maybe you don't know but they'll treat them like this is a character everyone's already familiar with, and there's the bits that editorial wanted this to happen for that event or didn't want that to happen for reasons so they had to work with that, but overall I think each author is going to have a story that they want to tell and those individual stories are going to be much more contained within their own comic runs, so you can just go find a story you like, you don't need to read every single story ever.

I hope this is helpful and you find a comic you like!

[zahri-melitor]

Playing on Easy Mode:

More thoughts on titles and who has them, this time via writer rather than me playing with the titles, and using the known title changes due:

Chip Zdarsky – Batman, Nightwing

Ram V. – Detective Comics

Joshua Williamson – Superman, Batman & Robin

Tom Taylor – Nightwing, Titans, World’s Finest, Green Lantern

Phillip Kennedy Johnson – Action Comics, Green Lantern: War Journal

Simon Spurrier – the Flash, New Justice League Dark/Magic/Hellblazer book

Tom King – Wonder Woman, the Penguin

Tini Howard – Harley Quinn, Catwoman

G. Willow Wilson – Poison Ivy, Wonder Woman

Kelly Thompson – Birds of Prey

Jeremy Adams – Green Lantern, the Flash

Mark Waid – Shazam!, World’s Finest, Titans

Dan Mora – Shazam!

Geoff Johns – JSA (also Johns is leaving DC shortly)

Leah Williams – Power Girl

Josh Trujillo – Blue Beetle

James Tynion IV – The Joker: the Man Who Stopped Laughing (finishing next month), JSA

Matthew Rosenberg – WildC.A.T.S. (finishing next month), New Stormwatch/Checkmate/Suicide Squad

There’s also Brave and the Bold which is a straight anthology

Ignoring minis and maxis right now, that’s not a horrible spread. We’ve got 4 women with 5 titles between them (doing better than some other periods).

Playing on easy mode – allowed two reassignments without having to substitute, plus letting myself create two new titles for the two cancellations – I think I’m using this to straight out hand Wonder Woman to G. Willow Wilson and take her to two titles. I really want a woman on WW, and my other options are Howard, Thompson and Williams. I don’t want to shift Thompson from BoP until I get a better view of what she’s doing, I’m not sold on Howard as being the best choice of the four, and I have very little read on Leah Williams so far (apart from really disliking the pivot to ‘Paige’ ew)

I’m happy to leave Tom King on one title, given the spread of what everyone else has. In exchange please get DC to commission one of their fancy largely-out-of-continuity prestige maxis on *rolls dice* Maybe the Aquafam? They probably need some devoted love where King can dig in and do good work that nobody else will care about.

I still dunno who to give Nightwing to. God Dick just needs someone who loves him and who wants to write him with an edge for a while, but the options available are a mess. So gave him to Waid in that Waid won’t hurt him, though part of me is still interested in Spurrier, or even Trujillo (not that I think anyone would give Trujillo two titles and I want him on Blue Beetle) Reconsidered: putting Zdarsky on Nightwing to give me Dick & Tim & Barbara stories, I’m a genius. He probably needs to lose Batman then but I dunno who picks it up, wildcard bring someone in for it. I’m nominating Mariko Tamaki or Alyssa Wong. Alternatively give it to Kelly Thompson, I am going to increase the percentage of books written by non-men one title at a time.

[nfcomics]

FLASH no.7 • cover art • Mike Deodato Jr. [Mar 2024]

Jai West is going to try to rescue Max Mercury from the horrific remains of Timepoint, now a world overrun by time-gobbling monsters, and he's got surprising backup--the shadowy bubble gum-chewing figure who goes by the name Inspector Pilgrim!

(W) Simon Spurrier (A) Ramon Perez (CA) Mike Deodato Jr

[lucienne-thee-librarian]

Best and Worst sandman spinoffs 👀

Ooh okay, thanks!! Now I kind of feel awkward because in compiling this list I realize I might have to walk back what I said in that tag a little. I mean I did mention "obvious stuff like Overture and the Death comics" but putting all the stuff I think is good out there it really makes me realize how many good Sandman spinoffs and side issues there are. So...sorry if the Worst list is a lot shorter than the best *shrug*. I kinda wrote those tags without thinking too hard, and still bitter off reading the one thing that topped my Worst section. But if you just want whatever my opinions are anyway, then I figured why not?

So, in this list, I'm counting anything that isn't the original Sandman series that ended with the Wake as spinoff. That includes things written by the original author. This obviously contains spoilers for everything I'm gonna mention.

Best:

Sandman Overture (slight spoilers incoming): Obsessed with absolutely everything about this book. The story: immaculate and ties up a lot of loose ends about how our sad wet cat of an anthropomorphic personification got weakened enough to be imprisoned in the first place. Desire and Dream have to work together to literally save the cosmos and the group project goes off so well it makes their constant rivalry feel all the more tragic, because it shows what a massive cosmic goddamn waste it all was. What was it all for? What could they accomplish together if these characters were different enough to be capable of putting their pride and grudges aside more than once in a blue moon? What could their world look like? We find out the origin of Dream's Hope, a thing we thought we understood but this gives that moment a whole new meaning. And the art - good lord, sometimes I just like to stare at a panel, because every artist who worked on this comic apparently snapped and it is glorious.

Death: The Time of Your Life. I mean: this is a story written by the series original author and it shows. It has two dysfunctional lesbians at the center whose love for each other and their son still manages to be powerful enough to be the core of the story and catch the attention of an Endless. Also: Death is here and wonderful as always. And it's beautifully written and I'm never going to stop being weak over it. It means so much to me.

Endless Nights: again, written by the same author as Sandman and the illustrations in almost every section are either gorgeous or fucking haunting: and each one is a story where the other Endless get to shine. How can I not stan.

Death, the High Cost of Living: It features Death really heavily so right there...yeah. And the male protagonist, while he seems annoyingly broody at times, feels like a really realistically written teenager who's gone through some serious stuff in his life. I just love this story, it's short but wonderful.

Dream Hunters: this feels like a simple fairytale at first where Dream barely features at the end, but it sucks you in and the art style is unique and very well done. This book to me is proof that a story doesn't even need to be cosmic in scope to be a compelling tale that even still feels like one small story in that same world. It's not like, my favorite but I stand by what I said that it is a solid story with lovely art to bring it to life.

Worst:

Simon Spurrier's run of the Dreaming. If this is a favorite of yours, please just skip the bulleted sections lol, I'm sorry.

Honestly it's not all bad, some people hate it a LOT more than I do, but it just frustrates me so much. Because to me, it could easily have been salvaged, with heavy editing or some things being better fleshed out. In the end, it just SCREAMS wasted potential to me. It started off being decently written, and there were some not-terrible ideas in theory such as Dora's backstory, or the greatest threat to the realm of human dreams being an AI made up by someone who wants more control over the world and thinks he could run it better. In theory I even like the idea that Daniel makes some poor life choices and it causes consequences for his realm as he has to learn the responsibility of a ruler.

I like those elements in theory...but in execution?? God. It all felt SO half baked and several people (Lucien and Mervyn) got pulled pretty far out of character. And in the end, Daniel and Dora both left me utterly cold. I honestly feel like the writer couldn't make up his mind what he wants Daniel to be as a character, and Dora just...ehh. She was clearly meant to be sympathetic and there were moments I WANTED to sympathize: but idk, I just couldn't connect with her. She kind of had the vibe, to me, of someone's first OC they wrote when they were 13 who's bitchy in a kind of cringey #Girlboss way, but it's supposed to be charming solely because she has a tragic backstory.

Then you take the fact that the Walker clan gets brought back - and yet with no real resolution, no more than the Wake left?? This could've made the frankly baffling plot Rose got in Kindly Ones be the start of something more, maybe Desire's actions could have been given some purpose or explanation. But...nope.

Miranda Walker is half Endless yet she manages to die of cancer - even if she was half human, I find it a little difficult to believe that she would be able to die the exact same way a normal human would given what we know of Orpheus' fate in the original series. She's in pain but it doesn't feel like there's any real struggle in the end. But that's a pretty minor nitpick...my real beef is, she gets next to no lines and nothing to do, she contributes nothing to the plot. We learn little to nothing of her relationships with Rose and Jed, or Ivy. This woman is the child of Desire and I have ALWAYS thought she deserved to be more fleshed out. But we get even less than Neil Gaiman ever gave us, her character is quietly poofed out of things without so much as a whimper, and we never learn anything more about who she was. Jed fares little better, I don't think he even appeared.

Rose does get more to do, thank God. But in the end she gets no resolution, even a tragic one, no answers, she isn't allowed to grow. She even gets to interact with her grandfather but the possibilities for serious drama and tragedy dealing with the fallout of that are all swept to the side in favor of plot drama from characters like Dora Daniel and Ivy, who...existed, I guess.

If you're wondering why I'm not talking about Waking Hours, Kiernan's Dreaming or the Season of Mists manga at all, its simple: I haven't actually read any of them all the way through. I've only seen some panels of the manga in passing online and the descriptions of the premises. I REALLY want to see if I can get my hands on copies or find them online and read them for myself. I've heard that the Season of Mists manga and Kiernan's Dreaming are kind of cracked out and weird, but that only feeds my curiosity tbh. I've also heard Waking Hours is good.

Sorry this list was so incomplete, but thanks!! I appreciate the chance to ramble lol

[thenightling]

The Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country: Glass House issue 3 Review:

I just read The Nightmare Country: The Glass House issue 3. I still occasionally mess up the title because there is a Witcher comic called House of Glass. Anyway, it's just kind of... unpleasant. I try to force myself to read it but I'm not enjoying it. It's not as bad as the first Nightmare Country but it's not a nice story. It's decidedly unpleasant. It has that edgy 90s style that got boring by 1998. The Corinthian is the only semi-likable character and that's saying something. That was sort of my problem with The House of Whispers back in 2018. The House of Whispers wasn't terrible but that one was kind of boring where the only points of interest were Anansi (the Spider trickster God) and The Corinthian and how The Corinthian handled those abusive parents. The portrayal of Lucien is just awful. Not only is it flat but the character "Voices" don't feel right. Though The Corinthian is enjoyable his language, his use of words, it doesn't match any previous version of the character. It's very articulate but it doesn't feel like there's a personality in the dialogue. Everyone talks the same. That was a complaint I had back when Caitlin R. Kiernan was writing The Dreaming (1996-2002). Except with her everyone spoke like a cheap 80s action movie character, tossing around the the f word and trying to sound edgy. They don't do that here. In here The Corinthian is relatively well spoken but no one has a truly unique voice, a individual's way of talking. Every character should have their own "voice" a chosen vocabulary, or style of speaking and I'm not seeing that here. It's hard to get into the story when everyone talks exactly the same way except Lucien who... comes off like a self-righteous jerk. It's a bit like Simon Spurrier's version of Lucien in The Dreaming (2018) but not really Lucien of The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Lucien pretty much shows up just to tell The Corinthian that he asked Daniel what he do if The Corinthian steps out of line and Daniel apparently said he'd unmake him. That's great, you conspire to unmake the only character actually doing anything in this story. Thank you for being completely useless, Lucien. The Corinthian and Lucien both bring up some very good points. The dead girl whose ghost is now residing in the form of a cat (I couldn't be bothered to remember her name) The Corinthian tells Lucien "Did you know she doesn't even like cats?" and Lucien says something to the effect of "The Dream Lord would not have turned her into a cat if she didn't like cats." This does make a valid point. I know Daniel is different than Morpheus but Daniel does share a lot of his traits and memories and Morpheus would never create a raven from someone unless he knew that person would prefer to be a raven than the mortal they had been.

It feels like DC shamelessly tried to make an expansive story out of something that didn't really need or deserve it, such as bringing Thessaly in after the events of Dead Boy Detectives as if to go "See, i is a shared universe!" Yeah, that only works if the stories being connected are... you know... good... This is better than The Corinthian: Nightmare Country in regard to the pacing but it still has that ugly, sadistic, and weirdly dull "gritty" 90s comic book style. I don't know if I can continue reading it just to review it. It's that unpleasant for me. It's not the worst thing I've ever read but I have little reason to want to continue reading it.

[victorsandvanquishers]

The Unchained Promethean Heart

Fandom: DC Comics

Ships: Bart Allen/Kon El

Ratings: M

Warnings: cosmic horror, mental illness on 9000, Fourth World fuckery, love between a god and his mortal clonebabe, Metron cameos, the Linear Men are here, somebody's going to jail, gay people rearranging reality to their liking

Summary: As Bart and Kon embark on their new life together in Manchester, Alabama, Bart reminisces on his forced institutionalization and the ten million crimes against reality that got him to this point. What’s a case of anxiety-fueled unreality compared to the bright future ahead of them? Not a damn thing. After all, everything's fair game when you're a multiversal anomaly like Bart and Kon.

[post-House of Brainiac; bastardizes Simon Spurrier's The Flash; direct sequel to 'The Deification of One Bartholomew Henry Allen II' & 'In Dreams Until My Death, I Will Wander On'; written for 2024 BartKon Week (Heart & Bones Edition), Day 7 - People of Manchester, Alabama + Nightmares]

~~~

This was probably my most unhinged fic for the week. I figured since it was the last day, it was either go big or go home.

This fic heavily dissects the happenings of Young Justice #16, by Brian Michael Bendis. It will make more sense if you reread it. Feel free to also look up Jack Kirby's Fourth World concepts, as the story also incorporates a lot of his sci-fi horror. :'>

Hope y'all enjoyed 2024 BartKon Week! Thank you for celebrating with me, and don't forget to leave a review! ( •̀ .̫ •́ )✧

[milfzatannaz]

Out of curiosity, what did you think about Simon Spurrier's run on Constantine? I got half way through the first issue and felt like something was *off*

It’s good because it reintroduces what was missing in DC’s Constantine comics. Vulgarity, cursing, politics, wit, and it has very solid art.

I like it a lot but sometimes Spurrier seems to enjoy being really….harsh to John? I struggle with that as a reader. How much suffering is warranted for the character? They plopped him in 2019 after killing of Chas and the whole story is how he sucks and no one likes him. It doesn’t sit well with me sometimes.

[kilowogcore]

Back to the Silver Age: Wally West's Origins

With all the excitement goin' on in The Flash ongoin' series, I figgured I'd go back an' read The Flash #110 from January, 1960, which wuz the first appearance of Wally West, my favorite Flash!

Unlike Barry Allen, who's a cop an' kinda self-obsessed, Wally wuz always about helpin' others an' connections with family an' friends.

We first get introduced ta' him as the head of a local Flash fan club. Back in' the olden days before the internet kids had ta' get together in a physical location ta' do things like play Dungeons an' Dragons.

Before even Dungeons an' Dragons, though, they got together an' formed fan clubs fer celebrities! Nowadays a lotta our knowledge a' fandom an' the activities of these celebrities come from the efforts of these fan clubs, not ta' mention they provided lotsa young Boomers ta' scream their heads off fer people like Elvis Presley in a way that puts the most ardent Belieber or Swiftie ta' shame!

Seriously, go look at video a' live concerts from the 60s, an' remember that next time any Boomer complains 'bout "kids these days." They were way, way weirder an' less socially balanced than us.

Anyway, Wally's a Flash fan, so Barry secretly becomes the Flash ta' shake his hand, a nice thing ta' do fer the kid!

Then, as a treat, Flash shows Wally the exact set-up a' chemicals that gave him his powers! Y'know, as ya' do.

An' then he puts Wally right where he wuz standin' when the accident happens! Which seems, um, irresponsible? Like where are ya' goin' with this Barry, what if--

Oh, a freak lightning bolt out of a clear blue sky just hit Wally. Huh. I feel like this wuz predictable an' coulda been avoided by, y'know, not posing a child near dangerous chemicals.

Anyway, Wally's Kid Flash now. Barry gets him a little costume (a duplicate of Barry's, he wouldn't get the iconic yellow costume 'til later), an' like any responsible adult of 1960 tells Wally ta' stay put an' not use his phenomenal new powers until he gets back from work. Then Barry wanders off ta' go, I dunno, it's 1960, I assume as a cop in the midwest he's pointing hoses at civil rights leaders or something.

I know, I know, he's not a beat cop, he's in the forensics lab. So he'd only be supportin' the cops who hold the hoses, but c'mon, comedic license!

Anyway, Wally is of course not goin' ta' stay put, an' since he's a true hero he immediately goes off ta' help people! A disgruntled former employee let a bunch of animals out of their cages at the zoo. This bein' a 1960s zoo that wuz probably the best thing fer those animals, but ya' can't have half-starved lions an' bears roamin' the street, so Kid Flash deals with the cleanup real quick.

Barry, lookin' on, reflects how wonderful it is that he's not alone, an' that he now has someone else with his powers. Which, again, adds the whole unnecessarily detailed re-creation of his accident a rather sinister bent. Did Barry do all this deliberately?

(Spoiler, it would later come out that Barry caused the lightnin' bolt that gave him his powers, an' in Mark Waid's run it's speculated that Barry's subconscious desire caused the lightnin' bolt that gave Wally powers. So yes, Barry did all this, though perhaps not consciously.)

Honestly, fer such an important story, it's kinda by the numbers. There ain't much character development, stuff just kinda happens. But it wuz the first sidekick creation of a major hero in the Silver Age, an' it wuz chock full of the comic book super-science that DC editor Julius Schwartz loved so much. An' important piece a' comics history!

An' Wally is still my favorite Flash. Even if he's been sinisterly isolated an' maybe possessed by Reverse Flash? I dunno, I look forward ta' Simon Spurrier's next issue!

[dispatchdcu]

The Flash #7 Preview

The Flash #7 Preview #dccomics #comics #comicbooks #news #DCEU #dcuuniverse #art #info #NCBD #wallywest #Amazon #comicbooknews #previews #reviews #flash #theflash #scarletspeedster #speedforce #centralcity #flashfacts

The Flash #7 Preview: Jai West is going to try to rescue Max Mercury from the horrific remains of Timepoint, now a world overrun by time-gobbling monsters, and he’s got surprising backup—the shadowy bubble gum-chewing figure who goes by the name Inspector Pilgrim! Written by SIMON SPURRIER Art and cover by RAMON PEREZ Variant covers by MIKE DEODATO JR. and MATT TAYLOR $3.99 US | 32 pages |…

[gorogues]

Spoilers for comics in April!

These are from the official solicits for that month, which you can see at CBR.

The Black Label Rogues series continues that month, and Girder will appear in a Flash movie prequel comic.

ROGUES #2 Written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON Art by LEOMACS Cover by SAM WOLFE CONNELLY Variant cover by LEOMACS 1:25 variant cover by JORGE FORNÉS $6.99 US | 48 pages | 2 of 4 | Prestige Plus | 8 1/2" x 10 7/8" ON SALE 4/26/22 17+ You might think you know Gorilla City, but you don't. Not a soul who has gone looking for the secret kingdom has ever returned. You'd think the Rogues would know better than to go searching…but they either don't know or just don't care. The down-on-their-luck ex-cons are back together for the heist of a lifetime, but every time Captain Cold thinks he's got things all figured out, the rug is pulled out from under him. And even if they make it to Gorilla City alive, they have a version of Gorilla Grodd unlike anything you've ever seen waiting for them…Continuing this groundbreaking neo-noir take on some of the DCU's greatest villains!

The cover makes it difficult to figure out who’s going on the mission, assuming the lineup is actually representative of the story.  Len is obvious and so is Lisa (third from the left), but who are the others?  The guy in front might be a Mirror Master and maybe the guy with energy in his hand could be Weather Wizard or Kadabra, but that’s just spitballing.  And those appear to be Trickster pants on the second person.

Looks like Digger’s in for a rough time in the continuation of this Black Label series.

SUICIDE SQUAD: BLAZE #2 Written by SIMON SPURRIER Art and cover by AARON CAMPBELL Variant cover by QISTINA KHALIDAH $6.99 US | 48 pages | 2 of 3 | Prestige Plus | 8 ½" x 10 7/8" ON SALE 4/12/22 17+ The inmates who volunteered for the Blaze program are discovering fascinating things about their newfound powers���and about the best ways to torment their Suicide Squad watchdogs. Are they discovering anything about their core mission of stopping the cannibalistic metahuman who's terrorizing the planet and who, uh…might have just defeated Superman…? Well, slightly less so. But they're all going to be dead in three months. Or a lot less. Let them have fun, eh?

As you can see on the cover, Len appears in the New 52 omnibus.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW 52 OMNIBUS VOL. 2 Written by GEOFF JOHNS, PETER J. TOMASI, TOM KING, and others Art by JASON FABOK, IVAN REIS, and others Cover by JASON FABOK $150.00 US | 1,256 pages | 7 1/16" x 10 7/8" | Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-77951-558-2 ON SALE 6/21/22 One of the boldest eras in Justice League history continues in this massive collection, featuring the second half of superstar writer Geoff Johns's run on DC's premier super-team. Volume two collects the rest of Johns' Justice League issues plus the Forever Evil and Darkseid War story lines, all leading up to DC's Rebirth event.

I sure wasn’t expecting Girder in a movie prequel...

THE FLASH: THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #1 Written by KENNY PORTER Art by RICARDO LÓPEZ ORTIZ Cover by MAX FIUMARA Variant cover by ANDY MUSCHIETTI $5.99 US | 48 pages | Variant $6.99 US ON SALE 4/26/22 Race through the streets of Central City in this lead-up to the hotly anticipated blockbuster The Flash! After Barry's adventure with the Justice League, he's determined to become a truly skilled and inspirational hero. As a new threat emerges in Central City going by the name of Girder, Barry turns to Batman for advice on training to master his powers. Can the Dark Knight help show the Scarlet Speedster a way to defeat this metallic menace, or will the Flash be crushed by Girder's strength?

THE FLASH #781 Written by JEREMY ADAMS   Art by FERNANDO PASARIN and MATT RYAN Cover by BRANDON PETERSON and MICHAEL ATIYEH Variant cover by NIKOLA ČIŽMEŠIJA $3.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock) ON SALE 4/19/22 The Eclipso War left Wally West stopped dead in his tracks…but a brand-new villain has emerged to wreak havoc on the Scarlet Speedster! An exciting new story arc begins here!