#Steve Wacker

[pinkbelugacollective]

WELLS: Eventually, Impulse gave way to Kid Flash and Kid Flash, in turn, morphed into an adult Flash. Do you think those changes necessarily served Bart Allen well? WAID: Nah. Listen, Geoff Johns and I made our peace about this. I love Geoff. Geoff's one of my best friends, and Geoff is an incredibly talented writer and is the only writer alive who loves these characters as much as I do. And I don't blame him for paving over the Impulse identity. The shoehorning of Impulse into Kid Flash was, as I understand it, not his idea. It was a wrongheaded edict passed down by an editor that never got the character and has made it his mission to purge DC of anything even remotely fun and lighthearted. But even as Kid Flash, he was still largely recognizable as Bart. And then he became the Flash, and a more boneheaded move you couldn't have made with that character. Geoff and I fought against it, we fought like you wouldn't believe. Steve Wacker, who was slated to be the original editor, Geoff, me...we all fought the good fight, knowing beyond any shadow of a doubt that squeezing Bart into that costume would go against absolutely everything about that character. And we lost. We lost every step of the way. Ultimately, someone else's ego outweighed my opinion about what Bart would and wouldn't do, but that's how it often goes with corporate-owned heroes and is the price you pay dealing in them. Ask Keith Giffen sometime how many lectures he's had to endure about what Lobo "would and wouldn't do." So, in their infinite wisdom, DC Editorial made Bart The Flash, and that relaunch was one of the greatest critical failures in all of DC publishing history. WELLS: Really? WAID: In terms of sales they had on the first issue and the sales they posted by the fifth or sixth issues, it was just a crashing, crashing disaster. It was one of the most disastrous, embarrassing launches in DC history. And we were all " I'm not trying to sound all "I told you so," because it broke our hearts because we loved that character " but we warned them. We told them, "Don't do that, it won't work." Sure enough, six issues in, they realized they had a mess of a series they couldn't make work, no matter what. At that point, Dan DiDio called me up, a courtesy call, and said, "So we're going to kill Bart. I just thought I should let you know." My honest feeling at that point was like, "Dude, you killed Bart years ago." [mutual laughter] "That's so not Bart in that suit. I don't care. Everything in comics is cyclical. Bart'll be back eventually at some point anyway so, sure, go ahead and put the bullet through his head. I don't care." I figured Bart would be better off dead than misunderstood and mishandled.

Thinking about one of my favorite Mark Waid interviews of all time. Bro really said, my son is better off dead than misunderstood and mishandled 😂😂😂

[pan-nerd]

Alright, I'mma throw in my 2 cents about the Minecraft movie, cause the trailer really caused my low expectations to drop into the unfathomable, infinite pit of the unknowable universe.

First off, what the hell.

And second, WHAT THE HELL?!?!?

I am genuinely so disappointed that this is what they've decided to make with Minecraft's IP. Not only is it disrespectful to the fans, it's disrespectful to the very essence of the game!

The plot is so utterly stupid to me. Yeah, sure, I know they're probably gonna end up fighting the ender dragon so they can get the other piece to open the portal and go back home, but I honestly don't think the movie should have a plot about something stupid like that. Minecraft is a sandbox game where you have the freedom to do anything.

Bare basic plot for the Minecraft movie could literally be just 2 people living their peaceful (mostly) life until they die and have to restart with no knowledge of their previous life, hardcore style. A lot of people who play MC don't play to beat the Ender Dragon. They just wanna build, or pick flowers, or do redstone, or all of the above and then some!

But if you wanted to have a plot that involved defeating the ender dragon, here's how to do so:

Have Steve and Alex wake up, start building their home and surviving while coming across pieces of past civilizations (see Game Theory's MC videos for the lore bits), and realizing that there's a monster out there that they need to defeat! It would be a much more rewarding plot than what we currently have.

Moving on from the plot, the look of the MC world is absolutely horrendous. To tell you that I wanted to pause and throw my phone is an understatement. I wanted to throw my phone into a fire, watch it burn and then hack it into pieces with the weed wacker my ex step-dad used to try and kill my mom.

Honestly, It looks like they put the prompt "MC 'mob' in real life" into an ai image generator and used that. Also, it is so disconcerting to see live action people in the MC world. They should be blocky because it ruins the suspension of disbelief otherwise.

It is also so clear that they really thought that shoving A-list actors into this movie could make up for the travesty they have heaped upon us. I love Jack Black in his acting roles, but this is a disservice. Especially after he did a phenomenal job voicing Bowser in the Mario movie.

And what gets me is that there are great stories being told through the medium of Minecraft that are genuinely so much better than this shit show of a movie.

A few examples include:

MINECRAFT STORY MODE

Minecraft Diaries and My Street by Aphmau

Hermitcraft SMP

White Pine by IvoryTV

Any old Herobrine lore video

The adventure branch in Diversity 1

You get the picture. I know that unless this whole movie changes, I will not watch it. Minecraft was such a big part of mine and so many other people's childhoods and it deserves so much more respect than it's currently being given.

Warner Bro's, I genuinely despise you for making the decisions you have with this movie and I hope the Internet's outcry will make you change those horrible decisions you made.

[kilowogcore]

I wanna hear from ya'! Where's Zur-En-Arrh Batman's last secret account, an' why?

(Art sampled from "Batman" Vol. 3 #149 by Chip Zdarsky, Michele Bandini, Steve Lieber, Nick Filardi, Clayton Crowles, Ivan Cohen, and Katie Kubert, and from "Rann-Thanagar War" Vol. 1 #4 by Dave Gibbons, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Marc Campos, John Kalisz, Nick J. Napolitano, Peter Tomasi, Stephen Wacker, and Harvey Richards. Edits: Altered Second Panel Dialogue, Altered Second Panel Balloons.)

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 8.29

Beer Birthdays

Hathor (Egyptian Goddess of Drunkenness)

Charles H. Wacker (1856)

Rudolph J. Schaefer III (1930)

Brittany Evans; St. Pauli Girl 2006 (1975)

Jim Woods (1980)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Temple Grandin; animal welfare advocate (1947)

Lenny Henry; British comedian (1958)

Jean Auguste Ingres; artist (1780)

John Locke; English philosopher (1632)

Charlie Parker; jazz saxophonist (1920)

Famous Birthdays

Arthur Anderson; actor (1922)

Richard Attenborough; film director, actor (1923)

Lanny Barbie; porn actor (1981)

Bob Beamon; long jumper (1946)

Henry Bergh; ASPCA founder (1811)

Ingrid Bergman; actor (1915)

Richard "Mr." Blackwell; fashion critic (1922)

Aimé Bonpland; French botanist and explorer (1773)

Edward Carpenter; English anthologist and poet (1844)

Chris Copping; English singer-songwriter and guitarist (1945)

Rebecca DeMornay; actor (1959)

Todd English; chef (1960)

Werner Forssmann; German physician (1904)

William Friedkin; film director (1935)

James Glennon; cinematographer (1942)

Neil Gorsuch; judge (1967)

Elliot Gould; actor (1938)

Alex Griffin; English bass player (1971)

Carla Gugino; actor (1971)

Thom Gunn; English-American poet (1929)

Chris Hadfield; Canadian astronaut (1959)

Karen Hesse; author and poet (1952)

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.; writer, scientist (1809)

Michael Jackson; pop singer (1958)

Charles Kettering; inventor (1876)

Hiroki Kikuta; Japanese game designer (1962)

Robin Leach; television host (1941)

Betty Lynn; actress (1926)

Dave Malone; singer-songwriter and guitarist (1952)

John McCain; politician (1936)

Arthur B. McDonald; Canadian astrophysicist (1943)

Herbert Meier; Swiss author (1928)

Lea Michele, American actress and singer (1986)

Anton Newcombe; singer-songwriter and guitarist (1967)

Jimmy C. Newman; singer-songwriter and guitarist (1927)

Isabel Sanford; actress (1917)

Joel Schumacher; film director (1939)

Preston Sturges; film director (1898)

Barry Sullivan; actor (1912)

Wolfgang Suschitzky; Austrian-English cinematographer (1912)

Noah Syndergaard; baseball player (1992)

Dinah Washington; singer (1924)

Geoff Whitehorn; English singer-songwriter and guitarist (1951)

Stephen Wolfram; English-American physicist and mathematician (1959)

Steve Yarbrough; novelist (1956)

[douglasernst]

Marvel's Stephen Wacker weirdly claims victory over stated enemy — people who buy comics

Marvel’s Stephen Wacker weirdly claims victory over stated enemy — people who buy comics

Many years from now there will be business courses on Marvel Comics’ bizarre decision to demonize large swathes of its fanbase as a means of securing sales. Common sense tells objective observers that Marvel’s downward sales trajectory is tied to hostility towards the fans, and yet guys like Stephen Wacker, VP for Current Series and Development, continue to double and triple down on insulting…

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

Recent conversations have inspired me to make a big ass list of Marvel creators stances on the marriage.

 This isn’t definitive as it’s me going off memory.

 Bear in mind some of this is inferred from other stuff they’ve said and is more a representation of whether these people there is anything wrong with Spider-Man being married in general not necessarily their thoughts on the marriage as it actually played out.

 This isn’t a list of every Marvel creator ever, just the ones who to my recollection have expressed an opinion about whether being married was appropriate for Spider-Man in general.

 Half and Halfs

Steve Ditko: Co-creator of Spider-Man. According to Marv Wolfman in an interview published (but possibly not conducted) in 2004, when he spoke to Ditko decades ago Ditko felt it was a mistake for Spider-Man to have ever aged beyond high school. However bear in mind this comes from typed up notes of a one-to-one interview (presumably done face to face, but we do not know) and it is giving us someone’s recollections of what someone said decades ago about a character that that person had ceased working on at least 10-15 years beforehand. Hardly the benchmark of reliability.

 Gerry Conway: Author of the Death of Gwen Stacy who’s run also turned Harry Osborn into a villain, a frequently adapted plot point in other media. Has said it was a mistake because Spider-Man should never have aged beyond age 21. However he has had four runs in which Spider-Man has been 22 or above. Three of those have featured a married Spider-Man, the latest of which very deliberately so. Has also admitted that part of his apprehension regarding the marriage when he was writer was that he was dealing with his divorce at the time.

 Ron Frenz: Acclaimed artist and part of one of the most well received Spider-Man runs and Spider-Man spin-offs ever. Has stated that when he was doing Spider-Man in the 1980s he felt that if Peter was ever to marry he’d have to give up being Spider-Man. However has also done a whole run featuring a married Spider-Man as a supporting character where he shared a poignant quote about why the relationship is very interesting.

 Howard Mackie: Despite his early work being more positively received, is regarded as one of the worst Spider-man writers ever. Stated in the early 2000s that the marriage was too difficult to write. However in the 2010s stated that he saw the arguments from both sides.

 Roger Stern: Author of one of the most acclaimed Spider-Man runs ever. Stern has said Spider-Man is about youth which you would imagine means that he feels Spider-Man cannot work whilst married. However Stern has actually said that he feels Peter Parker could possibly get married, his problem was that it was with Mary Jane specifically (and that’s neither here nor there).

 David Michelinie: Author of a run with a mixed reception. Some people like it whilst others hate it. The run however included the introduction of popular villains Venom and Carnage as well as introduced the marriage itself via editorial mandate. He didn’t like the idea of writing a married Spider-Man when he got the job as ASM writer because the Spider-Man he knew had been a student. Bearing in mind that at the time Spider-Man hadn’t been a student for three or four years and had graduated from his college education and was undergoing studies for a Master degree before dropping out. Michelinie however has alternatively stated his apprehension was due to a lack of experience with romantic relationships and that in taking the assignment he endeavoured to write it as well as possible. In a 2007 publication he stated that he felt there was nothing wrong with Spider-Man being married because Spider-Man was about responsibility.

 Brian Michael Bendis: Acclaimed author of Ultimate Spider-Man which depicted a moderinization of teenage Spider-Man’s adventures, creator of one of the most popular Spider-Man spin-off characters Miles Morales. Well known for writing a teenage Spider-Man and stated that Spider-Man is supposed to be a kid instead of an old divorced guy. However he wrote Peter and MJ in his teen drama Spider-Man series as a pseudo married couple and even used such terminology more than once in-story in reference to their relationship. Has expressed a fondness for the Peter and MJ relationship.

 Danny Fingeroth: Author of a handful of Spider-Man stories with at best mixed receptions, at worst panned receptions. Instituted the infamous robot parents subplot with no clear direction in mind. Clashed with David Michelinie and led to his departure from the series.  Hasn’t ever come out and said it was a mistake for Spider-Man to be married or that Spider-Man shouldn’t ever be married but has stated that around the time of the Clone Saga there was the thought that being married made him too unrelatable. However other accounts have indicated that that was not the original genesis of the Clone Saga and that the original long term plan (which he was in on) was to eventually have Spider-Man become a father as well as husband (with the single Ben Reilly becoming a spin-off character).

 Mat Fraction: Acclaimed author. Wrote an Eisner nominated Spider-Man story specifically celebrating the marriage but also stated he was not certain if marriage was right for Spider-Man.

 Todd Dezago: Acclaimed author who cut his teeth on Spider-Man. Has never stated anything about the marriage one way or the other but learned to write comics during that era in the Spider-Man office.

 John Romita Junior: Acclaimed artist. Allegedly felt the marriage was wrong but I do not recall seeing or hearing him ever explicitly state this.

 John Romita Senior: Acclaimed artist, regarded as pseudo co-creator of Spider-Man because so much of his run helped to define Spider-Man. Co-creator of Kingpin, Rhino, Shocker and Mary Jane. Inker of the Death of Gwen Stacy. His depiction of Spider-Man became the in house style for Spider-Man and all of Marvel for several years. I forget, but I seem to recall he expressed mixed feelings about it as opposed to a clear cut opinion one way or another.

  Those against the marriage

Mark Waid: Eisner award winning writer. Has written one acclaimed Spider-Man story which is praised because it plays well upon classic tropes. Essentially his big claim to fame is writing a good paint by numbers Spider-man tale. His other Spider-Man works have included writing Spider-Man and Daredevil’s relationship in correctly by portraying Daredevil as disliking Spider-Man despite this egregiously contradicting older stories, and a story where Spider-Man was a mentally ill person with some form of split personality but when regular Peter Parker would routinely bully J. Jonah Jameson.

Dan Jurgens: Wrote 7 good issues of Spider-Man starring Ben Reilly as the titular character. Feels that Spider-Man is about suffering and that marriage is thus in appropriate.

Marv Wolfman: Wrote a good run of Spider-Man despite some characterization problems. Feels Spider-Man being in a relationship with someone too attractive like Mary Jane is wrong and that marriage is wrong because Spider-Man is about having the rug pulled out from under him and that being a high schooler was the true state of the character. Bear in mind he is also famous for agining Dick Grayson from Robin the Boy Wonder who was created to be Batman’s child sidekick into the distinctly adult Nightwing who at one point almost got married. He actually did this with multiple other teen character sidekicks who were part of a team called the TEEN Titans. It got to the point where the series name was changed to just Titans. So...seems a tad hypocritical no?

Kurt Busieck: Wrote a well received run on a series set in the Ditko run. Has never written a Spdier-Man story set in the modern day where Spider-Man is the main character with said story getting particularly good reviews. Began reading in the Gerry Conway/Ross Andru run

Steve Wacker: Has no formal writing experience whatsoever. Was editor of an era of Spider-Man where the title character deliberately withheld knowledge of his identity from one of his loyal friends and confidants whom he knew had romantic feelings for him all for the purposes of having mask sex with her in hotel rooms that they’d illegally broken into together. Did I mention this person was also an active criminal whom Spider-Man routinely let go? Also oversaw a story he personally expressed pride in that involved child cannibalism. And another storyline in which there was a strong implication of rape by deception.

Dan Slott: Wrote a story where Spider-Man acted as a paparazzi despite the character being fully aware of the dangers of invading someone’s privacy, since the previous year his identity was public knowledge. Most acclaimed Spider-Man work is Superior Spider-Man which is literally not about Peter Parker but another character. In the course of this story major plot points involved the lead character trying to rape an innocent woman, possibly succeeding in sexually violating Peter Parker himself, probably sexually violating a different innocent woman and playing the Green Goblin’s identity as a mystery before revealing it to be Norman Osborn all along, thus rendering it an entirely pointless mystery. Maintained the status quo of his acclaimed Superior storyline through objectively large plot contrivances such as the Avengers scanning his brain without bringing along anyone who could read the results.

Jim Shooter: EIC of one of Marvel’s most critically acclaimed and financially lucrative periods

Erik Larsen: An artist who wrote one vaguely well received Spider-Man issue. All his other Spider-Man writing work has been panned or rarely mentioned.

Terry Kavanagh: Regarded as one of, if not the, worst Spider-Man writer of all time, responsible for the critically panned FACADE storyline.

Joe Quesada: Wrote literally the two most critically panned Spider-Man stories of all time which character assassinated Peter Parker and Mary Jane.

John Byrne: Drew and wrote Spider-Man Chapter One, a critically panned rebooting of Spider-Man’s history from the acclaimed and iconic Ditko run. Wrote one critically panned (by those who remember) issue of Web of Spider-Man. Wrote 2 issues of the critically panned Gathering of Five/Final Chapter storyline. Has said that the acclaimed Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies were poor adaptations. Was responsible for the sickening scene wherein an underage teenage girl kissed the then-recently widowed and very much adult Peter Parker. Seems to think that by making Superman someone who doesn’t see himself as an alien at all, has never lost his parents and doesn’t pretend to be a mild mannered or bumbling fool as Clark Kent but rather an upright and confidant person didn’t change the character of Superman. Did I mention he regularly ships underage teenage girls with adult male characters?

Jordan D. White: Has only ever edited a few Deadpool projects which have involved Spider-Man.

Jason Aaron: Has written one well reviewed mini-seires involving Spider-Man and Wolverine, which is more of a Wolverine storyline

Bob Harras: Edited just one Spider-Man story. Was the extremely controversial editor of X-Men who’s actions were part of the reason well received X-Men writer Louise Simonson left the X-Men franchise, something her husband Walt Simonson has not forgiven him for to this day. Gave the editorial mandate to bring Aunt May back to life and undo the milestone and acclaimed Amazing Spider-Man #400. Also gave the editorial mandate to kill off the highly popular character of Mary Jane in order to end the marriage. The move was critically panned and even disagreed upon by Howard Mackie and John Byrne who wrote and drew the issue in question. The story took the series in a direction that greatly lowered sales and led to even more critical panning, indeed it was regarded as one of the worst eras of Spider-Man ever. EIC of DC and overseer of the critically panned and sales decreasing New 52 era which led to the DC Rebirth era as an antidote.

Bill Jemas: Co-plotted Ultimate Spider-Man #1-7. Is one of the most heavily criticized Marvel EIC’s ever. Sole writer of Marville one of the most panned Marvel stories of at least the 2000s.

Christopher Priest: Edited a strong era of Spider-Man and has written a few decent-great one shot Spider-Man stories including the acclaimed Spider-Man vs. Wolverine storyline. However he has also stated that the reason that Spider-Man shouldn’t be married is because it ruins the wish fulfilment factor of young boys who don’t want to be tied down. This is patently not true given the raw number of male Spider-Man fans who began reading during the marriage and the higher sales compared to the post-marriage stories. It also obviously doesn’t take into account female fans or fans identifying by something other than strictly male or female.

  Those in favour of the marriage

John Semper Junior: Showrunner of the 1994 Spider-Man cartoon which was at it’s time acclaimed and has gone on to influence other media adaptations.

Greg Weisman: Acclaimed writer who’s work includes Gargoyles, Star Wars: Rebels, Young Justice and the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, regarded as THE best adaptation of Spider-Man ever.

Tom DeFalco: Former Spider-Man editor during the acclaimed Roger Stern run. Former EIC of Marvel. Wrote one of the most popular and well received runs of the character in the 1980s. Went on to have 2 more runs in the 1990s and co-created possibly the most popular Spider-Man spin-off character ever in Spider-Girl who is the female marvel character with the longest unbroken run to date. Helped institute elements which have remained part of Spider-Man lore to this day including the iconic black costume. Author of at the time the most definitive Spider-man information book. Began reading Spider-Man in the early 1960s with Amazing Fantasy #15 itself.

Peter David: Acclaimed writer, who’s acclaimed comic work has included runs on X-Factor, one of the most popular Spider-Man spin-off characters (Spider-Man 2099) and a well recived run on Spectacular Spider-Man. He also penned one of the most acclaimed Spdier-Man stories of all time, the Death of Jean DeWolff.

Jim Salicrup: Editor of arguably the most financially successful period of Spider-Man ever, including Spider-Man #1 which sold in the millions.

J.M. DeMatteis: Has had 3 runs on Spider-Man, 2 of which were well received. These included the well received Spectacular Spider-Man #250, the acclaimed Harry Osborn Saga, the best Vulture story of all time and the acclaimed Amazing Spider-Man #400. He has also written the acclaimed Spider-Man: the Lost Years and Spider-Man Redepmtion as well as Kraven’s Last Hunt, regarded as one of the best Spdier-Man stories of all time, possibly the greatest. Many of his works are regarded as the height of literary fiction about Spider-Man.

J. Michael Straczynski: Critically acclaimed Emmy award winning writer, creator of Babylon 5, wrote the sometimes controversial sometimes acclaimed Amazing Spider-Man run, which included the relatively well received characters of Morlun and Ezekiel, the well received 9/11 issue of Spider-Man, the acclaimed direction of having Aunt May know Peter’s secret identity.

Tom Beland: Wrote the well received I (Heart) Marvel: Web of Romance

Todd Nauck: Well received artist of Spider-Man: the Clone Saga, Mr and Mrs Spider-Man.

Roberto Aguirre Sacasa: Acclaimed playright and writer of the well received Spider-Man stories, the Book of Peter, The Last Temptation of Eddie Brock and Sensational Spider-Man #32-34 which were character studies of Mary Jane, Aunt May and Black Cat.

Ryan Stegman: Acclaimed artist of Superior Spider-Man and Spider-Man Renew: Your Vows.

Stan Lee: Co-creator of Spider-Man who worked on the first 100 issues of the character. Also co-created other iconic comic book characters. His advocating of the marriage led to it happening.

[longerbox]

The “futz” thing is supposed to be cute but it’s not. Know what is? A character patently inspired by ‘70s Elliot Gould.

[goalieprotectionsquad]

just in case anyone wants to know how deep im going for this fic, i am reading the chicago tribune from july 5 1987 rn to see what’s up

[helpersofindie]

Hi Helpers! I have a sort of double ask here but it mostly is about the same fc; so I have Wolfgang Novogratz as the main fc and Steve Bacic as his father. My main problem is I am in need of a mother around the same age as Steve and a younger brother. The problem with the younger brother is that while look wise Asher Angel fits he’s Jewish and Wolfgang isn’t. I apologize for how jumbled this came out but I greatly appreciate your help! Thanks!

no need to apologize! for a mother i would suggest sarah parish (54), sandra bullock (58), famke janssen (58) or mariska hargitay (58). for the younger brother i could see wyatt oleff (19), ethan wacker (20), isaak presley (20), joshua bassett (21), josh bogert (22), dylan summerall (22), gavin casalegno (23) or belmont cameli (24). hope this helps you out, anon!

[juiceastronaut]

Okay so. I watched Q-force. And I have no idea what I think about it.

Imma just be rambling so I'll break down the characters and my likes/dislikes about them before giving my plot breakdown at the end. Only the main/prominent ones because I don't have time.

Steve Maryweather-Easily the best character out of them, with Deb being a close second. He could've very easily fallen into the trope of being someone who was incompetent but expected the world anyway, but he doesn't. He graduated top of his class, and despite his quirks is a genuinely competent team leader, and wants the best for his team. He wants to prove that he and his team are competent enough to get recognition, and has a genuine faith in the people around him. It was refreshing to see him hold his team in a genuine high regard, where a lot of times it's like "We're shit but lets do this thing now" He's a genuinely well-rounded character, and (and forgive me if this isn't the best way to frame this) it feels like being gay is an important part of his character, without encompassing the whole thing. I thought Benji and his relationship was super cute and I was sad when they broke up. I was afraid he was going to be, like a second but worse Twink with the stereotyping but gladly fell away from that.

Deb-I thought her and her wife were super cute (though I hate how the wife is designed ngl adjafkldajfd). I liked Debs character, but I feel like she had a lot of racial stereotyping that wouldn't be inherently obvious unless you were looking for them, her being the strong one, and also the "mama" type at the same time. No one treated her with disrespect, and her lesbianism seemed to be more authentic but I feel like there wasn't a lot of thought put into what these tropes were and why they were bad. Her being black and making her the mama type, as well as the big strong type could be read as tasteless. Again, I really liked her character but these were some things I noticed while watching.

Twink- You know, I didn't really like him at first, I thought he was the epitome of all the bad stereotyping (though I'm just glad him and Mary didn't get put into the same category). His humor isn't my taste, and it just kinda seemed like someone for half of his lines went "what twitter stan language can we put in here?" And sometimes it was a bit too random for my tastes. However! I do like that his drag was considered important and was an integral part to a lot of missions they went on, and not just "Ah look at that dumb gay trying to find reasons to dress in drag." His talents and expertise were both respected and, save for Buck (which his whole point was supposed to be offensive anyway) no one undermined Twink for his femininity. His back story is also kinda random but did play a role in the missions as well. Still, personally think he's the worst character. Plus, he's French so minus four-twenties amount of points.

Stat-You know, in a show where everyone was stating what letter they were every few seconds I was surprised that I had to look up that Stat was trans. I...liked her character for the most part, except the part where she was fucking a robot. Kinda weird ngl, outta left field, and with her being trans I wonder if her having that sort of relationship is problematic for her. Love her design tho, love me a hacker girl. She's also listed as "ambiguously gay" tho showed to have mostly girl love interests but, okay.

Buck-He's the straight guy, emotionally repressed haha and he's bigoted. Did think it was funny later on when he was more "accepting" but managed to be even more infuriating about it. Tied with Twink as worse character but you know they tried to do stuff with him.

Vee-Really liked me a boss lady, but kinda weird how they bait-and-switched us with her actually being a lesbian, then go "no she's straight tho" in regards to Karen. I thought her and Mary's relationship was cute, wish I saw more of it. But she did feel like a random plot device in later seasons, what with her disappearing and reappearing when it was plot relevant. (Tho she HOTOHOTHOTHOT bikini episode WOOOWEEEE)

....

Okay, so now the plot....which. it had one?

It felt like it was flip flopping back n forth about whether it wanted to take itself seriously or not, and it seemed to decide on serious more towards the end, but then it would have this random plot element that would be so out of left field it would pull me out of my suspension of disbelief. See the whole "Back cracking to unlock memories" plot point. This back and forth on whether it would be a comedy or not I think weakened both categories it tried to play into.

If I had to compare the show to anything it would probably be Futurama, but the thing with Futurma is, its set in the future, so you're suspension of disbelief is allowed to stretch a bit more because all the wacky quirky stuff can be attributed to future shenanigans. Q-force, to my knowledge, is set in the modern day, which makes the wacky stuff that much wacker, because it's set in our modern times, which you apply the rules of everyday life to.

A lot of the problems that I had with Q-Force is, in the attempt to write specifically about the "gay experience" revealed that the writers have really only had a very specific experience of interacting with gay ppl, what I call the "Urban Gay" experience.

The fact they're in West Hollywood, and all the things that were listed as "universal gay experiences" but were only things that you'd be exposed to if you were in the city. I think a flavor of "white gay" can be implemented here too, which Q force has exactly one black woman, who manages to be the only lesbian.

That coupled with the fact that, there's a difference between having Twink naturally being a drag queen, the whole team being gay to some degree, and the fact they interact with the gay community often without Drawing Attention to all of those things and self-congratulating itself on concluding it. Funnily enough, Q-Force had examples of doing this right and doing this right. Right way: In the second or third episode where Mary found that guy with the flash drive to the uranium in it and seduced him in the gay bar. Relevant that it was gay without overtly drawing attention to it. Wrong-Way: Having Pride go on while Girl Boss was trying to take over the world.

And, for the show that promoted itself as representing the gay experience, there were...two gay men, one lesbian, one trans person, one straight guy and...no bisexual people. Also no nonbinary people. Like of course it's unrealistic to include every single identity but you're one bisexual person who appeared for one episode and was promptly blown up. And also showed to be...more off than the other characters, what with the stealing of silverware and all. Just, bisexual people are already forgotten enough as it is and not including them in the show, but you include two gay men just kinda reads as tasteless to me (as a bisexual person, obviously).

Which makes it so weird that Stat was left "ambiguously gay" when she could've easily been bisexual (which still would be problematic because of the robot-fucking but at least you got the B in there somewhere in the main group)

Overall, it tried to market itself as the "be all end all" of what it was like to be gay, but ended up excluding the exact people that get excluded in real-life lgbt spaces. This combined with the indecision with what kind of show it wanted to be managed to make it fall short. If you arent the very specific type of gay person who lives in a city environment and doesn't fit the stereotypes showed you're not going to feel "seen" by the show.

Weirdly though, I didn't hate watching it, and I would probably watch another season if they managed to make one. The parts that did work, I think worked really well, and even the bad parts just read as tasteless, and not actively terrible. If they focused less on making "hey I'm gay" jokes every three seconds and just let each character be what they are I think the show would be stronger for it. And I think they'd find less problems overall if they did that too. In the mean time I'll just be here side-eyeing the whole thing.

Edit: I forgot to mention, and this is a problem a lot of adult TV shows fall into, that because they got the clear to show nudity/sex they felt like they *had* to show nudity and to a lesser extent sex every episode. So just that whole "Haha adult=sex obviously."

Oh! And this generally goes for the whole "shove it in your face" part, but a lot of the characters who are bigoted were shown to be. Very blatantly so. And not to say there isn't blatantly bigoted ppl of course they are but I don't think that's where you see a lot of bigotry nowadays. This was sort of touched on during the show but more of a jokey manner, but I think it would've been more realistic if we had more "girl with a gay best friend" kinda bigotry as opposed to the "I'm literally hurling slurs at you" bigotry, especially since they're in Cali.

[the-overanalyzer]

52 from 52 - #13

No Funny Title, This Shit Is Creepy As Hell

Remember what I said a couple days ago about Cassie’s low point? Well, it doesn’t get much lower than cuddling a wicker effigy of your murdered wife on the floor of a burning warehouse after the occultist ritual to raise her from the dead went awry. 

Fun fact: Mark Waid was very proud of how tremendously creepy editor Steve Wacker found Wicker Sue Dibny.

[rabbitcruiser]

Jewelers’ Building and NBC Tower, Chicago

35 East Wacker, also known as the Jewelers' Building, is a 40-story 159.4 m (523 ft) historic building in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, located at the intersection of Wabash Avenue and E. Wacker Dr., facing the Chicago River. It was built from 1925 to 1927, and was co-designed by Joachim G. Giaver and Frederick P. Dinkelberg. It was once considered to be the tallest building in the world outside New York City. Formerly the Pure Oil Building and North American Life Insurance Building, 35 East Wacker was listed in 1978 as a contributing property to the Michigan–Wacker Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, and was designated a Chicago Landmark on February 9, 1994. 

For its first 14 years, the building had a car lift that served the first 23 floors and facilitated safe transfers for jewelry merchants. Currently, the French-American Chamber of Commerce in Chicago is a tenant, and the showroom of architect Helmut Jahn was atop the building inside the dome, which was also once a restaurant  called the Stratosphere Club, often erroneously said to be run by Al Capone. (In reality, the Stratosphere Club opened in 1937, long after Capone was imprisoned and too late for the building to have been an illegal speakeasy).  The building is currently being renovated, by Goettsch Partners, and the facade is being maintained, but the interiors converted into a more modern configuration.  Both the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the City of Chicago have recognized the renovation project with awards.

Source: Wikipedia

The NBC Tower is an office tower on the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois located at 454 North Columbus Drive (455 North Cityfront Plaza is also used as a vanity address for the building) in downtown Chicago's Magnificent Mile area. Completed in 1989, the 37-story building reaches a height of 627 feet (191 m). NBC's Chicago offices, studios, and owned-and-operated station WMAQ-TV are located here as of 1989 and on October 1, 1989, WMAQ-TV broadcast their first newscast at 10:00 that evening at their new home, NBC Tower with the then-weeknight news team of Ron Magers, Carol Marin, John Coleman, and Mark Giangreco. Later, Telemundo O&O WSNS-TV since their 2002 purchase by NBC. Formerly its former radio sister WMAQ/WSCR was located here. The studios of NBC's former Chicago FM property, WKQX and its sister station WLUP are located in the NBC Tower. 

The design, by Adrian D. Smith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is considered one of the finest reproductions of the Art Deco style. It was inspired by 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, which is NBC's global headquarters. The tower is further enhanced by the use of limestone piers and recessed tinted glass with granite spandrels. The building takes additional cues from the nearby landmark Tribune Tower with the use of flying buttresses. A 130 ft (40 m) broadcast tower and spire tops the skyscraper. WMAQ and WSNS have STL and satellite facilities on the roof; the STLs link to WMAQ and WSNS's transmitter facilities atop the Willis Tower. WMAQ radio/WSCR studios and STL were located in the building until 2006 when they relocated to Two Prudential Plaza.

Located in the Cityfront Plaza area, the building contains 850,000 sq ft (79,000 m2) of space and three floors of underground parking with 261 spaces. Connected to the main tower is a four-story radio and television broadcasting facility where popular shows such as Judge Mathis and WSNS's newscasts and WMAQ's newscasts are currently taped, and was the former recording facility for The Jerry Springer Show and The Steve Wilkos Show before their tax credit-influenced move to Stamford, Connecticut in 2009. It was also home to the 1990s syndicated improv/sketch show Kwik Witz, The Jenny Jones Show until its cancellation in 2003, and Steve Harvey until their move to Los Angeles in 2017. 

Source: Wikipedia

[shadowwingtronix]

"Yesterday's" Comic> Green Lantern: Rebirth #1

BW's "Yesterday's" Comic> Green Lantern: Rebirth #1

“Just change the darn light bulb! Our arms are getting tired!”

Green Lantern: Rebirth #1

DC Comics (2014? the “DC Comics Essentials” version on comiXology version is “chapter 1 of the trade” and no longer available)

“Blackest Night”

WRITER: Geoff Johns

ARTIST: Evan Van Sciver

COLORIST: Moose Baumann

LETTERER: Rob Leigh

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Steve Wacker

EDITOR: Peter Tomasi

(more…)

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 8.29

Beer Birthdays

Hathor (Egyptian Goddess of Drunkenness)

Charles H. Wacker (1856)

Rudolph J. Schaefer III (1930)

Brittany Evans; St. Pauli Girl 2006 (1975)

Jim Woods (1980)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Temple Grandin; animal welfare advocate (1947)

Lenny Henry; British comedian (1958)

Jean Auguste Ingres; artist (1780)

John Locke; English philosopher (1632)

Charlie Parker; jazz saxophonist (1920)

Famous Birthdays

Arthur Anderson; actor (1922)

Richard Attenborough; film director, actor (1923)

Lanny Barbie; porn actor (1981)

Bob Beamon; long jumper (1946)

Henry Bergh; ASPCA founder (1811)

Ingrid Bergman; actor (1915)

Richard "Mr." Blackwell; fashion critic (1922)

Aimé Bonpland; French botanist and explorer (1773)

Edward Carpenter; English anthologist and poet (1844)

Chris Copping; English singer-songwriter and guitarist (1945)

Rebecca DeMornay; actor (1959)

Todd English; chef (1960)

Werner Forssmann; German physician (1904)

William Friedkin; film director (1935)

James Glennon; cinematographer (1942)

Neil Gorsuch; judge (1967)

Elliot Gould; actor (1938)

Alex Griffin; English bass player (1971)

Carla Gugino; actor (1971)

Thom Gunn; English-American poet (1929)

Chris Hadfield; Canadian astronaut (1959)

Karen Hesse; author and poet (1952)

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.; writer, scientist (1809)

Michael Jackson; pop singer (1958)

Charles Kettering; inventor (1876)

Hiroki Kikuta; Japanese game designer (1962)

Robin Leach; television host (1941)

Betty Lynn; actress (1926)

Dave Malone; singer-songwriter and guitarist (1952)

John McCain; politician (1936)

Arthur B. McDonald; Canadian astrophysicist (1943)

Herbert Meier; Swiss author (1928)

Lea Michele, American actress and singer (1986)

Anton Newcombe; singer-songwriter and guitarist (1967)

Jimmy C. Newman; singer-songwriter and guitarist (1927)

Isabel Sanford; actress (1917)

Joel Schumacher; film director (1939)

Preston Sturges; film director (1898)

Barry Sullivan; actor (1912)

Wolfgang Suschitzky; Austrian-English cinematographer (1912)

Noah Syndergaard; baseball player (1992)

Dinah Washington; singer (1924)

Geoff Whitehorn; English singer-songwriter and guitarist (1951)

Stephen Wolfram; English-American physicist and mathematician (1959)

Steve Yarbrough; novelist (1956)

[graphicpolicy]

Around the Tubes

Check out some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup #comics #comicbooks

It’s Thanksgiving at GP HQ but we’re still bringing you a day of news! We wish everyone celebrating a great day.

The Beat – A Year of Free Comics: Cupido invites you to cozy up with a cup of tea for some seriously sweet soulmate content – Free comics!

Newsarama – Former Marvel CCO Joe Quesada’s New Title Confirmed – Congrats to him.

Newsarama – Marvel Promotes Steve Wacker to Head of…

[summervanlife]

15 August

The Shrimpton clan safely departed at 7am, as planned - not that any of the Haig's witnessed the event...... We surfaced at a slightly later hour, and enjoyed a welcome breakfast once up. The day was not looking as bright as yesterday, and Mike checked the weather forecast through three separate sites, all of which suggested a 90% chance of rain in the afternoon. It was decided we should take advantage of the dry morning and head to Lamanere, a small village about 15 minutes drive away, which had a good walk culminating at an interesting rock formation. The Haig's jumped into the jeep with Matt, and Mike led in their other car with Sal and Jo. Lamanere is the most Southerly village in continental France, just nudging the Spanish border. Catalan is the local dialect. The village itself is pretty small, and our tour guide Matt advised the population shrinks to about 50 in the winter months, whilst during summer it gets much busier with the holiday home owners. It is currently 'Fete' week in the local area (a week long religious celebration of the Assumption of Mary) and the bunting was strung up in the village. We drove through, past the 'Maison De Chasse' where the locals bring their gains from the winter wild boar hunts to share out the produce (nothing is wasted, apparently), and on up a rough track, which got progressively rougher as we gained height. We reached a point where we could cut up a scree slope on foot, following the reddish purple coloured rock up hill, and the Petches and Haig's set off, armed with secateurs and loppers to tackle any overgrown branches. Sal and Mike had elected to continue on up the even rougher track in the jeep, and would meet us on the rock at the top. We didn't have to tackle too much undergrowth, but did find ourselves regularly wrapped up in the silk trails from hundreds of tiny hanging caterpillars - quite an unnerving sensation! It didn't take long to reach the track at the top, where we spotted Sal and Mike atop the incredible rock step formation. We hurried over and scrambled up it (although Clare wasn't brave enough to look over the edge at the sheer drop below, unlike the rest of the party.) We spent some time exploring up top, before heading back to the jeep, which Mike and Sal had left for our return journey as they had walked back to the car down below. Jo took the wheel, and the Petches cleared it with Clare that it would be OK for Nia and Cian to hang off the back whilst Jo drove the jeep down the track (apparently this was a tried and tested method, so no need to worry!) Nia and Cian loved it, changing once the roughest part was negotiated to lying across the roof top holding on (with Matt acting as safety officer.) Naturally, they loved it, and were quite reluctant to get back into the jeep for the journey back along the road. Hungry bellies were filled upon return to the ranch with a lovely couscous and veg medley, complete with succulent sweetcorn from the veggie patch which Cian barbecued masterfully. Matt and Jo had some more friends arriving later for a couple of nights - Alex and Steve, who used to teach at the same school as Jo. We had run low on various supplies (with all us guests around), and so whilst Jo and Nia made the beds in the Haig's new dwellings (we had taken over the guest pad which the Shrimptons had been staying in, and were now even more spoilt with 2 bedrooms and private bathroom), Matt, Cian and Clare headed off to Saint Laurent, the closest nearby town with a supermarket. The roads surrounding Mike and Sal's property are winding..... Very, very winding! It took 25 minutes to navigate the bends, and we finally arrived after passing many properties with families sitting out enjoying an afternoon meal on their patios. Strange, for a Thursday, we thought - why weren't they at work? When we drove to the supermarket, it's shutters were down - it was closed. This was the only option in the nearby vacinity... We rang the ranch to advise, and they confirmed we would have to abort and return empty handed - Jo would ring her friends and give them a long shopping list of things to pick up on their way. We made the return journey, with Cian changing the jeep's gears for 'practice', along the many, many bends. Even the driver was feeling peeky, and Clare thought she may have to make use of the 'bag for life' she was clutching in the back seat, but we made it through unscathed. When we arrived home empty handed, Mike asked what the date was. Ah - Thursday the 15th August - Assumption Day itself...... No wonder the shop was shut! It was a bank holiday. No matter, Jo's friends were on the case. They arrived around 5.30 with their offerings. Cian and Clare decided to have a game of table tennis, which was located on one of the terraces. Their technique left much to be desired... They were joined by Sal, who was much more proficient, and then by Matt, who christened Cian 'pancake wacker', due to his interesting hitting style. Nia took over from Clare (she was the best of the Haigs, but still had a unique style at times), and there followed a master class by Matt, with much improvement made (Clare should have hung around for it....) It was dinner time, and the rain had still not appeared for the day - all three forecasts had got it wrong! So the table was laid outside, and we all settled down to yet another magnificent feast - pate, cheese and toast starter, made with fresh bread which Sal, Nia and Cian had made earlier in the day, followed by egg and bean tomatoe casserole served with freshly dug potatoes. Yum. It was just after 9, and although Clare had asked Jay to let them know when he was stopped for the night, she still hadn't heard. She had held back from texting earlier, not wanting to detract from his driving, but given the hour she wanted to check all was ok. She asked if he had stopped for the night yet. The reply came back "see you in 2 minutes" What?? Was he joking? Surely he was joking? Although the drive could be done in 12 hours, that would be non stop driving... She took herself off down the drive to text again to ascertain where he really was, without alerting anyone. As she rounded the first bend, she heard a car from below. This was followed by shouts of disbelief from the party at the dinner table. There coming up the drive was our Ford Focus, with Mr Haig at the wheel! He was greeted with hugs from his family, followed by hugs from everyone else, alongside much telling off for making such a long drive in one stint. But we couldn't stay cross - we were just so glad to have him back in one piece! (It was actually Alex who arrived today who won the 'Jay arrival time' bet, being the closest with her guess of 2pm tomorrow.) We settled back at the table for pudding and more wine, before tired bunnies requested to go to bed.... Upstairs for book, and Nia and Cian settled into their new separate beds for the night (no feet in faces tonight!), and Clare and Jay went back down to chat with the others some more (goodness knows how Jay managed to keep going after such a long day!) Hoorah - we once again have the 4 of us together with our own wheels to carry on with the journey in a few days, but only after we have had some more fun here with the Petches and Shrimpton elders and other fellow guests first.