#Westfield Sydney

[travelmanposts]

Sydney Tower, Sydney, Australia: Sydney Tower, also known as Westfield Tower and formerly as Centrepoint Tower, is an observation and telecommunications tower that is the tallest structure in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, as well as the second-tallest observation tower in the Southern Hemisphere. Wikipedia

[scalingsilverlinings]

Go shopping

To be honest, I think I made this goal thinking I don’t do much shopping and I haven’t for years but recently I have bought SO MANY clothes online. I am not sure what’s triggered it but I have spent a lot of money recently on things and so this maybe explains why my little shopping trip to the city was so uninspiring today.

I went to Billini and even though I tried really hard I just could not find a single pair of shoes to buy - there were no enclosed shoes apart from boots and I already have a pair of those and then all the other shoes were generic dressy shoes and I don’t think I go to that many places requiring shoes like that - especially given it’s winter. I tried really hard but I couldn’t find anything and then I got the acute sense that I’d been in the shop too long and if I bought sockettes it would just be an excuse to buy something so I left.

I wanted coloured leggings and there were some green ones at Aje Athletica but they weren’t in my size. I ended up with some black ones, my only purchase for the day, which is fine because I only wear my blue ones at this stage, but this experience was only good because the sales assistant was so friendly and I ended up buying a size 6 which is crazy I’ve never been a size 6 in anything ever for years and I’m not sure if it’s because I felt pressured by her and the 8 would be better but oh well.

And then I went to Wolford but it was on level 4 and the sales assistant was unfriendly and it just in general felt too bougie and unwelcoming so I left - and there wasn’t really scope to try anything on everything was packaged - even though I probably could do with some shapewear or leggings. The prices also weren’t evident and it’s potentially to expensive.

Then to kill time I went through Dymocks and Milligram and couldn’t find any inspiration for a present for Jess for her birthday even though I tried so maybe I will have to go through Hands or something another time and not bring her gift which is okay because we are going out.

I think yeah I procrastinated a lot this morning and it’s a mixture of todays ennui, feeling a bit poor from all my recent purchases and having to catch public transport into the city.

Anyway, the rest of my day is going to be better because I will do the Coogee to Bondi walk with them which is good self-care and then I will go to Jess’ birthday at Chinese Laundry which will be fun and social and hopefully bring me a bit more energy.

I also tried to organise booking of things today and I am slightly irritated because Jordy is obviously still away but it’s therefore hard to organise like flights and accommodation and things and I’m definitely just overthinking it. Also I got rejected for some work today because I don’t have enough references but I don’t feel comfortable chasing more because I need them for job apps which are coming soon, so that overall made me feel antsy and a bit upset I think. I would like to work and it’s upsetting and worrying Gok and Prof Kelly never sent in their responses.

Anyway, focusing on silver linings I have new leggings, I left the house and I walked through some shops. Onto the next goal I suppose, and hopefully I can get references for BPT and locuming simultaneously in the next few weeks anyway.

[darlingjmiller]

absolutely horrified by what happened in Sydney today

for the non-australians here’s a tldr: a man with a knife stabbed more than 10 people, including a baby, in one of the countries biggest shopping centres, before being shot dead by a nearby police officer. 7 people have been confirmed dead and at least 8 are injured.

the news is comparing it to the last major killing in australia’s history (the port arthur massacre that famously lead to strict gun laws in australia)

of course twitter is being its usual cesspool but there’s one thing for certain: had the man had a gun instead of a knife, so many more people would have been killed.

[superman86to99]

Adventures of Superman #513 (June 1994)

"THE BATTLE FOR METROPOLIS," Part 4! The Death of Project Cadmus! (Well, "death" in comic book terms.) After the events of last issue, in which a bunch of Cadmus-brand rockets exploded all around Metropolis, a royally pissed-off Superman heads to the formerly top secret government installation to register his displeasure with Director Westfield... only to find out that someone beat him to it, because Westfield has been murdered.

Since Cadmus' top dorks don't have much experience shouting orders at soldiers (the guy in charge of that just died), Superman steps in to fill that role while they try to figure out who killed Westfield and where his ear went.

Given that Cadmus' other, nerdier directors have spent days in a probably very stinky lab trying to come up with a cure for the Clone Plague ravaging Metropolis (and a small part of Hawaii), the main suspect for Westfield's murder is Dr. Carl Packard, a nervous little guy who tends to disappear for days. Also, he was just found wandering the hallways muttering about someone who "deserves death," so that doesn't look too good for him. Before Packard can explain himself (he was talking about his other evil boss, Lex Luthor), the whole murder mystery matter is shuffled aside when the nerds actually find the key to curing the Plague: the blood of one of the few clones who didn't get sick, the Guardian! Hope he's got a lot of it.

As it turns out, they need Packard to create that Guardian-fueled cure, so everyone agrees to forget about the fact that he's probably a murderer for a while. As soon as they let Packard near a computer, however, he uses the secret program in all LexCorp PCs that notifies Lex if someone types his name (yes, Lex was the original "searches himself on Twitter all day" billionaire) to send him a message telling him about the cure. Instead of letting Packard cook and then stealing the cure, the Plague-stricken and increasingly insane Lex orders his Lex-Men to invade Cadmus and kidnap the Guardian. To be fair, he does look like he's about 15 seconds away from shriveling up into a prune, so I get the urgency.

So, Superman and the few Cadmus soldiers in there (most are out fighting angry clones in Metropolis) have to defend the facility from an army of flying armored goons while the nerds try to work on the cure. Lex uses a hologram of himself when he still had hair to try to convince Superman that he should let Superboy, the Newboy Legion kids, and all those sewer clones die so that Lex himself can live ("Would you let Einstein die to save the Bowery Boys?"), but somehow he isn't dissuaded. Not only that, but Superman even calls Lex "contemptible"... and, uh, everyone else who uses a wig.

Lex must have really hated that crack about his baldness, because the next thing he does is order the Lex-Men to blow up Cadmus' reactor and kill everyone inside. If he can't have the cure, no one can. Superman looks a bit overwhelmed with the soon-to-explode reactor and the Lex-Men trying to stop him from containing it (so much so that he calls them "idiots," about the strongest insult you'll hear from this Superman), but then someone stops by to help him: patient zero of the Clone Plague cure...

...Superboy! Who could barely stand up the last time we saw him and is now flying and punching goons, so looks like that cure is working. Superman tells the Kid to take those goons outside while he tries to prevent the reactor from exploding, but as soon as Superboy makes it out, there's a huge explosion and the mountain surrounding Cadmus collapses. Superboy wants to start digging up the survivors, but Superman tells him not to bother: everyone is dead. And he'll make Luthor pay for this and all his other sins, once and for all... next week, in Action Comics #700!

TO BE CONCLUDED, obviously.

Plotline-Watch:

That's it for Project Cadmus, and everyone who worked in it, which will never appear ag-- ok, no one actually believes that. We'll see how they saved themselves and why Superman is pretending they died next issue. Note, however, that Superboy isn't pretending to believe that some of his best friends are buried under a mountain, so his chipperness in that final panel is disturbing.

As you've probably guessed if you've been paying attention, the one who stole Westfield's ear was the same maniac who killed him, disgraced geneticist Dabney Donovan. I don't remember if Dabney ever used Westfield's ear in one of his experiments, but even if he didn't, at least he got to use it for a couple of corny jokes.

Poor Dr. Happersen... he's trying to tell his boss he loves him and would never betray him, and Lex cuts him off and yells at him. Plus, in the same page Lex made it clear that he still isn't totally convinced Happersen isn't Lois Lane's informant, even thought it obviously isn't him. It's hard not to read that exchange with Smithers' and Mr. Burns' voices.

There's a nice little moment with the Guardian, originally a Captain America self-ripoff by Cap creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, saying he's okay with dying to make the cure because he's lived a very long life. Lines like that work better when it's a character who's actually been around since the '40s. I wouldn't have minded if he had died during this storyline -- they could always make another clone later on (and seeing him struggle to live up to his own legacy might have been interesting).

Patreon-Watch:

The latest Patreon-only post was about an Elseworlds story where Superman turns into a cursed spirit haunting a villain, one where he turns the X-Men into the JLA, and (briefly) one where Bizarro teams up with every other DC villain whose name ends in "O." Join Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, and Gaetano Barreca at the Superman '86 to '99 Patreon!

And now, more from Don Sparrow (whose newsletter you should be subscribed to, by the way)...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We start with the cover, and it’s a pretty good one, with co-star Guardian in well-drawn technological peril, and I never tire of blasts bouncing off Superman. 

Inside the book we are greeted with a poster (or at least sticker) worthy image of an on-edge Superman flying at the viewer, his Tarzan-like mane flowing in the wind.

Kitson’s art at this time is a bit strange to me—it might be the inker, or more likely it’s the era—the early 90s demanded everything be a bit more exxxxxxtreme and Jim-Lee-like in its rendering, but it mostly seems at odds with Kitson’s naturalistic drawing style.  So you get weird in-between drawings, like on page 2 where Superman is yelling, but his mouth appears to barely be open (as opposed to page 5, when Dr. Packard shouts in surprise, and his mouth appears to be fully extended). 

A page later Superman’s surprise (and perhaps grief?) at Westfield’s death is captured well. 

On page 4, the fun really begins, as Kitson seems to really have a ball drawing the insane and Dr. Robotnik-like Dabney Donovan, and his comedic use of a stolen body part. 

A small thing, but worth mentioning: Kitson and McCarthy absolutely kill it when it comes to reflective surfaces.  Throughout the issue, the shiny glasses are on point.  Great stuff there, particularly with the two-tone colouring of a Lex-Men soldier on page 16.

On page 10 we get our latest look at Lex Luthor, and it ain’t pretty.  The little lines on his flesh make it seem so fragile and sickly. 

The full page splash of Cadmus mountain imploding seems like a bit of a missed opportunity, as Superboy isn’t really facing the “camera” and the destruction is mostly dust.  Finally, on page 21, the drawing of Superman’s righteous anger at Lex wreaking death and destruction is a great one.

In contrast to Superman #90, where I felt not a lot happened, this issue is chock full of activity, with a race against the clock to find a cure for the clone sickness, Lex-Men invaders, and a core meltdown, plus a little pop-in with Dabney AND a Superboy cameo—it’s a big one, and a nice hors d’oeuvres for the very BIG number coming next week. 

SPEEDING BULLETS:

I think Dr. Packard should be played by Micro Machines Motormouth, John Moschitta Jr.  It would certainly make his scientific explanations a lot funnier to imagine them being said at lightspeed.

Superboy makes a reference to a Nancy Kerrigan commercial, which was probably this one for Campbell’s Chicken noodle, where the otherwise waify and demure Ms. Kerrigan bodychecks a hockey player (the Campbell’s slogan, at the time, was “Never Underestimate the Power of Soup”, which is the line that gets cut off as Superboy speaks). [Max: Fun fact, in the Spanish version I read in the '90s, Superboy just says "I learned this from a TV ad." Guess they didn't have space for a footnote explaining who Nancy Kerrigan was...]

GODWATCH: Interesting that Big Words seems to be a believer, as Guardian bravely takes the experimental treatment, the man of science prays that Jim Harper has a “personal guardian”.  

This is a pretty testosterone-driven issue—I can’t remember off-hand another issue that had not a single female appear in the story. [Max: There IS a female Cadmus trooper in page 1, but she doesn't speak, unless she's supposed to be yelling "SSSSHHOOOOOOM!" as Superman flies by... which I'd totally do.]

[seniouesbabes]

Lily Maymac 🌸💋🍒🌸 The accesories have me on a chokehold 😍

[snarkleharkle]

You are not immune to propaganda

[ivovynckier]

72 bullets is how you deal with such people.

[callmeabeverhausen]

a close up of the "tower eye of sydney". The golden turret near the top of the tower has a maximum capacity of 960 people

[coochiequeens]

Finally a peice that talks about how 5 of the 6 in the people killed in the sydney stabbings were women. And yes he was mentally ill but he felt entitled to a girlfriend.

By Victoria Smith 16 April, 2024

Did Joel Cauchi, the man who killed six people in a Sydney shopping centre, do so because he was mentally ill? Or did he do it because he hated women?

Five out of six of Cauchi’s victims were women, which does seem targeted. Nonetheless, according to his family, Cauchi, 40, “battled with mental health issues since he was a teenager”. For this reason, some have found talk of misogyny unseemly, if not exploitative. To categorise Cauchi’s act as male violence against women, if not terrorism underpinned by misogynist ideology, can be appear dismissive of genuine sickness. Sometimes, bad things just happen because people are unwell. 

For women who live with men who have severe mental health diagnoses, there is little comfort in discussions such as these. On the one hand, there is an enormous amount of pressure to downplay the idea that mentally ill men are more likely to be violent than other men (they are, but to say so is viewed as contributing to stigma). On the other hand, is it fair for a man with severe mental illness to be judged by the same moral standards as other men? Shouldn’t we be recognising that they cannot control their perceptions and fears?

See rest of article

The Sydney attacker was desperate for a girlfriend, his family has revealed as police confirmed that he had targeted women.

Joel Cauchi killed five women and one man during a knife attack on the Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre on Saturday.

Karen Webb, the New South Wales police commissioner, said: “The videos speak for themselves. It’s obvious the offender had focused on women and avoided the men.”

The majority of the 12 people Cauchi seriously wounded were female, including a baby girl.

Andrew Cauchi, his father, said on Monday he knew why his mentally unwell son had targeted women. The 76-year-old told reporters outside his home in Queensland: “Because he wanted a girlfriend and he’s got no social skills and he was frustrated out of his brain.”

Describing his son as “very sick”, he described trying to deal with the feelings of “loving a monster”.

A “heroic” policewoman who stopped a lone knifeman mid-rampage during a killing spree in a Sydney shopping centre has been named.

In one of several heroic attempts to disarm the attacker on Saturday, Amy Scott, a NSW Police Inspector, walked up calmly behind the attacker and ordered him to drop his weapon.

When he refused to do so and lunged at her with a knife, she shot him.

Six people were killed after the culprit – later identified by police as Queensland man Joel Cauchi – went on a stabbing spree in Westfield Bondi Junction, including a mother whose baby is reportedly now in a critical condition.

“She is certainly a hero. There is no doubt that she saved lives through her action,” Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, said on Saturday.

[hotchoccieformoony]

What drinks the Marauders would buy at Westfield Penrith Mall in Sydney, Australia

James:

gets a bubble tea from cha time, alternates between brown sugar milk tea w boba and a fruit green tea

Peter:

Gets a thick shake from Betty’s Burgers, probably peanut butter chocolate

Remus:

Gets a hot chocolate ofc, but one of the really nice ones from Max Brenner that uses real chocolate

Sirius:

Gets a cunty little ice late and rattles it incessantly

[parttimereporter]

Lone wolf stabbing attack at shopping center in Australia

Six people have been killed and several others injured, including a child, in a mass stabbing at a busy shopping center in Sydney, Australian police said. Police were called to Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon local time following reports of multiple people stabbed. Witnesses described scene of panic with some forced to hide in shops as the attack unfolded. Five people died at the scene and another died later from stab wounds at the hospital, a New South Wales police spokesperson confirmed to CNN. The suspect - who police said acted alone - was shot dead at the scene by a lone officer. New South Wales Police’s Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said a senior police inspector was nearby when the attack unfolded.

MORE..

The 40-year-old suspect began stabbing people at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, which is in the city’s eastern suburbs, before a police inspector shot him after he turned and raised a knife, New South Wales Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters.

Six of the victims — five women and a man — and the suspect died. Commissioner Karen Webb said the eight injured people were being treated at hospitals. The baby was in surgery, but it was too early to know the condition, she said.

“We are confident that there is no ongoing risk, and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased,” Webb said in a later briefing. She added: "It’s not a terrorism incident.”

She said police wouldn't identify the man yet and were still working to determine his motivation.

Cooke said a ”lengthy and precise" investigation was just beginning.

[intriguingpeoplebyangelafloyd]

JOEL CAUCHI

BONDI JUNCTION WESTFIELD ATTACK

Joel Cauchi

13 April 2024

Six people (5 women and 1 man) have been murdered in a mass killing in Bondi Junction Westfield on Saturday, when at 3pm, Queensland man Joel Cauchi walked into the shopping centre wearing a green and yellow sport jersey and then left. He returned 10 minutes later and then started stabbing and killing people, mainly targeting women. There are twelve people in hospital suffering serious injuries.

            Ashlee Good was stabbed to death by Cauchi, who also stabbed her 9-month year old baby daughter who had to get emergency surgery. Australian millionaire John Singleton’s daughter, Dawn, 25, was also a victim; and there were also two victims who from overseas.

            There were many heros yesterday, including a man from Russia who tried to prevent the attacker from killing more people by fighting him off with a bollard. There were men who ran after the perpetrator, one of the them carrying a chair. One man walking behind a woman with her children (possibly his partner and children) realised the danger they were in and turned around and attempted blocking the way to protect the three. Instead of running towards the man, Cauchi dodged him and ran into a different direction.

The NSW police officer, Amy Scott, who was the only police officer on site at the time who ran towards Cauchi and shot and killed him and saved more lives in doing so.

            The perpetrator was known to police and had mental health issues. It was said that he had no police record but there are rumours online that he had been previously arrested for DV and assault - however, this is all heresay.

            There was a woman, 36, who was stabbed on Bondi Beach on Friday, 12 April - the day before the Westfield stabbings. The perpetrator of that attack hasn’t been arrested and was still under investigation when the Westfield stabbing took place. Some believe that the Bondi Beach stabbing may have been linked to Cauchi or perhaps it was just a coincidence?

            Some commenters believe he was a drug addict, we don’t know if that is true or not. One man who knew him up in QLD told the media that Cauchi owned knives which he named his ‘everyday knives’. On his Facebook account he described himself as ‘single’. He was known to go to nudist beaches, strip clubs as well as listing himself on an escort website in Sydney in June last year.

            Criminal psychologist Dr Watson-Munro stated that Cauchi ‘knew what he was doing’ and that he was ‘bad not mad’ and ‘there’s clearly planning attached to this’. He stated, “But here was somebody who was on a mission, he knew what he wanted to do and he did it with deadly affect.”

            He came down from QLD to Sydney only a month ago, rented a small storage facility and went to Bondi to learn how to surf. He went surfing at Bondi 6-days ago. In 2010, he was an online English tutor. There is still a lot of information we don’t know as yet as the investigation continues.

#2024bondijunctionstabbings #bondijunction #bondijunctionstabbings #joelcauchi #bondijunctionwestfield #westfieldbondijunction

[superman86to99]

Adventures of Superman #511 (April 1994)

Superman returns to Metropolis after the events of "Bizarro's World" and finds that... there's no Metropolis. It's completely gone. Did someone pull a Coast City on it? Is Brainiac back to his Pre-Crisis city-stealing ways? Superman flies down to take a closer look at the nothignness, only for the buildings to suddenly re-appear right in front of him, making him clumsily crash into one. And right in front of some hot ‘90s babes, too. How embarrassing.

Turns out Metropolis wasn't gone: Superman's powers are so out of control (as seen in recent months) that he didn't realize his X-Ray vision was making him see through the entire city. Superman tries to rescue the people falling off that building with the old "air cushion" trick, but he ends up creating a mini-tornado and injures more people. When Maggie Sawyer and the Special Crimes Unit show up to find out who's been going around destroying buildings and injuring pedestrians, Superman volunteers to be arrested for everyone’s safety, but Maggie is like "eh, let's just pretend this didn't happen... this time."

She does encourage Superman to go get his condition checked out by a specialist ASAP (which, come to think of it, he should have done weeks ago). Superman goes to Professor Hamilton, who determines that his internal solar battery has gone out of whack and is making him absorb too much energy after being exposed to some sort of kryptonite-like substance. And when was the last time Superman encountered kryptonite? At the end of "Reign of the Supermen," when a big blast of it passed through the Eradicator first and instantly gave Superman his powers back. "A bit of foreshadowing," as the Professor says.

According to Hamilton, Superman's powers will keep increasing until his body can't contain them anymore and, I guess, explode. The Professor does suggest a possible solution: taking Superman's excess energy and giving it to those sick Underworld clones who have been dying off all over Metropolis (as part of that OTHER long-ass storyline we've been seeing recently). Superman likes the idea but decides that a massive government agency would be better equipped to make it happen than some ex-con in a run down building (sorry, Hambone), so he flies over to Project Cadmus to tell them about it.

Like two minutes after Superman arrives at Cadmus, the place is attacked by some Underworlders who believe Cadmus created the illness that's killing them. Superman and the Guardian team up to stop the clones, but it isn't a terribly long fight, since the Underworlders are dropping off like flies. Very big flies.

Meanwhile, we find out that LexCorp is currently being attacked by OTHER clones and Lex Luthor Jr. is trapped inside. Lex sends a televised message blaming Cadmus for the attack and promising to "deal" with them "once and for all." In other words: WAR. TO BE CONTINUED!

Plotline-Watch:

Of course, those clones attacking LexCorp weren't sent by Cadmus, they were sent by the mad scientist living UNDER Cadmus, Dabney Donovan. Earlier in the issue, Dabney snooped into a heated Zoom call between Lex Jr. and Cadmus' Director Westfield where the latter refused to join forces to cure the Clone Plague, because he thinks Lex would just steal their tech. Lex indignantly accuses Westfield of putting lives at stake (meaning HIS life specifically, since he secretly lives in a clone body). Dabney worries that Lex might attack Cadmus and thus endanger his own operation, so he... attacks Lex and makes it look like it was Cadmus? They don't call him "mad" for nothing.

Westfield's comment about Kryptonian DNA is obviously a reference to Cadmus' troubles attempting to clone Superman after his death, which resulted in them giving up and creating Superboy. Incidentally, Superman asks Guardian how Superboy is doing, given the whole “clones dying” thing (the Newsboy Legion kids are in pretty bad shape), and Guardian just says he's "been through a lot lately." In other words: buy his solo series if you want to know if he's dying too, kids!

Back to Lex, he instructs Dr. Happersen (still wearing bandages over his head after Bizarro burned him) to contact the Underworlders, presumably with nefarious purposes. In the same scene, we learn that Lex has a virus in LexCorp computers that alerts him to any mention of his name. And guess who happens to be using a LexCorp computer to write an article about how Lex murdered his personal trainer?

We've been following Lois Lane's investigation into the Sasha Green murder for a while, but I'm a little confused about the "father" part above. Does that mean Lois knows Lex Jr. is Lex Sr.? When did she find out? Did she put two and two together after learning clones are getting sick and seeing Lex all frail last issue?

Don Sparrow points out: "As far as I know, this issue's billboard is the first appearance of Whitty Banter, the David Letterman of the DCU. It's a confusing look, though, as he seems to be a blonde, musclebound Billy Batson lookalike, with John Lennon glasses, so apart from having a talk show, he doesn’t greatly resemble any real world hosts. (A quick look into it indicates Banter’s first in-person appearance is a few years later, in Superman #117. He also appears in Man of Steel #67, where the Letterman connection is made more explicit, though Banter’s face doesn’t appear in either issue.)” As we pointed out on Twitter, there was also a reference to Whitty in the letters page for Adventures #511, in answer to a letter praising his real life counterpart, colorist Glenn Whitmore.

Patreon-Watch:

This post was sneak peek’d at patreon.com/superman86to99 earlier this month! Shout out to patrons Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, and Bol; we are the Dabney Donovans leeching off of your Cadmus. We’ve been slacking on the exclusive Patreon material lately (other than the sneak peeks) but we hope to have more to show you in the next year, including more Elseworlds reviews and out-of-continuity stuff.

But right now: more Don Sparrow, under the jump!

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow​):

We start with the cover, and it’s a very good one, with a grim Superman and Guardian ready for battle.  Perhaps a little generic, and lacking in background, but it’s just a great drawing of the protectors of Metropolis, even if it doesn’t give much of a hint to the actual story.  Inside the book we are greeted almost immediately by the real reason people check in on this blog each and every week: wall to wall ass.  Superman crashes through a skyscraper Zack Snyder style while a diverse group of sunbathers look on.  This is fairly racy for a code book from 1994, so it’s worth a mention.

I love Barry Kitson’s art (even if the Jim Lee-style hatching is a bit overpowering at this time) so it’s a challenge to narrow down outstanding panels, because it’s all pretty great.  But the drawing of Maggie Sawyer in full tactical gear is a highlight, as her boots, body suit, and armour all appear to have a different surface texture.  Great stuff.  There is lots of laboratory scenes in this issue, from Professor Hamilton’s studio apartment to Project Cadmus, and all the technical equipment and wires look appropriately high-tech.

As the only action scene (Superman and Guardian battle a dying and apparently nameless Underworlder) unfolds, the image of Guardian shielding himself from an energy blast is well drawn and well coloured.

That scene is as close to we get to excitement in this story, which was definitely one of the less eventful issues I can remember.  It moves the ongoing “B” stories (Superman is overpowered, Lois is investigating Sasha Green, the clones are all dying) without having much of an “A” story.  Still there’s always forward motion in this era, setting up for the next big thing.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

The idea that Lex is monitoring Lois Lane, and is in turn being monitored ��by Dabney Donovan is a trippy one, especially if we add in the layer that we, as readers are monitoring them all.  One small detail I’d like to highlight here is that Dabney Donovan refers to himself while he  monologues, which is quite helpful to new readers, who might be  thinking, “who is this guy, and why isn’t he fighting a blue hedgehog?”

Speaking of DCU analogues, apparently one of their daytime dramas is called Secret Hospital which sounds a lot more exclusive than our General Hospital.

I do love that for all his many sins, Lex II is about to be brought down by journalism, rather than superheroic fisticuffs.

The attacking Underworlder (if he got named, I missed it) seems like a riff on the Incredible Hulk, referring to the Cadmus agents he’s fighting as “puny soldiers”.

Slightly amusing to me that the Underworlder attacker refers to Newsboys and Superboy as “dogs on a leash”, when Cadmus once had their own strike team flat out called the Bloodhounds (who are currently chilling with Doctor Stratos in the “never seen again” lounge). [Max: Actually, someone let us know recently that Doctor Stratos DID appear again in a Roger Stern Superman novel in the 2000s, to my shock... What if the Bloodhounds also have a novel we never learned of? Or an entire YA book series? It’s possible.]

[madmadammagz]

Just wanted to talk about the Bondi Junction attack in Sydney that happened Saturday and reach out to everyone who works in retail. I work in a Westfield, I was working the day it happened and even though I was on the other side of the city (thankfully) I was terrified. Sure, we all continued to work as if it was business as usual but it reminded me of something our store manager told us. There's a rise in these incidents and it's no longer a 'if this happens' but a 'when' and we need to be prepared. A place like a shopping mall should not inspire fear but it does for me, and probably for anyone who works retail in a mall. Retail workers of bondi junction, regular shoppers of bondi junction, non regular shoppers who just went to get that one thing they needed, tourists who just wanted to experience Australia, I am so so sorry that happened to you. It could've happened at any Westfield and it happened to you and I am so sorry. Please let something be done about this rise in violence.

[brexiiton]

6 killed in Sydney mall stabbing; police say terror not ruled out as motive

By AFP 13 April 2024, 1:09pm

Emergency officers stand by with stretchers outside Westfield Shopping Centre where multiple people were stabbed in Sydney, April 13, 2024 (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

SYDNEY - Six people were killed and several others injured - including a small child - when a knife-wielding attack rampage through a busy Sydney shopping centre on Saturday, Australian police said.

Multiple people were stabbed by the unidentified assailant, who was shot dead by a policewoman at the scene.

The incident occurred at the sprawling Westfield Bondi Junction mall complex, which was packed with Saturday afternoon shoppers.

"I'm advised that there are five victims who are now deceased as a result of the actions of this offender," said New South Wales police assistant commissioner Anthony Cooke. The death toll later rose to six.

The motive was not immediately clear, but Cooke said "terrorism" could not be ruled out at this stage.

[stephdragonness]

If haven't heard news, a stabbing 6 deaths at my local westfield, bondi junction.

Scary thing I was at bondi junction just yesterday at same area food court level 5 getting boost juice... its disturbing.

Heartbraking news of loss and the mother & child.