#William is still the villain here and he still has beef with kids

[piyesis-art]

Fnaf x tlou au except not really

Michael is the stand in for Freddy (since you can't bring Animatronics around when the world goes to shit), and he's been Gregory's father figure after his family was killed. (He was gonna put him in a safe location but the last safe location he knew about was run over by the infected) so they've been together ever since.

Then they come across Vanessa and her little sister who are passing through after they hear about a new safe location (Jackson). Michael and Gregory tag along and they become friends. With Vanessa slowly treating Gregory as a little brother.

[angelhummel]

rewatching that glee vid here are some of my favorite quotes

Will Schuester the Spanish teacher arrives at William McKinley high school in his shitmobile

This is a message directly for Will Schuester. *silence* That is all

Bye glee club I’m resigning bc I need to be an accountant to make money for my child bc my teacher’s salary of two dollars per year is simply not enough

Mike, Matt, and Puck choose the glee club, and Finn chooses the football team bc he flopped

I’m going to give Tina the award for emo fashion slay bc on rewatch, she’s still demolishing the fashion game while everyone else is serving milk

Let me postpone my wedding for a few hours so i can take these little rats to sectionals

Rachel meets Jesse St James, who is played by Jonathan Groff who’s Kristoff in Frozen. The first of TWO Frozen girlies introduced in this episode

After the frighteningly sudden flop aura of episode 14...

All of the boys except for Kurt are like “booo this is so boring” uh but at the end of the day who got the clicks views and engagement? The girls. And who fell off the charts? The boys

One thing about Joey? He’s gonna run

The fact that all it took was empty christmas light boxes and red chantilly lace to know they were doing Gaga. Yeah. See when you’re a legend, these things are just common knowledge 

Karofsky and Azimio push Kurt and Tina into the lockers for dressing up. Did somebody say. assault?

Meanwhile the boys are like “boo lady gaga boo we can’t sing lady gaga, lady gaga’s for girls” first of all shut the fuck up

Finn loses it and uses the F slur, and I’m not talking about “flop”

The scenes of Quinn yelling in the hospital while giving birth cut in between clips of Vocal Adrenaline singing Bohemian Rhapsody and it’s all synced up? Like I’m sorry, but you have to be a little bit of a genius to think of something like that

Honestly less schoolwork happens in Glee than in Euphoria and I’m pretty sure Maddy Perez doesn’t even own a pen

-

I’m kind of Sam Evans coded if you think about it

We also have Rachel performing Baby One More Time and she unfortunately mega slays. And I’m saying “unfortunately” bc minutes before, she tells Finn that she doesn’t want him to become popular again bc she wants to be the only thing that makes him feel good

Episode four we have a Santana and Mercedes duet mega slay supreme

Episodes six is a little bit of a collapse

Kurt confronts Karofsky and Karofsky grabs Kurt and forcibly kisses him. Wooow, we love the repressed sexual orientation to homophobic bully pipeline. Someone call Paige McCullers and Alison Dilaurentis

There’s also a lot of Karofsky plot and I’m just like “I don’t care. I don’t want to see a redemption arc for this character”

We also find out Will sings to sick kids in the hospital. Try as I might I just can’t spin that as a negative. And I did try

I will be punishing Artie for rapping too much. He’s hit the threshold of Schuester

She writes a song called My Headband and it’s an instant classic

Kurt goes clown mode and tells Blaine bisexuality isn’t real. Kurt flopped I’m afraid

Karofsky apologizes to Kurt for being basically the worst person in the milky way and probably in alpha centauri as well

Who is voted prom queen? Kurt. But not in a yas slay kind of way

Finn flopped disastrously again but this time it was on a national stage

-

Everyone’s like “quinn this isnt you quinn naur” but the thing is. she slayed

Mercedes convinces Santana and Brittany to join the Troubletones. And they are already on explosive mega slay mode with only four members. They sing Candyman and it’s an Event

My notes for episode five are basically “why does Blaine dress like he’s 50 years old”

Kurt Blaine and Sebastian go to a gay bar and they run into Dave Karofsky. Who has changed schools and accepted himself so he’s no longer the world’s most homophobic super villain 

Next we have Santana and the squad singing a very topical version of I Kissed A Girl

Kurt and Sebastian are having more beef and Kurt says “I don’t like your obnoxious CW hair” which is actually so wild bc Grant Gustin ends up playing The Flash on CW’s The Flash. So he literally does have CW hair. It was a prophetic read

Oh my god also the fact that Santana and Mercedes were gone from the club, Rachel was suspended, and Kurt STILL didn’t get a solo performance at a competition. It’s so bad for him right now!

Rachel accepts Finn’s proposal. ... Nobody moved. Nobody clicked. Nobody viewed. Nobody engaged. Well-

In episode 13 we meet Rachel’s dads, Hiram and Leroy. Yes that’s Jeff Goldblum

The football team at Karofsky’s new school finds out he’s gay and he tries to S word. And then like five minutes later it’s fucking regionals! The way that Glee goes from 0 to 100 to 0 to 90 to 30 to 0 to 55 to 0 in the space of like five minutes. Can we all just calm down??

In episode 15 Quinn’s in a wheelchair but more importantly Sugar has a really good outfit. Kurt also has a leather Gucci tie

Merslaydes

Rachel is in shambles. This is the scene of the historically important “pleek”

anyway go watch the video if you haven’t yet xx we need more good glee content

[book-picks-for-pride]

PRIDE MONTH SUPERHERO PICKS FOR YA

Superior by Jessica Lack

A superhero's intern falls in love with a supervillain's apprentice in this star-crossed LGBT YA story from The Book Smugglers.

Here's the thing about being a superhero intern: there's a lot less crime fighting than you think there will be, what with the whole liability issue and the administrative headache of constantly monitoring the Heroic Help Hotline. The most action that Jamie sees happens when he is kidnapped by the supervillain of the week--and then waits for his boss, Captain Superior, to show up and rescue him. Again.

On his most recent nabbing, Jamie gets to meet Tad, Terrorantula's new villainous apprentice. Even though they are supposed to be on opposite sides (or are they?), sparks fly almost immediately. So, when Tad offers to give Jamie much-needed self-defense classes, how could Jamie pass the opportunity to hang out with the coolest (and hottest) guy he knows?

But Tad has a secret--one that threatens the budding relationship between the two teenage sidekicks, and could destroy Captain Superior forever.

Young Avengers, Volume 1: Sidekicks(Young Avengers #1) by Allan Heinberg (Writer), Jim Cheung

In the wake of Avengers Disassembled, a mysterious new group of teen super heroes appears. But who are they? Where did they come from? And what right do they have to call themselves the Young Avengers?

Hero by Perry Moore

The last thing in the world Thom Creed wants is to add to his father's pain, so he keeps secrets. Like that he has special powers. And that he's been asked to join the League - the very organization of superheroes that spurned his dad. But the most painful secret of all is one Thom can barely face himself: he's gay.

But becoming a member of the League opens up a new world to Thom. There, he connects with a misfit group of aspiring heroes, including Scarlett, who can control fire but not her anger; Typhoid Larry, who can make anyone sick with his touch; and Ruth, a wise old broad who can see the future. Like Thom, these heroes have things to hide; but they will have to learn to trust one another when they uncover a deadly conspiracy within the League.

To survive, Thom will face challenges he never imagined. To find happiness, he'll have to come to terms with his father's past and discover the kind of hero he really wants to be.

Batwoman, Vol. 1: Hydrology (Batwoman #1) by J.H. Williams III (Writer, Illustrator), W. Haden Blackman (Writer), Amy Reeder (Illustrator), Richard Friend (Illustrator), Dave Stewart (Colourist)

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics—The New 52 event of September 2011, Batwoman's new series finally begins! The creative team of J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman launch the ongoing Batwoman series, as Batwoman (a.ka. Kate Kane) faces deadly new challenges in her war against Gotham City's underworld–and new trials in her personal life.Who or what is stealing children from the barrio, and for what vile purpose? Will Kate train her cousin, Bette Kane (a.k.a. Flamebird), as her new sidekick? How will she handle unsettling revelations about her father, Colonel Jacob Kane? And why is a certain government agency suddenly taking an interest in her? These are some of the questions that will be answered in this long-awaited series.

Runaways Deluxe, Vol. 1 (Runaways Deluxe #1) by Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona (Illustrator), Takeshi Miyazawa(Illustrations)

In Pride & Joy, six young friends discover their parents are all secretly super-powered villains Finding strength in one another, the shocked teens run away from home and straight into the adventure of their lives - vowing to turn the tables on their evil legacy. In Teenage Wasteland, the Runaways find a kindred spirit in a daring young stranger and welcome him into their fold. But will this dashing young man help the teenagers defeat their villainous parents... or tear them apart? Plus: who do you send to catch a group of missing, runaway teenage super-heroes? Marvel's original teen runaway crimefighters, Cloak and Dagger, make their first major appearance in years In The Good Die Young, the world as we know it is about to end, and the Runaways are the only hope to prevent it Our fledgling teenage heroes have learned how their parents' criminal organization began, and now they must decide how it should end. As the Runaways' epic battle against their evil parents reaches its shocking conclusion, the team's mole stands revealed, and blood must be shed. Which kids will still be standing when the smoke finally clears? Collects Runaways (Vol.1) #1-18.

Not Your Sidekick (Sidekick Squad #1) by C.B. Lee

Welcome to Andover… where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. Just ask high school nobody, Jessica Tran. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers and is merely looking to beef-up her college applications when she stumbles upon the perfect (paid!) internship—only it turns out to be for the town’s most heinous supervillain. On the upside, she gets to work with her longtime secret crush, Abby, who Jess thinks may have a secret of her own. Then there’s the budding attraction to her fellow intern, the mysterious “M,” who never seems to be in the same place as Abby. But what starts as a fun way to spite her superhero parents takes a sudden and dangerous turn when she uncovers a plot larger than heroes and villains altogether.

Dreadnought (Nemesis #1) by April Daniels

Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero.

Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she’s transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny’s body into what she’s always thought it should be. Now there’s no hiding that she’s a girl.

It should be the happiest time of her life, but Danny’s first weeks finally living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined. Between her father’s dangerous obsession with “curing” her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he’s entitled to date her, and her fellow superheroes arguing over her place in their ranks, Danny feels like she’s in over her head.

She doesn’t have much time to adjust. Dreadnought’s murderer—a cyborg named Utopia—still haunts the streets of New Port City, threatening destruction. If Danny can’t sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction.

Junior Hero Blues by J.K. Pendragon

Last year, Javier Medina was your average socially awkward gay high schooler with a chip on his shoulder. This year, he's . . . well, pretty much the same, but with bonus superpowers, a costume with an ab window to show off his new goods, and a secret identity as the high-flying, wise-cracking superhero Blue Spark.

But being a Junior Hero means that Javier gets all the responsibility and none of the cool gadgets. It's hard enough working for the Legion of Liberty and fighting against the evil Organization, all while trying to keep on top of schoolwork and suspicious parents. Add in a hunky boyfriend who's way out of Javier's league, and an even hunkier villain who keeps appearing every time said boyfriend mysteriously disappears, and Blue Spark is in for one big dollop of teenage angst. All while engaging in some epic superhero action and, oh yeah, an all-out battle to protect Liberty City from the forces of evil.

Welcome to the 100% true and totally unbiased account of life as a teenage superhero.

America, Vol. 1 (America (Single Issues) (2017 - ) #1–6) by Gabby Rivera (Writer), Joe Quinones (Illustrator)

At last! Everyone's favorite no-nonsense powerhouse, America Chavez, gets her own series! Critically acclaimed young-adult novelist Gabby Rivera and all-star artist Joe Quinones unite to shine a solo spotlight on America's high-octane and hard-hitting adventures! She was a Young Avenger. She leads the Ultimates. And now she officially claims her place as the preeminent butt-kicker of the entire Marvel Universe! But what's a super-powered teenager to do when she's looking for a little personal fulfi llment? She goes to college! America just has to stop an interdimensional monster or two first and shut down a pesky alien cult that's begun worshipping her exploits before work can begin. Then she can get on with her first assignment: a field trip to the front lines of World War II - with Captain America as her wingman!

Stranger (The Change #1) by Rachel Manija Brown (Goodreads Author), Sherwood Smith

Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change,” arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of the people they killed.

Teenage prospector Ross Juarez’s best find ever – an ancient book he doesn’t know how to read – nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is set on him to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.

[badbackgroundscience]

Where’s the Beef?

Title of the Week: Charlie X Planet of the Week: Thasus Villain of the Week: Charlie...not the tenth of his name Redshirt death count: unknown - 20 men lost aboard the off-screen explosion of the supply ship Antares, and one of them might have been wearing red

TL;DR: A creepy teenager turns a young woman into an iguana, Kirk beats Spock at 3D chess, and I spend the entire time wondering how long it takes Janice Rand to do her hair.*

You wanna see a shirtless, wrestling William Shatner?

Okay, that’s not the best picture. Here he is standing to the most powerful being we’ve been introduced to so far in the Star Trek universe (Yes, it’s only episode 2. I’m aware. Also I’m aware that this might not be the case if I were doing things in production order. Sorry, Gary).

This is Charlie Evans, 17, whose ship crashed on Thasus 14 years prior, stranding him. Everyone else died (presumably upon impact), and the Thasians had vanished long ago, so it’s a mystery how he could have survived on his own as long as he did. We eventually learn that the Thasians - who had all converted to some sort of energy beings** - gave him the ability to transmute matter. Growing up with superpowers of course gave the boy a warped view of reality, so he’s kind of...what’s the word?

An entitled dick.

Charlie blows up the crew that rescued him because they “wanted to get rid of [him]”, stalks Yeoman Rand because she’s the first woman he’s ever laid eyes on,*** vanishes a guy who couldn’t help but laugh when the kid couldn’t knock Kirk over on the wrestling mat, and melts Spock’s chess set because he loses in, like, two moves. 

He does turn “synthetic meatloaf” into a bunch of live turkeys so the crew can have a proper Thanksgiving, though. He does have that going for him.

<image of an exasperated chef chasing poultry sadly not found>

Synthetic meat hasn’t hit grocery store shelves just yet, but you may have heard some news in 2013 about the first lab-grown burger. It was made at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and research was primarily funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The cost? $330,000 - so, not exactly a viable alternative to regular meat products...yet. (The scientist in charge of the project is apparently aiming for his meat hitting the market by 2021.)

The proof-of-concept burger was made from stem cells, which I’ve mentioned in a previous post. These particular cells came from bovine muscle tissue, and grew into 20,000 individual millimeter-thin muscle fibers about 10mm long - curled up like a broken rubber band meant for your braces.**** They were also white (The first burger was colored with beetroot juice; they also added breadcrumbs and salt). Chemically, it’s identical to the muscle tissue in a previously-mooing creature, but you don’t need to grow all the bits that keep the mooing going that most people aren’t going to want to eat.

[Vocab side note: since it’s made from naturally-occuring stem cells that are harvested (no cow-killing required), then nourished in a laboratory setting, this is cultured meat - not synthetic meat.]

In addition to getting the cultured beef to look and taste like regular ground cow, researchers will also need to overcome the inevitable “yuck factor” that comes from it being lab-grown meat (no matter how delicious it might be). Lots of people already have a huge problem with genetically modified organisms,***** so they might form similar concerns about manmade beef/poultry/etc. These burgers, however, have nothing to do with genetic modifications; researchers are just growing cells from ones that already exist.

But cultured meat is much more environmentally friendly (Lab beef takes 45% less energy than growing the same amount of meat on a cattle farm, produces 96% less greenhouse emissions,`* and requires 99% less land) and will help fulfill the growing meat demand our planet’s facing (There’s also the whole animal welfare thing, too)). Assuming the FDA and various international equivalents give the AOK - and assuming our planet isn’t consumed in a firey apocalypse that wipes out 99% of humanity in the near future - lab-grown meat will totally be a thing. 

Not synthetic, though.

The research group responsible for the first lab-grown burger has a great FAQ on their website, if you want to have a lookthrough. Some takeaways I haven’t previously made reference to:

They’re focusing on beef because growing cows for meat is more energy inefficient (it takes 1 kg of feed to get 0.15 kg of beef) than pork, poultry, or fish. 

It takes 10 weeks for enough cells for a single hamburger to mature (if you start from scratch), but since cells replicate at an exponential rate you get 100,000 burgers in only 12 weeks.

Researchers are currently working on improving the myoglobin content (the protein that gives meat its red hue), and culturing fat cells to improve the taste and mouthfeel. 

Theoretically, you’d only need 150 cows on the planet to supply they world with their desired amount of beef. (In reality you’d have more, but it’d still be far lower than the billions of cows currently on the planet)

(As for the rest of the plot I’ve completely ignored, Charlie eventually uses his powers to take control of the Enterprise, desperately wanting to make it to his closest relative’s colony; naturally, no one else wants him to get there. Kirk and Co. realize his powers have been stretched too thin, and Jim calls his bluff by pulling him out of the captain’s chair. After a light scuffle, a Thasian hails the ship - appearing as the below floating green head - to apologize for Charlie’s actions, reset all the damage he’s done (but explicitly not including the Antares crew), and take him back. Kirk says that the boy belongs “with his own kind” and claims he can be trained to not be an entitled dick; pretty much everyone else doesn’t believe a word of that is accurate. Charlie Evans disappears from the bridge, begging to stay like the 3-year-old he pretty much is. 

He won’t be missed anywhere near as much as those turkeys will be.)

* Seriously, look at that ‘do:

** Giant green space heads!

*** Lines guaranteed to get that woman you feel you’re entitled to, ranked in order of creepiness:

If I had the whole universe I'd give it to you.

You smell like a girl.

When I see you, I feel like I'm hungry - all over. Hungry. Do you know how that feels?`**

Don't ever lock your door on me again...I love you.

**** They’re only this big because of the technology capable of delivering oxygen and nutrients to all of the cells. Dr. Post said that they’d “need to develop different technologies that have been described in the medical field, but have not been applied to meat production yet” for anything larger. 

***** often forgetting that - technically speaking - all of their so-called ‘organic’ foods have been genetically modified over thousands of years through selective breeding, but GMOs and the ‘organic’ label are a talk for another day

`* Cows burp/fart a lot of methane, which is a greenhouse gas (roughly 20x worse than regular ol’ carbon dioxide). We’re working on reducing that - sometimes by strapping backpacks to cows to capture their...emissions...which can then be used for fuel, sometimes by changing their diet (like adding seaweed).

`** This feels like it could have come out of the mouth of Anakin Skywalker...

TOS s1e02 - Teleplay By: DC Fontana, Story By: Gene Roddenberry, Directed By: Lawrence Dobkin - owned by CBS.

Photo Credits:

David Parry / PA Wire (pic #1) https://culturedbeef.org/media-resources/14044

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1272

Monday, July 29, 2019

 You don't know what you're missing until it's gone. Kind of obvious right? Our couch got taken away to be reupholstered, which means we must live without one for up to 8 weeks. Not being able to snuggle up together while watching the boob tube (can we even still use that term?) is a bummer. We did find two quarters when they hefted it out to the truck, though.

 Archie #706 - Nick Spencer & Mariko Tamaki (writers) Jenn St-Onge (art) Matt Herms (colours) Jack Morelli (letters). Archie and Sabrina part 2. Now I don't have to wonder how these two became an item with this origin story issue.

 Detective Comics #1008 - Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Doug Mahnke (pencils) Jaime Mendoza (inks) Dave Baron (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). It's a beautifully drawn one issue Batman versus Joker story before "Year of the Villain" takes over.

 Fearless #1 - This $4.99 US anthology book stars some of Marvel's most fearless female super heroes in short stories created by female writers, artists and letterers.

 "Campfire Song" by Seanan McGuire (writer), Claire Roe (art), Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) and Janice Chiang (letters). Captain Marvel, the Invisible Woman and Storm getting ready to inspire young women at a leadership camp. You just gotta know that some super villain is going to crash the gathering later.

 "Style High Club" by Leah Williams (writer), Nina Vakueva (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) and Janice Chiang (letters) updates Millie the Model complete with new friends and old frenemies. There was no such thing as social media when I read Millie the Model comic books in the olden days.

 "Unusual Suspects" by Kelly Thompson (writer) Carmen Carnero (art) Tamra Bonvillain (colours) and Janice Chiang (letters) is my favourite of the bunch because it's just so hilarious. Jessica Jones gets a call from Elsa Bloodstone asking the Alias Investigations private eye to bail her out. The last page is super fun.

 The Amazing Spider-Man #26 - Nick Spencer (writer) Kev Walker (art) Laura Martin (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This issue has the antithesis of Fearless. Meet the women of the Syndicate: The Beetle, Lady Octopus, Scorpia, White Rabbit, Trapstr (no "e") and their latest recruit Electro. They've got a beef with Peter's roommate Boomerang and they mean to have their vengeance on him. I anticipate a big fight next issue.

 History of the Marvel Universe #1 - Mark Waid (writer) Javier Rodriguez (pencils & colours) Alvaro Lopez (inks) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I hope Joe Caramagna got paid extra for this book. I couldn't finish reading it after nodding off several times while attempting to absorb all the information on each page. This will be a great reference source once it's collected.

 House of X #1 - Jonathan Hickman (writer) Pepe Larraz (art) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Wow, this visually stunning debut did not fail to impress my eyeballs. Pepe and Marte produced pages urging me to flip through this comic book again after I finished reading it just to savour the eye candy some more. Jonathan Hickman is resetting the X-Men in a major way and most of what came before isn't relevant to the present. I liked what Hickman did on his tenures in the Avengers and the Fantastic Four and I like what he's doing here. Yes, mutants are still feared and hated but now they will no longer tolerate being hunted. Along with familiar X-Men old and new, we are introduced to an opposing organisation named Orchis. I freaked out when I saw my name in this comic book. The head of military command for Orchis is a Colonel Walker Kin. Coincidence?

 Jane Foster Valkyrie #1 - Jason Aaron & Al Ewing (writers) Cafu (art) Jesus Aburtov (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). You've come a long way Jane Foster. From a damsel in distress being Thor's girlfriend to worthy wielder of Mjolnir to the last Valkyrie, not even death can conquer your spirit. You needn't have read War of the Realms to follow what's going on in this first issue since it's easy to understand Jane's current status as a super hero. Her first foe is very formidable though and I can't wait to see how she fares.

 Action Comics #1013 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Szymon Kudranski (art) Brad Anderson (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). The mystery of Leviathan continues and it's obvious now that it isn't Lex Luthor. He's running around sowing seeds for Year of the Villain. I think the new owner of the Daily Planet looks like Orpah (not a typo) Winfrey.

 Sword Master #1 - Shuizhu (writer) Gunji (art) Greg Pak (adaptation) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). This is the origin issue. Pretty straightforward. Son of a Chinese archaeologist gets a big magical sword and wants to find his missing dad. Marvel is trying hard to push these new Asian super heroes but I don't think North American audiences are clamouring for them. I liked this better than Aero #1 but only slightly. Greg Pak (writer), Ario Anindito (art), Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) and VC's Travis Lanham (letters) tie this new hero in to the Marvel U by having Shang-Chi, Master of King Fu train Lin Lie, Sword Master. I was expecting Shang-Chi to call the kid Grasshopper at one point. It was all very Zen.

 Doctor Strange #16 - Mark Waid (writer) Barry Kitson (pencils) Scott Koblish (inks) Brian Reber (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Herald Supreme part 5. Here we go. The Doc's gambit to save two dimensions is revealed. Huge sacrifices are made and the outcome is in question. Next issue's conclusion should be interesting.

 Guardians of the Galaxy #7 - Donny Cates (writer) Cory Smith (art) David Curiel (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Faithless part 1. After a brief respite it's off to the next do or die mission. This time it's the team against the Universal Church of Truth and their attempt to resurrect their cult leader. Peter Quill's father is intimately involved. All seems lost for the good guys until a surprise character appears on the last page. This is a 6-parter so more bad stuff is going to happen before we get to the end.