#also if hals the person who first finds out about danny?

[phantomskeep]

Editing to add (again): This is using the bastardized wendigo from popculture. It's not using the wendigo in the context of the spirit, more in the context of the Hannibal "Ravenstag" or even Antlers' wendigo. Check the Anon link near the end of the post for more information regarding my thoughts on the subject :) I didn't mention the deer-like qualities until the tags, which I understand some people don't fully read. That's my bad, so here I am with the full context ahead of time. This is not the Algonquian version of the wendigo spirit. i really want to write a DCxDP fic where Danny gets trapped in a different form (like either true form or just gets cursed, something like that) and can't get out of it. That form? A wendigo. Somehow he ends up in the DC universe - either through already living there or Ghost Zone shenanigans.

Being a wendigo, Danny feels the need to eat flesh. Preferably human, but even in his screwed-up state he knows that's wrong of him to do. So he takes to killing the bare minimum amount of wildlife he can to sustain himself. Eventually he realizes that "oh wait, what if I just raided a store?" So he stumbles out of the woods and into the nearest grocery store after they had closed. He ends up eating enough to settle his stomach before going off to hide to wait for this whatever to wear off.

However, this catches the attention of [insert local hero]. [Insert local hero] goes to the Justice League about this - maybe this creature is a new villain's scheme? Or just a new villain? Members of the JL + Justice League Dark then go out to [insert town Danny was spotted in] to do some investigating. Batman being one of these people, plus Robin because Damian would not let Bruce go without him. A wendigo could be like a shark after all, just a big ol' puppy.

They get to [insert town here] and start cracking down. They compare the old footage to the location, tracking where the wendigo went. Finally Batman, Robin and [insert characters here] are able to get to the wendigo's den... only to find out the wendigo is a lot more ghost-like than they thought it would be.

There's a big fight because Wendigo-Brain!Danny thought these random dudes were the GIW coming for his undead ass that ends with Danny taking off. Unknowingly to Danny, Damian has grabbed onto him and is basically riding his soon-to-be pet into the sunset.

... I just want to 1) see Danny suffer and being confused 2) Damian trying to get a new dangerous pet and 3) get Damian trying to tame a feral Wendigo!Danny like any normal person would try to befriend that feral orange cat living in the dumpster.

Adding this just to cover my own butt about this haha, here's a link that contains a post which covers the research I have done on the topic of the wendigo: Anon Ask Post Here. I am not trying to culturally appropriate, offend, or harm anyone with a prompt post about Danny taking the form of a wendigo. It's a cool concept to me as I believe it is a bit ironic. The wendigo, as seen in the culture it originates from, is a symbol of greed and a harsh winter and are often a sign of cannibalism. They have hearts of ice and an "unseasonable chill might precede its approach".

I think this is ironic because 1 - Danny is a sweet little bean and being stuck with cannibalistic cravings is a Hannibal Fic trope that will forever rot in my brain + Ghost King!Danny having to eat Pariah Dark's core is a headcanon I adore, 2 - the chill preceding a wendigo's approach reminds me of Danny's ghost sense, 3 - Danny is the LEAST greedy person I can think of in the entirety of DP (even if he does have his selfish moments at the worst times ever), and 4 - wendigos possess human beings. In Native legend a wendigo is a "malevolent spirit" which possesses humans - technically if you are going to stick with the general wendigo legends then it does not have antlers, horns, or is even a beast. It's just a giant human. Which, if using the correct/original version of a wendigo, makes this 10x funnier to me, because Damian that is clearly a giant person what the fUCK ARE YOU DOING--

Anyways, long story short if you have issues with me using a wendigo for a "haha funny" prompt please DM me with any sort of articles, legends, documentaries, ect. on why using a wendigo is a Bad Thing. Like I said in the linked post, I'm always willing to learn and adjust my behavior. I just want proof that the changes I'm going to make are the correct ones to be making, as my years on the internet have ALWAYS told me to fact check anything :)

[aprocessionofthoughts]

To seek freedom

ectoberhaunt2023 day 10- occultism TW- mind control summary- The Justice League is trying everything they can to free Danny.

ao3 ectoberhaunt2023 masterlist Part 2 of ITR

The Red is like a river. Sometimes it is gentle, lulling; other times it is rushes by underwater currents dragging him under to drown.

Sometimes it feels like there is someone on the shore shouting at him, but then the water fills his ears and his head dips under its currents.

Only faint echoes breach the Red around his mind. Feeling, thoughts, sometimes pain it all becomes muddled and if Danny spends too long trying to puzzle it out the Red becomes violent pulling him under to drown.

It’s best to let him lull him to sleep. To be a memory in his own body. It’s safer that way

It had been two weeks and the Justice League was finding out that they are unprepared to face down whatever Danny was. The cultist had claimed he was a ghost, but Danny’s medical file showed he had the signs of a living human. Of course, there was always the possibility that it was faked. But Deadman, the ghost who worked for the JLD, was invisible and intangible. Danny wasn’t.

When Batman had questioned Constantine the man had shrugged and said all he knew was that Danny came from a long line of occultists and that he wasn’t supposed to be this powerful.

Did the artifact give him the power? But if so, why didn’t the occultist use it on himself?

Batman went over his file again and had to clench his teeth at the lack of information. He’d have to give the JLD another presentation about proper background checks.

Name: Daniel Nightingale

Family: UnknownPrevious employment: Nasty Burger cashier

Magical ability: can sense spirits and magical artifacts, can see some mid-level spirits

Batman frowned.

He’d already tried looking into what Danny could have meant by ‘Manson.’ But there were no conclusive answers on that front either. It was most likely a person, but it could also be a place or an object.

He’d already looked up the name Manson and there were a lot of results. And without more information on Danny it was impossible to tell if he had any connection with any of them. And when Bruce searched for any mention of Danny in the information he’d compiled about the most likely Manson he also came up blank.

He was about to run the search again, or at least try and narrow down the list of options when his communicator rang.

Danny had been spotted robbing a bank.

---------------------

Batman, Superman, Flash and Green Lantern made it first with Constaninte saying he was on his way.

Bruce arrived just in time to see Superman crash onto the street. Danny floated above the street, his eyes glowing red. His clothes were ragged and his face was gaunt.

It was obvious the cultist hadn’t allowed him to eat or rest. If they didn’t capture him soon, Danny might die.

At least he had proven himself resilient in past fights, taking hits that would have knocked Superman down.

“Green Lantern” Bruce spoke into his comm, “distract him until you can get him cornered, then Superman, I need you to try and knock him out.” According to their past interactions, Danny struggled to go intangible through Hal’s constructs but it should hold him for a while. If they could distract him long enough then knock him out, they might be able to end this quickly without hurting Danny too much.

They all gave confirmation and Hal flew up and swung a giant bat at Danny who ducked down. This continued as Hal attacked with several different constructs.

Hal had just made contact and trapped Danny in a cage. Danny had started to try to push through when Hall suddenly dropped it and Superman rushed forward and landed a punch that slammed Danny into the ground.

They had almost reached him when Danny’s eyes opened and for a moment they were blue before they flickered back to red. Bruce threw a tracker in his direction, but Danny went intangible and sunk through the ground.

[tuney-and-looney]

My sort-of comprehensive yet very opinionated and too deep of a dive into the voice actors of Elmer.

hey ya'll. i have a long weekend, so I have more time to absorb my cringe and rate each voice actor for my man. it's an idea i had for the past few days and really pondered as to who i prefer and why. so here we gooooooo. btw, i'm going in chronological order to help with organization purposes and stuff. also, i will definitely change these numbers in the future but the notes will probably stay the same.

Danny Webb - 7.5/10

He feels fun, fresh, funky; which is funny given that he's technically the first proper voice actor from the 30's. It's not elmer's actual voice, and it's also an impression of another actor, Joe Penner. BUT. he's fun. you can definitely tell that he has a lot of fun, and that also bleeds into elmer/egghead. he definitely feels like a proper fit for the zany and wacky vibes that the early LT/MM shorts. I really recommend watching at least one short to get those zanies into you!

Arthur Q. Bryan - 8.5/10

the OG. the main man. the one that really started it all.

he's a really big pushover at first, but over time became more assertive and gave more of a reason for bugs to be around him and bother and torment (and love). i like how his voice is mainly very quiet (haha get it), but it almost feels too quiet. he never really gets a moment to get angry and bombastic. in fact, mel sometimes had to fill in for the louder moments because Arthur just couldn't do it (SMOG!)

i feel like there's both a lot of material and not that much in terms of how much material arthur was given. then again, he did die of a heart attack so suddenly, so maybe that context for me personally made me feel like we would have a lot more opportunities.

that being said, solid and wonderful and amazing and beautiful and deep and lovely and talented and pure performances all around from him.

Mel Blanc - 5/10

he is, uh. he is.

so uh, if i remember correctly, he said at first that he never wanted to take arthur's role, but then he said sike and took the role anyway. in fact, he went on the reduce arthur's influence more and more as mel was becoming a household name. i just, mel after arthur's untimely death always urks me the wrong way. like, he would try to claim elmer amongst all the other roles he's done.

Ferris Wheelhouse had a really wonderful video that talked about this issue during his "Bugs Bunny in King Arthur's Court" review. unfortunately, it seems to be gone, and if i find it again, i will definitely link it here!

other than that, the voice itself: very, very iffy. makes me feel like that old guy with the cigar at the comedy club who says that he can do great cartoon impressions but, just can't. and it sucks. cause that's mel blanc here. and i like him. makes me real sad.

Hal Smith - 6/10

so his voice is almost the same quality as mel, but at least he feels like he's not actively trying to take control and try to shove arthur aside. he's trying his best, but again, just doesn't cut to the sheer quality of arthur's voice. not really much to say but, he's there, and he tried.

Jeff Bergman - 9/10

he wasn't too bad at first. he definitely tried to capture arthur's personality and voice mannerisms. i like box office bunny and just the vibes that he gives off in that short. blooper bunny was also really nice. he just seems like a guy that would be really pleasant to be around.

then New Looney Tunes/Wabbit came out. and then the HBO Max shorts.

holy shitttttttt. i never realized how much i would love his performance. because, here's the thing: he's manic as hell. he's chaotic. he's a scumbag. he's a diva. he's a bitchy, bitchy man. and i L O V E it.

i love how these new shorts make him both sympathetic, yet when he can be a bitch, HE'S ALLOWED TO. i never realized how much i wanted it until a couple years after Wabbit aired.

the voice: it's pretty okay. not my favorite voice, but he gives something fresh enough to feel fun and fancy free.

Billy West - 9/10

oh buddy of boys and buckets of fuck, here we go.

so, i grew up with his version, ever since the start of my hyperfixation. he's always felt my favorite. he gives something that sounds the closest to what bryan did during the good ole days. he gave elmer more of a cleaner edge. west often calls him the "0 to 60" type of guy, and yeah, i definitely see that.

here's the thing, though: west is my favorite voice, not my favorite character variation.

i feel like WB constantly underutilizes west's talent to go really zany with his fudd. whenever he does, once in a blue moon, he's REALLY good. like, too good. my sanity and my appreciation: snatched and kissed with a thousand roses. we love to see a chaotic yet loving man.

the more i reflect on this notion of his version, the more i appreciate the performances that he gave. although, sometimes, he feels like he doesn't know the context of the situation, but goddammit he is trying his best. god i miss him. father please come back, i need my meals. we need meals.

Greg Burson - 7/10

....we don't talk about him. moving on.

Eric Bauza - 8.5/10

not a lot of material yet from him, but i adore anything he has done so far. his performance in space jam 2 was really solid; feels like a mix of greg and jeff's performances. i hope to see so much more from him. can't really give too much yet because i need more material from him. overall, really wholesome that one be.

so yeah, those are my 11 pm thoughts on the matter. expect somewhat new thoughts to be added in the distant future. otherwise, please send me your thoughts; i love reading them and answering them on here!

[kiragecko]

DC Sidekick Age References

Here’s a dump of all the references I’ve found. Know I’m missing a lot, and quite a few were found on other sites that didn’t give me the most precise info.

If you know of anything else, can correct a mistake you see, or want to discuss comic book aging - please send me an ask, message, or reblog!

?? - means I don’t know where the info is from, “quotes” are direct copies of the wording in the comic

-

?? Parents died when Bruce was 8

Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) – Batman introduced

Detective Comics #38 (Apr 1940)  – Dick is (8 when parents killed/9 when Robin) 12 when he becomes Robin, it's Bruce's 3rd year as Batman

More Fun Comics 73 (Nov 1941) – Green Arrow Introduced

1962 - JLA formed

1964 – Dick teams up with Wally and Garth

Teen Titans 1 (Jan-Feb 1966) – Teen Titans form, Donna is introduced (all 5 are 14ish?)

Detective 359 (Jan 1967) – Babs introduced, has PhD, has graduated

Batman #217 (Dec 1969) – Dick graduates high school, enrolls in University (starts 3 months later)

1971 - Roy discovered using drugs by Ollie and Hal in a drug den (he was trading arrows for drugs), retcon has Wally and Dick discovering him at tower and making him promise to get help

Justice League 116 (Mar-Apr 1975) Charley Parker is 16

Batman Family 10 (Mar-Apr 1977) – Dick is teenager, Babs is 25

Teen Titans 53 (Feb 1978) – Dick, Wally, Donna, Vic all started college at same time

DC Special Series: The Flash Spectacular (May 1978) – Wally graduates high school

New Teen Titans 1 (Nov 1980) – Raven forms New Titans, Gar is 16 during run

New Teen Titans 2 (Dec 1980) – Slade meets team, Grant dies

1981 - Dick drops out of university after 1 semester, he never really was interested

New Teen Titans 20 (June 1982) – Vic turns 19, Donna already is

Tales of the New Teen Titans 2 (July 1982) – Raven turned 18 just before forming Titans

Batman #357 (Mar 1983) – Jason’s first appearance

Detective Comics #526 (May 1983) – Bruce adopts Jason, Dick is there and approving

New Teen Titans 34 (Aug 1983) – Terra turns 16

Batman #368 (Feb 1984) – Dick gives Jason the Robin costume, Jason becomes Robin

Blue Devil(84) – Eddie is 11/12

Tales of the Teen Titans (May 1984) – Joey introduced, Author describes him as 17?

New Teen Titans #39 (Feb 1984) – Dick stops being Robin, Wally quits being a superhero/the team

Tales of the Teen Titans 50 (Feb 1985) – Terry and Donna's wedding (she got married while 19)

New Teen Titans 10 (July 1985) – Kole says she's at least 18

Crisis on Infinite Earths 7 (Oct 1985) – Supergirl dies in Superman’s arms after mostly destroying the Anti-Monitor, who has to flee reality

New Teen Titans 18 (Mar 1986) – Dick turns 20 (“Dick Grayson celebrates his birthday away from home with a traditional Tamaranean feast.” (While sulking because Kory got space-married))

New Teen Titans 20 (May 1986) – Roy locates baby Lian, Terry Long is 29

?? Roy is 22(when he gets Lian)

Batman #404 - Batman Year One (Feb 1987) – Bruce is 25, spent 12 years training, became Batman at 26, Barbara Gordon is pregnant, her and Jim move to Gotham

Detective Comics #571 (Feb 1987) – we see Bruce’s fear gas induced vision of Jason’s tombstone (birth: 1974 – death: 1986, so he’d be 12)

Secret Origins 13 (April 87) – 15 years ago, it was Dick’s 5th birthday. Soon after tenth birthday, parents are killed. [Set during New TT 18])

Batman #409 (July 1987) – Jason becomes Robin (In Detective Comics, Jason has been Robin the whole time, but is still being wwritten with Pre-Crisis personality)

Flash 1 (June 1987) – Wally turns 20

New Teen Titans Ann 3 (Nov 1987) – Danny Chase is 13 and introduced

Batman #416 (Feb 1988) – Dick in Gotham, meets the new Robin on patrol. Confronts Bruce later, says he was ‘fired’ less than a year ago (since then he was briefly in college), makes Bruce admit he missed him. Dick finds Jason again, expose the drug dealers, and Dick gives Jason his old costume (symbolically, since Jason already has one) and a phone number, Dick was Robin for 6 years

Batman #427 (Winter 1988) – Jason dies

Batman #436, Batman: Year Three (Aug 1989) – 2 years since Dick stopped being Bruce’s sidekick (When he became Nightwing? Or when he quit?), parents died 10 years earlier

Batman #441, A Lonely Place of Dying (Nov 1989) – Tim 13, was 7 when Dick’s parents died

Robin #1 (Jan 1991) – Tim debuts as Robin

New Titans 84 (March 1992) – Joey dies

Deathstroke, the Terminator #15 (Oct 1992) – Rose introduced

Team Titans 3 (Nov 1992) – Robert Long is born

Adventures of Superman 500 (June 1993) – Kon appears and escapes from Cadmus with Newboy Legion, John Henry Irons first appearance, Eradicator and Cyborg Superman also appear for first time

Batman: BTAS: Robin’s Reckoning (1993) - 'Richard 'Dick' Grayson: Age 10'

Detective Comics 668 (Nov 1993) – Tim gets license (because dad is disabled) even though he hasn’t turned 16 yet, gets beat up by Jean-Paul

Flash 92 (July 1994) – Bart aged to 14

?? Shortly after Knight’s End – Tim is 15 and in the 10th grade

Flash 0 (Oct 1994) – Wally is 23

Damage 1(94) – Grant is 16

Deathstroke, The Terminator Annual 4 (Aug 1995) – Rose is 14, “What would that do to a kid? A fourteen-year-old girl whose father is an assassin she’s never met?”

Wonder Woman 105(95) – Cassie is 14

Tempest 1(96) – Garth spends many months in other dimension

Aquaman 20 (May 1996) – Garth aged 3-4 years in other dimension, now older than other Titans

Teen Titans 1 (Oct 1996) – Argent, Risk, Joto, Prysm all turn 16(they were conceived by seed things on same day)

Superboy Annual 2 – to Kon: “Happy birthday, Kid - - number one in a long successful series, we hope.” “He will effectively remain sixteen years old - - forever!”

Green Lantern 82(97) – Robert Long is 3

Wonder Woman 121(97) – Terry and Robert die

Secret Origins Giant 1(98) – Bart is “Three. Fifteen. Depends.”, “you’re almost 15, Tim.”

Titans 5(99) – Donna is 23

Titans(99) – Lian is 4

Sins of Youth(99) – Kon 16, aging normally again

Aquaman 63 (Jan 2000) – Future Garth tells granddaughter Donna about Cerdian being born (think this is his weird birth issue)

Wonder Woman Secret Files (2002) – „Wonder Girl is a precocious outgoing 15-year-old named Cassandra „Cassie“ Sandsmark.“

Bruce Wayne: Murderer (2002) – Oracle says Tim is 15

Batgirl #37 (April 2003) – “Cain said ... today was ... my birthday.”

Batgirl #39 (June 2003) – “I see an eighteen-year-old girl, who’s out of her depth.” (Babs about Cass)

Robin #116 (Sept 2003) – Dana: “Oh, I’m so glad we’ll all be together on Thursday ... !” Tim: “Why? What’s Thursday?” Jack: “Yeah. What’s Thursday?” Dana: “Wait a minute – seriously? Tim: “Yeah. Tell. Us.” Dana: “It’s nothing – never mind. Just leave your schedules open for a nice family dinner.”| Jack: “Dana, what’s – “ Dana: “Shh! Thursday ...  the 19th of July ... ?” Jack: “Um ... oh! Right!” | Steph: “So – Thursday!! Are you excited? Got any ideas for it, yet? ... Tim ... ?” [Tim is asleep.] | [Ives and Steph come over, with pizza that says “Happy B-Day Tim.”] Ives: “Sixteen spankings – get that boy up!!” | Dana says: “I remember when I was in 11th grade.” | he also gets the first ‘clue’ for Bruce’s ‘birthday present.’

Teen Titans 1 (Nov 2003) – Gar is 19, Is this Joey’s return?? (He’s puppeting Slade)

Teen Titans ½ (2004) – Rose’s early years, with a ‘6 years ago’ flashback, she was raised in a brothel her mom ran, tutored, never allowed the outside world, but had relationships with kids her age

Detective Comics #790 (Mar 2004) – Jason’s 18th birthday “he would have been 18 today”

Teen Titans 8 (April 2004) – Raven looks 'barely older' than Cassie

TEEN TITANS #1/2 [2004]: The flashback panels totally sync up with my age theories; Flash to 10 years ago: Dick Grayson’s parents die. Flash to 6 years ago: Rose Wilson is schooled at home by her mother, Lili. Flash to 5 years ago: Ravager I is killed. Flash to 3 years ago: Slade is forced to kill Jericho. Flash to 2 years ago: Cadmus attempts to clone Superman. Flash to 18 months ago: Rose deals with the death of her mother. Flash to one week ago: Bart Allen is shot by Slade.

Identity Crisis 4 (Dec 2004) –(Tim still 16)

Green Arrow 47(05) – Mia is 17

Return of Donna Troy 3(05) – Cassie barely 16

Nightwing: Year One(05) – Dick is 26

Batgirl #65 (Aug 2005) – Cass decides to figure out if Shiva is her mom, Jason and Cass roughly the same age

Flash(05/06) – Wally is 26

?? Robin #136 – Tim still 16 ???

Detective Comics #868 (Oct 2010)– Kate is 32 years old??

One Year Later(Mar 06)

Flash 1(06) – Bart 4 years older(20?)

Blue Beetle 2 (June 2006) – Find out Jaime was in space/a pocket dimension for One Year Later

?? Just prior to 52 (July 2006-July 2007)– told Tim is 17 (long before he’s also  17 in Red Robin, 52 is 1 year long)

Teen Titans 42 (Feb 2007) – Eddie is 17

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds 3-4 (Apr-June 2009) – Bart and Kon back, same as when died

Batman 677 (July 2008) – Batman over 30

Batman: Battle for the Cowl (May-July 2009) – Damian is 10, Ends with Dick and Damian becoming Batman and Robin

Brave & The Bold 2 (May 2007) – Kara is 17, “You have food in the refrigerator older than her, Hal. Who are you, Ollie? No bad thoughts. She’s seventeen.”

Batgirl #1 (Oct 2009) – Steph starting college

Batgirl #7 (Apr 2010) - Damian is "what happens when you work with a 10-year-old."

Red Robin #12 (July 2010) – Tim spent “a few months” looking for evidence before returning to Gotham, becomes emancipated minor

Detective Comics #871 (Jan 2011)– Mention that Dick and Babs went to prom together

Red Robin #25 (Sept 2011) – Tim “and you are only 17”

The Batman Files (Oct 2014) – Jason was 15 at death (seen on death certificate)

?? Rebirth Young Justice series – Cassie: “didn’t mean to end up back in high school feeling - - like I did back when I went to high school.” Later, she says she’s in Metropolis “Working. Going to school in the fall.” So she’s probably starting college.

?? Bart in some Rebirth comic: “Am I six? Am I nineteen? That’s a really freaky thing, right?”

?? At some point: Donna says shes a little older than Kyle

[interestarticles]

Best Movies Of The Year 1980 - Top 20 Films Of 1980

What Are The Best Movies Of The Year 1980?

From New York to Los Angeles this is a question that will get a different answer from every person you ask. There were some great films in the 1980s, and 1980 started the decade off with a bang as a year full of innovation in every way throughout all of society, and it was the start of some exciting new techniques, technologies, and ideas in the film industry in particular with many movies from the year 1980 introducing revolutionary and pioneering cinematic visions. Many people think that some of the best 80s movies of the decade came out in 1980. In this article post, we will go through our top picks for the 20 best movies of 1980, you might be surprised to find out which movies made it on the list! 1) Kramer vs. Kramer In 1980, "Kramer vs. Kramer" was released and became a huge success at the box office. The movie starred Meryl Streep as Joanna Kramer, Dustin Hoffman as Ted Kramer, Jane Alexander as Marylin Jaffe-Jenson, and Justin Henry as Billy Kramer. This film won five Academy Awards in 1981 including Best Picture of 1979 or 1980. It also received nominations for best director (Robert Benton), best actor (Dustin Hoffman), and best-adapted screenplay based on another work (Erica Mann). It is now considered one of the most significant Hollywood films ever made about divorce because it provides nuance to both sides of an argument. 2) The Shining This iconic horror classic film directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall was released in 1980. It is based on Stephen King's 1977 novel of the same name. The film has been ranked a number of times as one of the best horror movies ever made and is now considered to be one of Kubrick's best films. It was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Actor in Leading Role--Jack Nicholson) and won none at the time. The Shining also received nominations for Best Director - Stanley Kubrick), Best Adapted Screenplay--Steven Spielberg/Stanley Kubrick). Its reputation grew over time, eventually earning an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. 3) Being There Hal Ashby himself had been nominated for an Academy Award in 1971 with directing The Last Detail. It is a film that could be classified as both comedy and drama, but the emphasis on this 1980 release lies more on its comedic aspects. While it was not one of the most acclaimed films when it came out, many now consider Being There to be a classic film about society's relationship with television at the time. It offers commentary on economic inequality and how people are often reduced to simple archetypes who can easily fit into neat narratives for consumption purposes. 4) Time Bandits Time Bandits, a 1980 British fantasy film about adventure, was co-written by Terry Gilliam. It stars Sean Connery and John Cleese as well as Shelley Duvall and Ralph Richardson. Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm. Peter Vaughan and David Warner are also featured. It is a whimsical kids' movie with the fantasy adventure of time travel that has been ranked as one of the best movies ever made by many critics. Gilliam has referred to time bandits as first in his "Trilogy of Imagination", which includes Brazil (1985), and then The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (88). They all revolve around the "craziness and incoherence of our society, and the desire for escape through every means. These films all focus on the struggles and attempts to escape through imagination. Brazil is seen through the eyes of a young man, Time Bandits through a child's eyes, and Munchausen through an old man's eyes. Time Bandits, in particular, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. 5) Pennies from Heaven Quite a departure from his previous work, this film is much more lighthearted and comedic than the serious dramas of The Miracle Worker or Bonnie and Clyde. The plot revolves around Arthur Parker (Steve Martin), whose life becomes increasingly chaotic as he tries to juggle two jobs, an impending child custody battle for his daughter, and a demanding girlfriend who wants him to give up one job so that they can have some time together. 6) Airplane! This Leslie Nielsen instant comedy classic was one of the highest-grossing movies of 1980. The movie is about an airplane crew that must find a way to land their plane after food poisoning breaks out on board and the pilots become incapacitated, with only two inexperienced passengers who happen to be a doctor (Robert Hays) and a flight attendant (Julie Hagerty) qualified to land the plane. Airplane! was one of the most successful films at theaters in 1980 It had more than $83 million worth of ticket sales by year's end - it became one of Leslie Nielsen's most popular roles ever The film also helped launch Robert Hays' career as a leading man, though he later found greater success playing comedic supporting characters before retiring from acting. 7) The Empire Strikes Back One of the most famous of the 1980s movies, The Empire Strikes Back is remembered for its numerous plot twists and turns as well as introducing fan-favorite Yoda The film features Mark Hamill reprising his role as Luke Skywalker in this second installment of George Lucas' Star Wars series and it was the first star wars to be released on VHS. Featuring a mixture of live-action footage with high-quality animation from Japanese company Toho, it became one of the best critically acclaimed movies ever. In 1997, it won an American Film Institute award for being among the top 100 films since 1941. 8) Raging Bull 1980 was a strong year for movies, and Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull is one of the most acclaimed action films to be released that year. It stars Robert De Niro in an Academy Award-winning performance as new york boxer Jake La Motta, who has a turbulent affair with Kim Basinger's Vickie. The film depicts how new york boxing served as both his escape from domestic abuse but also led him on a self-destruction path. In addition to being nominated for ten Oscars (including best picture), it won two including best actor for Robert de Niro and best director awards respectively. Released by United Artists, the movie has ranked among the top 100 American Films ever made according to AFI rankings. This release is considered one of the best films of the 80s by many critics. 9) Kagemusha One of the most interesting and well-made movies that 1980 has to offer, Kagemusha tells the story of a warlord who is critically injured and after being buried alive. The movie was directed by Akira Kurosawa and stars Tatsuya Nakadai in one of his best performances ever as both warrior leader Katsuyori Shibata and an imposter named Shingen Yashida. Released in Japan on April 20th, 1980, it became the second-highest-grossing film at the Japanese box office just behind The Return of Godzilla (1984). Kagemusha made its international debut at Cannes Film Festival's Directors Fortnight where it won two major awards: Special Jury Prize for Best Direction and Grand Prix du Festival International du Film - Art. 10) The Gods Must Be Crazy Part comedy, part drama, The Gods Must Be Crazy is a timeless classic. Released in 1980, the film follows Xi (N!xau), an out-of-touch bushman who lives happily with his family until he encounters Coca Cola for the first time and it changes their world forever. The premise of this movie makes us laugh because we can relate to how much more comfortable life was before modern society became so intricate that things like Coke began infiltrating every aspect of our lives. We're drawn into Xi's story as he goes from living peacefully with his tribe to being thrust into a completely different reality when they start hunting down any remaining cases of coca-cola at stores all over town! It also touches on some deeper themes such as the cultural modern world where his customs and rituals mean nothing. Xi's journey is our own as we watch the culture clash of modern society, with all its good intentions and never-ending thirst for new things to consume, come into contact with a simpler time that has long since passed by. The humorous film release was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but lost out to Italy’s Cinema Paradiso (1988). 11) Caddyshack Released in 1980 this classic comedy film by Harold Ramis is widely considered one of the funniest movies ever made by fans and critics alike. It features an amazing comedic all-star ensemble cast, including Chevy Chase as a rich playboy who turns caddie in order to get girls; Ted Knight as Judge Smails, who wants to keep his country club memberships exclusive and prestigious; Rodney Dangerfield as Ty Webb, a millionaire golfer-cum-caddy who has been banned from all other golf courses for being too good. Also featuring Bill Murray as Carl Spackler, the groundskeeper at Bushwood Country Club whose only goal seems to be killing off gophers with any weapon he can devise (including explosives); Michael O'Keefe as Danny Noonan, a young man hired by Judge Smails's daughter (Castle) to caddy for him; and Brian Doyle-Murray as Lou Loomis, the club's ultra-snobby head professional. 12) The Blues Brothers Another instant classic 1980 movie, The Blues Brothers are best known for its 1980 car chases. Starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as Joliet Jake & Elwood Blues respectively, the two brothers who perform a blues show before being arrested by police. They break out of jail with their friends to save an orphanage from foreclosure through satanic cult leader sheik Abdul Khadaffi's "Elvis-Is-King" rally in Chicago Illinois on Mothers Day 1980 at noon. The film has been praised by audiences and critics alike for its music, screenplay, and performances but criticized for its lack of character development (most likely due to budget constraints). This was even acknowledged during production when director John Landis told cast members not to act too much because "no one is going to see this movie." The 1980 car chases are iconic and highly regarded by film critics. One of the most memorable moments in 1980 was when Elwood Blues while driving his 1980 Chevy Malibu, spots a cat on the front fender as he's being chased by police officers from Illinois State Troopers who try to arrest him for not wearing seat belts (the law at that time). The chase ends with Jake & Elwood crashing into an old man sitting atop a 1980 Chevy Monte Carlo. After striking them, the cops then swerve quickly around their fallen comrade before continuing after our heroes. 13) 9 To 5 9 to 5 (listed in the opening credits as Nine to Five) is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Colin Higgins, who wrote the screenplay with Patricia Resnick. It stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton as three working women who live out their fantasies of getting even with and overthrowing the company's autocratic, "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" boss, played by Dabney Coleman. The film grossed over $103.9 million and is the 20th-highest-grossing comedy film. As a star vehicle for Parton—already established as a successful singer, musician, and songwriter—it launched her permanently into mainstream popular culture. A television series of the same name based on the film ran for five seasons, and a musical version of the film (also titled 9 to 5), with new songs written by Parton, opened on Broadway on April 30, 2009. 9 to 5 is number 74 on the American Film Institute's "100 Funniest Movies" and has an 83% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. 14) Smokey And The Bandit 2 Smokey and the Bandit 2 Is a 1980 American action comedy film directed by Hal Needham, starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Jackie Gleason, And Dom DeLuise. This film is a sequel to 1977's film Smokey and the Bandit. The original release of the film was in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. Bo "Bandit", Darville (Burt Reynolds), and Cledus "Snowman," Snow (Jerry Reed) transport an elephant to the GOP National Convention. Sheriff Buford T. Justice, Jackie Gleason (Jackie Gleason), is once more in hot pursuit. 15) Superman 2 Superman II, a 1980 superhero movie directed by Richard Lester, is written by Mario Puzo, David, and Leslie Newman and is based on a story by Puzo about the DC Comics character Superman. It features Gene Hackman and Terence Stamp, Terence Stamp, Ned Beatty, and Sarah Douglas. The film was first released in Australia and Europe on December 4, 1980. It was also released in other countries during 1981. Megasound is a high-impact surround sound system that's similar to Sensurround and was used for select premiere Superman II engagements. The Salkinds decided in 1977 that they would simultaneously film Superman and its sequel. Principal photography began in March 1977 and ended in October 1978. There were tensions between Richard Donner, the original director, and the producers. It was decided to stop filming the sequel (of which 75 percent was already completed) and instead finish the first film. After the December 1978 release of Superman, Donner was fired from his post as director and was replaced by Lester. Many cast members and crew members declined to return following Donner's firing. Lester was officially acknowledged as the director. Principal photography resumed in September 1979 and ended in March 1980. Film critics gave the film positive reviews, praising the performances of Reeve, Stamp, and Hackman as well as the visual effects and humor. The film grossed $190million against a $54 million production budget. 16) Friday The 13th Friday the 13th, 1980 American slasher movie, is directed and produced by Sean S. Cunningham. Written by Victor Miller, it stars Betsy Palmer and Adrienne King. The plot centers on a group of teenager camp counselors, who are each murdered by an unknown killer as they attempt to reopen an abandoned summer camp. Cunningham, inspired by John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) success, put out an advertisement in Variety to sell the film. Miller was still writing the screenplay. Filming began in New York City after casting the film. It was shot in New Jersey during summer 1979 on an estimated budget of $550,000. The finished film was the subject of a bidding war. Paramount Pictures won domestic distribution rights while Warner Bros. Pictures took European rights. Friday the 13th, which was released on May 9, 1980, was a huge box office hit, earning $59.8 million globally. The film received mixed reviews, some praised its cinematography, score, and performances while others criticized it for depicting graphic violence. It was the first independent film of its type to be distributed in the U.S. by major studios. The film's box office success led it to many sequels, a crossover film with A Nightmare on Elm Street, and a reboot of the series in 2009. 17) Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is a 1980 space opera film directed and produced by Mike Hodges. It was based on Alex Raymond's King Features comic strip. The film stars Sam J. Jones and Melody Anderson as well as Max von Sydow, Max von Sydow, Max von Sydow, and Topol. Topol is supported by Timothy Dalton and Mariangela Melato. Peter Wyngarde plays the role of Peter Wyngarde. The film features Flash Gordon (Jones), a star quarterback, and his friends Dale Arden and Hans Zarkov (Topol), as they unify the warring factions on the planet Mongo to resist the oppression by Ming the Merciless (von Sydow), a man who wants to destroy Earth. Producer Dino De Laurentiis had been involved in two comic book adaptations: Danger: Diabolik and Barbarella (both 1968). He had also previously worked on Danger. De Laurentiis declined a George Lucas directorial offer, a Star Wars version directed by Federico Fellini was also rejected. De Laurentiis hired Nicolas Roeg as director and Enter the Dragon writer Michael Allin as the lead developer on the film. They were replaced in 1977 by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and Hodges, who had written De Laurentiis’ remake of King Kong, this was due to Roeg's dissatisfaction. Flash Gordon was mostly shot in England, with several soundstages at Elstree Studios and Shepperton Studios. It uses a camp style that is similar to the 1960s TV series Batman, which Semple created. Jones quit the film before principal photography was overdue to a dispute between De Laurentiis and Jones. Much of Jones's dialogue was dubbed by Peter Marinker. The documentary Life After Flash examines the main subjects of Jones' departure and his career after it was released. It is known for its Queen-inspired musical score, which features orchestral sections by Howard Blake. Flash Gordon was a box-office success in Italy and the United Kingdom, but it did poorly in other markets. The film received generally positive reviews upon its initial release and has since developed a large cult following. There have been many attempts at sequels or reboots, but none of them have ever made it to production. 18) Cheech & Chong's Next Movie Cheech and Chong's Next Movie, a 1980 comedy film by Tommy Chong, is the second feature-length Cheech & Chong project, after Up in Smoke. It was released by Universal Pictures. Cheech and Chong go on a mission: siphon gasoline to their neighbor's car. They then continue their day. Cheech works at a movie theater, while Chong looks for something to smoke (a roach). Then Chong revs up his indoor motorcycle and plays loud rock music that disrupts the neighborhood. Cheech is fired and the couple goes to Donna, Cheech's girlfriend, and welfare officer. Cheech seduces Donna over her objections and gets her in trouble with her boss. 19) Coal Miner's Daughter Coal Miner's Daughter, a 1980 American musical biographical film, was directed by Michael Apted and based on a screenplay by Tom Rickman. The film follows Loretta Lynn's rise to stardom as a country singer, starting in her teen years with a poor family. The film is based on Lynn's 1976 biography by George Vecsey. Read the full article

[thepinkcar]

The TC Gift Exchange

words: 2K

note: I started this a year ago as a joke but then after some thought the idea grew on me. Enjoy my weird brain.

Timothée found himself in an abandoned storage lot, sitting inside his aunt’s Toyota Camry while he tried to push down the impulse to scream. The location had been the address on a note he had received prior. The handwriting was unsettlingly familiar and read:

Honorable Timothée,

It wold be an honor to have your company at the location inscribed on December 31st close to midnight. Please bring a gift to exchange during the celebration. We hope to see you there.

In retrospect, showing up at all had been a grave mistake. He probably wouldn’t have if he hadn’t desperately craved space from the New Years rager. The holiday season had been a well-desired break from the prying eyes of the public. Unfortunately it also meant an unwavering devotion to every friend and family gathering that could be stuffed into his schedule.

So here he was, risking a shoot out (or more likely, stabbing) on New Years Eve. Just as he had resolved to turn around and leave, there was a knock on his car window. A young man with long curly dark hair waved at him to get out and Timothée sighed, quickly complying. The man’s hair obscured his face, but Timothée felt a chill run down his spine once he spoke.

“You’re Timothée, right?” Timmy nodded slowly. “Is that French, ‘cause that’d be hella tight.”

Timothée froze, finally taking in the thick American accent. “Did you just say ‘hella tight’?” he whispered. The man ignored the question, instead turning towards him and offering a hand. Timothée shook it hesitantly as he tried to find the the gall to look up. 

“‘Name’s Kyle. Nice to meet you, Tim-o-tay.” Timmy looked up so fast he was almost surprised not to feel any whiplash. When he saw his own face he screamed. 

“What the fuck! What the fuck is happening? Is this some sick joke?” Timothée screeched. Kyle sighed apathetically, pulling a hand-rolled cigarette from his pocket and lighting it. Timothée continued to stare at him bug-eyed, half expecting him to glitch or evaporate from his vision when he woke up from this nightmare. 

“Dude, chill. It’s not that weird,” Kyle mumbled, taking another hit. Timothée remained frozen and Kyle sighed again. “It’s too fucking cold for this shit. C’mon, we’re going inside and you better have your gift on you.”

Kyle took a step towards Timmy and Timmy flinched. Aggravated, Kyle grabbed Timmy’s forearm and pulled him inside one of the storage buildings.

The inside of the building was surprisingly cozy with the halls decorated vibrantly for Christmas. Soon they arrived in a room occupied by a Christmas tree, cookies, and an ominous circle of chairs. 

“I have him, so we can get this over with and leave!”

“Apathy has and never will be a good look on you, Kyle,” a new voice said. Timothée turned to meet Elio (or him playing Elio) dressed in his winter time outfit. He tried to set aside the creepiness of Elio’s distressed half-smile that he remembered doing during his takes for the end credits. Elio pulled him into an embrace and Timothée suppressed the urge to wriggle. 

“It’s a joy to meet you,” he said warmly before pulling back. “You’re more handsome than I anticipated.”

“How do you manage to be so narcissistic and so self-deprecating in the same sentence?” Kyle growled. Elio rolled his eyes before taking off his headphones and handing Kyle his walkman. Kyle bitterly put it on before continuing to listen to whatever was playing. 

“What’s going on?” Timmy finally mustered, his throat burning from the screaming. 

“We’re calling it the TC Gift Exchange,” Elio stated simply. “Every year, all of the characters you play come together at an undisclosed location and give each other gifts before departing back into our separate universes.”

Timothée stared at Elio in bewilderment before bursting into laughter. Elio watched him in confusion. 

“Is everything alright?”

“Of course! It’s just that my dopplegangers have teamed up to make me feel insane. Excellent work, but I think this can stop now.”

“It’s true,” two voices say. Tim and Elio turn to face a Billy from Miss Stevens and Zac from One and Two. They both have a cookie in hand with same amount of bites taken. Tim gulps.

“Each year, the universe of the most successful part that year is where we host,” Billy explains. “Last year we partied in Crema…”

“The year before that we had to do it in the ass crack of no where,” Zac mutters. 

“Hey! That spot was next to the road that I sang with Miss Stevens in the car on the way to that theatre conference. And you’re being out of character!”

“Well I’m sorry if I’ve been cranky considering my house was burned to bits!” Zac sneers.

“Boys! You’re literally the same persona set in two different storylines. Find your zen,” Elio says, immediately cringing. “I’m starting to sound like Kyle.”

Timothée shakes his head and moves to take a seat in the circle. The others soon follow suit taking their respective seats that are conveniently in chronological order. Timothée takes the opportunity to take in the others (he’s still deciding whether or not to refer to them as individuals) profiles. Elio sat two spaces to the right of him next Kyle and another doppelgänger that Timothée could only assume to be Daniel from Hot Summer Nights based solely off the fact that he wouldn’t stop rocking back and forth.

Billy and Zac buddy up next to one another beside Daniel, followed by an awkward looking Charlie Cooper and roughed up Jace. Timothée cringed at the familiar backwards cap sitting on Jace’s head next to him. He turned to Elio who had busked himself switching the tape out of his Walkman for Kyle. “This isn’t everyone is it?”

Elio raised a brow but didn’t break his focus. “What do you mean? Timothée bit his lip. He didn’t want to come off arrogant, ironically.

“There’s do roles missing from the circle.”

“Not everyone comes every year. Some are on probation,” Kyle said matter-of-factly. Timothée rolled his eyes. He forgot how much of a douche Kyle was meant to be.

“Some aren’t old enough to come, so we mail them their gifts,” Elio finished.

“But how do you send mail to a completely different universe?”

“You’re asking too many questions. Why is he asking so many questions?” Daniel grumbled, crazed eyes now trained on Timothée. Timothée felt his hands clam up more than they already had. 

“Danny, be civil,” Elio warned, giving him a cautious pat on the back. Kyle rolled his eyes.

“We mail them the same way we’re all able to gather with you tonight. Dumbass.” Timmy nodded slowly, surveying the room of doppelgängers. The more he looked at them the less anxious he became about seeing them, which only made him more anxious about how quickly he was acclimating to his Stockholm of a situation.

“What about the ones on—“

“Probation? We try to keep the celebration to main characters only, since we’re not exactly rolling in it, y’know?” Billy quipped, jumping in before Elio had a chance. “Then some people…”

“Nic can’t come because technically he’s a fictionalized real person,” Elio cut in once again, shooting Billy a cool look.

“And he’s a drug addict,” Kyle muttered.

“Recovering addict.”

“What’s the difference? There’s only one guy missing but I don’t really care if he’s here or not. I’m not a big fan of monarchy or oligarchy or government institutions—“

“—or the government?” Timothée cut in knowingly. Kyle smiled.

“See he gets it.”

A crash of metal silences the room’s chatter. After a moment of silence another doppelgänger, this time with a stylish bowl cut appears. Timothée shivers at the memory of his lost locs. Kyle scowls while Elio beams. The others arrange their reactions neatly between the two margins.

“Hello everyone. I hope you can pardon my lateness. I struggled to drag this sorry lot to the TC Exchange,” Hal declared, ceremoniously dragging in Gatsby Welles from the he-who-shall-not-be-named movie about rain. It was Elio’s turn to grimace while Kyle smirked.

“No foul, your highness. Be seated here. As for him…”

“We can’t keep blacklisting him, Elio.”

“His film didn’t even hit theaters! Mine has an Oscar, Kyle. An Oscar!” 

“You mean the award you campaign for?”

“I don’t mind.” The room turned to Timothée who had chosen to slump comfortably in his seat. He decided to sit up for the sake of his point. “I chose to play him. He still means a lot to me.”

“He’s just Kyle wearing a blazer!”

“He’s more complex than that, Elio.”

“No one if knows what he’s supposed to be like because it’s impossible to watch the movie!” Elio whined. Timothée moved to respond when a familiar click is heard from across the room. They froze to face Jace holding his signature hand gun.

“You better shut your ass, Elliot! Just because you like dick doesn’t mean you get to make all the rules. The man of the hour said he wants Gatsby to stay, so Gatsby’s staying!”

“While I try not to condone violence, unless my advisors misadvise me, I have to agree with as the kids might say Soulja Boy over there,” Hal added causing Elio to crumple further into his seat.  Timothée frowned.

“I understand why you’re upset, Elio. He somehow managed to write a poetry collection during this whole exchange. But I still wanna keep him if we’re gonna be here.”

“I’m gonna name this last one after you, Elio,” Gatsby said softly. Elio gives a small smile.

“Okay.”

“Thank god,” Kyle sighed, “Can we get our gifts now? I don’t want to ring in the new decade with you lot.”

❄️❄️❄️

After an hour of mingling with his counterparts, the goodbyes tugged a bit on Timothée’s heart strings. He learned so much about everyone as far as the group dynamic went. He learned Kyle and Elio were actually quite close considering how much they seemed to rag on each other.

“You should have seen him the first year. An antisocial mess,” Elio reminisced fondly.

“That’s before a realized you have taste. I wouldn’t have shown up again if you hadn’t,” Kyle admitted begrudgingly.

Timothée also learned that while most of his characters felt similar, after two minutes of conversation the differences became glaring. Except for Billy and Zac. They were essentially the same person.

“I hope one day I’ll get a box of serotonin for Christmas,” Billy joked. Zac gasped.

“I asked for a bottle of Serotonin for my birthday!”

As Timothée walked back to his Aunt’s Camry with Hal, he couldn’t fight off the smile that kept creeping onto his face. Hal side-eyed him in solent satisfaction.

“Will we be seeing you again next year? I’m sure Elio wouldn’t mind providing free transit to space.”

“I’ll have to think about it,” Timothée chuckled. “This was…nice. Like really nice. It makes me kinda glad to be an actor. In an unnerving way.”

“I couldn’t have asked for better casting. Next year should be nice since Laurie will be able to come. I think him and Elio will get on nicely, then maybe…”

“Then maybe he’ll stop flirting with you? Still not sure how I feel about that,” Timothée mumbled with a shudder. The man really needs his Oliver.

“Don’t worry yourself about it. I only have one thing to request of you good sir.” Timothée raised a brow, trying not to fidget under Hal’s intense gaze. “Please, consider doing a comedic role in the future. We could use someone to shake things up around here.” The two of them smiled before bursting into fits of laughter.

“You’ve got it King!”

“No, you’re the king today. Drive safe and we’ll see you next time.” Hal walked back into the abandoned hall while Timothée sat down in his car and prepared to drive back. Maybe in the morning he’d wake up from a highly elaborate dream, but for now he could hang on to the feeling of gratitude and appreciation.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #455

Top Ten Comedy Sidekicks

Ha, LOL, ROFL, guffaw, snort. Comedy, eh? You’ve got to love it, unless you somehow fall through a timewarp into a late-seventies working men’s club in Blackburn and you find yourself choking to death on second-hand smoke, mother-in-law jokes, and a simmering undercurrent of racist violence. Good times!

Anyway, it’s fairly common that even in the most serious of narratives and with the most serious of protagonists, we need a little chuckle very now and again (nobody tell Zack Snyder – actually, no, scratch that, somebody definitely tell Zack Snyder). It lightens the load, makes the world more nuanced and realistic, and even makes the truly dark moments stand out all the stronger. Most films have a bit of a joke every once in a while (and, of course, Shakespeare’s tragedies are full of comic characters or bits of business), and one very common trope is the Comedy Sidekick.

What is a Comedy Sidekick? Well, it’s a supporting character who offers comic relief, basically. sometimes this can be obviously discernible – Luis in Ant-Man, for example, may function as a plot engine from time to time, but has little in the way of actual character development and is mostly there to be funny whilst the heroes do hero stuff. Sometimes it’s harder to define; I mean, are either of the Blues Brothers a comedy sidekick? Arguably Jake is the lead and Elwood is a bit more of a “turn” (he’s almost eternally deadpan and unemotional), but I’d never say one was inherently funnier or “straighter” than the other. And the you get onto films like Aladdin: sure, Aladdin himself is obviously the protagonist, and there’s an argument to be made that the Genie is a comic relief supporting character, but I feel in this case he’s far too integral to the plot, played by a significantly more famous actor, and really just dominates the film to the extent that he becomes the de facto lead (see also: Captain Jack Sparrow). Again, in Men in Black, Will Smith’s J is clearly the “funny” one, but Smith is also the bigger star and the audience entry point; plus, Tommy Lee Jones is hilarious as the deadpan K. So it’s not as simple as it may first appear.

Anyway, the ten in this list are ones I define as definitely being supporting characters. They may be big characters, in terms of plot or development, but they’re definitely there in support of another protagonist. And whilst they may be fully-rounded characters with their own arcs, their primary function is to be funny; they’re the ones who deliver the comedy lines back to the main character, or crack a joke at the end of a serious bit.

Right, I think that’s my usual ridiculous caveats out of the way. Now let’s make ‘em laugh.

Baldrick (Tony Robinson, Blackadder series, 1983-99): Baldrick is one of the supreme comic idiots in all of fiction. Serving as a perfect foil to Blackadder, he is not only supremely stupid but also his niceness and naiveté serves to undercut his master’s wickedness; plus his idiocy is often the undoing of Blackadder’s villainous plans. But he is also charmingly fully-rounded, oblivious to his own stupidity, possessed of “cunning plans”, and with a great love of turnips. A phenomenal turn from Robinson.

Sir John Falstaff (various plays by William Shakespeare, from 1597): is it cheating to include as significant and iconic a literary figure as Falstaff? Feels a bit like it, especially as he's practically a lead (and, indeed, becomes one in Merry Wives). But really he’s the archetype: a supremely vain and self-serving comic foil, but one with vast hidden depths as he’s keenly aware of his own frailties and the inevitable end of his good times with Prince Hal.

Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O’Hanlon, Father Ted 1995-98): in many ways he’s a slightly watered-down version of Baldrick’s comic idiot; but Dougal is, if anything, even stupider, and less self-aware. He’s like a perfect idiot, a beautiful naïve fool, a supreme man-child with his Masters of the Universe duvet. And he’s divine, just incredibly hilarious throughout; and, like Baldrick, serves as the perfect foil for his more duplicitous and cynical elder.

Donkey (Eddie Murphy, Shrek, 2001): animated sidekicks are very often the comic relief, and I’d argue that Murphy’s Donkey is as good as they come. I actually think Murphy’s prior turn as Mushu in Mulan is probably the better character, but Donkey is just a comic force of nature, a creature who exists only to make everything dafter and funnier. It allowed Murphy a chance to go all-out in a way he hadn’t on screen for quite some time, and it was something we’d rarely seen in animation (arguably only Robin Williams’ Genie is in the same ballpark). Plus, he actually is a good friend to Shrek, bringing out his better nature. Well done, Eddie!

Danny Butterman (Nick Frost, Hot Fuzz, 2007): another of those characters who really skirts the edges of “supporting comic relief” and is really a deuteragonist. But I feel like most of Frost’s characters in his partnerships with Simon Pegg are, essentially, supportive; Pegg is almost always the lead. In this film, despite Danny having some great development and functioning almost as a romantic partner for Pegg’s Nick Angel, he’s usually presented as a beautiful comic foil, his folksy, slobby demeanour contrasting perfectly with Angel’s straitlaced professionalism. And – for the second film in a row – he gets a tremendous C-bomb.

Luis (Michael Peña, Ant-Man, 2015): another comic fool, Luis is the silly, charming, endearing, loveable thorn in the side of Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang. He’s daft, yeah, and comes across as a bit dim, but his permanently-smiling demeanour means we just keep on loving him, even when we can see how annoying he would be. but what cements his position is his rapid-fire OTT explanations, and how the movie presents them; pieces of comedic joy in the MCU.

Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor, Singin’ in the Rain, 1952): Singin’ is one of those great Golden Age movies full of witty dialogue (as well as great songs, natch), and by its nature Gene Kelly is the lead and therefore straight man, whereas O’Connor’s Cosmo can be wackier and funnier, and in doing so get to the truth of what his friend is feeling. But what really gets him in this list is his performance of “Make ‘Em Laugh”, running up walls like he’s in The Matrix or something, and feeling like a Bugs Bunny cartoon brought to life.

Silent Bob (Kevin Smith, View Askiewniverse, from 1994): I guess you could argue that both Bob and his less-silent colleague Jay are, as a twosome, the comedy sidekicks in whichever films they’re in (apart from the two they headline, I guess); but if you take the pair on their own, I’d say Bob is the comic of the duo. Yeah, it’s Jay who’s the mile-a-minute loudmouth, cracking jokes and being explosively filthy. But who really gets the laughs? For my money it’s Smith’s perfectly-judged expressions, punctuating the pomposity or reinforcing the eccentricity of whatever Jay’s on about. And then every now and again he gets to speak, and delivers a great one-liner (“no ticket!”) or serious, heartfelt monologue (cf. Chasing Amy).

Semmi (Arsenio Hall, Coming to America, 1988): Semmi is supposed to be a loyal and devoted servant to Prince Akeem, and he is, I guess; but he’s also a true friend. Akeem’s quest to find love in New York is genuine, and despite the film’s high joke quantity, Eddie Murphy has to be relatively restrained in his lead role. Hall’s Semmi, on the other hand, gets to be acerbic, throwing shade and barbs at his lord, questing their quest and seeking his own share of wealth and, well, women. And we all love his line “you sweat from a baboon’s balls”.

Dory (Ellen DeGeneres, Finding Nemo, 2003): as discussed above, comedy cartoon sidekicks are a cinematic staple. They’re not often female, however, and even more rare is a female character who gets to be both funnier and seemingly dumber/goofier than the lead. Of course, Dory is full of pathos, a borderline tragic character whose chronic memory loss has a dreadful impact on her day-to-day life. It’s her sunny optimism (“just keep swimming!”) that makes her endearing more than her humour, however; and, of course, it’s this optimism that begins to chip away at Marlin’s (Albert Brooks’) flinty suit of armour. Funny, warm, makes our hero a better person, but can be a little bit sad – perfect comedy sidekick.

There are two that I’m annoyed that I couldn’t fit in so I'll mention them here: Carrie Fisher in When Harry Met Sally and Danny Kaye in White Christmas. In the former case, whilst Fisher’s Marie is hilarious throughout, and definitely comic relief when put alongside the relatively straight Sally, the fact that everyone, really, gets a lot of funny lines in what is a consistently funny film kinda knocked her down the rankings a little bit, even though I feel bad about it, because everything is always better if Carrie FIsher is in it, including these lists. Kaye’s Phil Davis in White Christmas absolutely steals that film from Bing Crosby, with fast-paced witty wordplay and some supreme physical comedy, and the running gag about how he saved the life of Crosby’s Bob Wallace is golden. But, I dunno, he just kept slipping down the list, despite being my favourite thing in that film. Sorry, Danny.

[nightvaleintros]

161 - The Space Race

Joseph Fink: Hello, welcome back, we’re excited to be here with our first episode of 2020, it’s extremely educational, you’ll learn a lot about space. But before we get started, I have 3 important things to tell you. Things the first: we are taking our brand new live show to over 50 cities across North America and Europe this year, and we’re excited to announce that in honor of this being the last year that Cecil Baldwin will star in the live version of this show, we are bringing some of our favorite weather acts from the last six years of touring back out on the road with us. We are going to be touring with our friends Eliza Rickman, Dessa, Dane Terry, Mal Blum, Erin McKeown and Danny Schmidt and Carrie Elkin. Go to welcometonightvale.com/live to find out which weather act is coming to your city, and to buy your tickets to this spooky new live show.

Two: speaking of live shows, we just released the live recording of our last live show, “A Spy in the Desert”, on Bandcamp and iTunes. If you missed this show or want to relive it, complete with Cecil’s secret that only one audience member a night go to hear, but yes it’s on this album so now everyone gets to hear it, go check it out. Our members on Patreon who help us continue making this podcast that you are listening to, also get two exclusive bonus tracks featuring Dylan Marron as Carlos and Hal Lublin as Steve Carlsberg, our Patreon will be the only place you can hear those guest parts. More info on our website.

The last important thing: signed editions of our new novel, “The Faceless Old Woman who Secretly Lives in Your Home”, are now available for preorder. And if you order them from our local bookstore, Oblong, you can also get those preorders personalized. We can’t wait for this book to come out on March 24. It’s like if “The Princess Bride” met “The Haunting of Hill House”, met a Faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home. We love this book, it’s our favorite one we’ve written yet. Head over to welcometonightvale.com/books to preorder your signed copies. Plus there’s an audio book read by the voice of the Faceless Old Woman herself, Mara Wilson.

And now, hey, Let’s learn about space.

Meg Bashwiner: Welcome to Night Vale is a production of Night Vale Presents. It is written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor and produced by Disparition.

The voice of Night Vale is Cecil Baldwin.

Original music by Disparition. All of it can be found at disparition.info or disparition.bandcamp.com.

This episode’s weather was “Have a Smoke” by Head Portals. Find out more at headportals.bandcamp.com.

Comments? Questions? Email us at info@welcometonightvale.com, or follow us on Twitter @NightValeRadio. Or find a lost dog and gently guide it home.

Check out welcometonightvale.com for more information about our newly released live show recording, “A Spy in the Desert”, and info about our upcoming novel, “The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home”.

Today’s proverb: Correct placement from right to left: salad fork, soup spoon, salad spoon, bread knife, bowie knife, meat thermometer, entrée fork, and finally, the desert claws.

[liesandarbor]

Hi! i just read your Ashara twitter thread (great work btw) and was wondering why you think that lady catelyn heart is a "cold, stone-hearted emptiness". I mean she was terrible and cold to jon snow, but she loved her kids and ned fiercely.

Thanks, anon!  What I meant about her having “cold, stone-hearted emptiness” wasn’t necessarily meaning she was a cold-hearted person, or had no love.  Catelyn certainly loved her children ferociously, and Ned, too.  However, let me unravel for you a bit. 

Ned’s acedia in communicating with Catelyn about Jon and Lyanna wasn’t the first breaking point.  Catelyn entered the North with a target on her back.  A southerner - who aren’t exactly the most welcome sight in the North currently - who’s only claim and insurance is that Ned, the sudden Lord of Winterfell, knocked her up…. and she doesn’t even get the luxury of enjoying that, because he returns home to greet her with a bastard on his hip.  

Catelyn sat on her horse, unmoving, with Hal Mollen and her guard around her, and she waited as she had waited before, for Brandon and Ned and her father. She was high on the ridge, and the trees hid most of what was going on beneath her. A heartbeat, two, four, and suddenly it was as if she and her protectors were alone in the wood. The rest were melted away into the green.Catelyn X, AGOT

Catelyn, who forfeited affording herself emotion in her pairings, was nothing but dutiful for her father, marrying who strengthened his political affiliation as was expected of her (interesting contrast against Lyanna, where Cat had to deal with the emotional brunt of her non-duty).

Imagine: the only problem in your marriage, in 15 years, is that there is one topic that your husband completely refuses to speak of, and regards his ‘cheating’ on you and ‘having a child’ with another woman.  That’s a pretty big non-starter when it comes to healthy relationships, no?

That was the only time in all their years that Ned had ever frightened her. “Never ask me about Jon,” he said, cold as ice. “He is my blood, and that is all you need to know. And now I will learn where you heard that name, my lady.” She had pledged to obey; she told him; and from that day on, the whispering had stopped, and Ashara Dayne’s name was never heard in Winterfell again.

Whoever Jon’s mother had been, Ned must have loved her fiercely, for nothing Catelyn said would persuade him to send the boy away. It was the one thing she could never forgive him. She had come to love her husband with all her heart, but she had never found it in her to love Jon. She might have overlooked a dozen bastards for Ned’s sake, so long as they were out of sight. Jon was never out of sight, and as he grew, he looked more like Ned than any of the trueborn sons she bore him. Somehow that made it worse. “Jon must go,” she said now.Catelyn II, AGOT

Catelyn, incapable of dealing with these emotions, or processing them whatsoever - because Ned won’t allow her, due to his ‘honorable promise’ - lived with the thought in the very back of her head that Ned was unfaithful to her, that it was probably the dead chick, Ashara Dayne, and that Ned harbored some fantastical love in his heart for another woman that she could never compare or beat.  

That brought a bitter twist to Ned’s mouth. “Brandon. Yes. Brandon would know what to do. He always did. It was all meant for Brandon. You, Winterfell, everything. He was born to be a King’s Hand and a father to queens. I never asked for this cup to pass to me.”Catelyn II, AGOT

Even Ned finds himself comparing the present to what could have been had Brandon survived - not just Catelyn.

“For just an instant Robb sounded more like Brandon than his father.”Catelyn II, ASOS

As we traverse through the first three books, Catelyn, ferocious yet cautious wolf-mother, begins to grow wearier and wearier in front of our very eyes.  And bitter.  And cold.  She’s separated from her family, she experiences almost all of them ‘dying’, and almost grows resentful.

“Our duty.” Catelyn’s face was drawn as she started across the yard. I have always done my duty, she thought. Perhaps that was why her lord father had always cherished her best of all his children. Her two older brothers had both died in infancy, so she had been son as well as daughter to Lord Hoster until Edmure was born. Then her mother had died and her father had told her that she must be the lady of Riverrun now, and she had done that too. And when Lord Hoster promised her to Brandon Stark, she had thanked him for making her such a splendid match.

I gave Brandon my favor to wear, and never comforted Petyr once after he was wounded, nor bid him farewell when Father sent him off. And when Brandon was murdered and Father told me I must wed his brother, I did so gladly, though I never saw Ned’s face until our wedding day. I gave my maidenhood to this solemn stranger and sent him off to his war and his king and the woman who bore him his bastard, because I always did my duty.Catelyn VI, ACOK

I would even go as far to say that, past AGOT and Ned’s death,  she spends a good amount of the books basically assuring herself that her love with Ned was real, that everything was great, and that by fighting this war, she is doing the right thing - Family, duty, honor, right?

She remembered her own childish disappointment, the first time she had laid eyes on Eddard Stark. She had pictured him as a younger version of his brother Brandon, but that was wrong. Ned was shorter and plainer of face, and so somber. He spoke courteously enough, but beneath the words she sensed a coolness that was all at odds with Brandon, whose mirths had been as wild as his rages. Even when he took her maidenhood, their love had more of duty to it than of passion. We made Robb that night, though; we made a king together. And after the war, at Winterfell, I had love enough for any woman, once I found the good sweet heart beneath Ned’s solemn face. There is no reason Edmure should not find the same, with his Roslin. Catelyn V, ASOS

I had love enough for any woman doesn’t exactly sound like Ned swept me off of my feet, he was my big, beautiful love, the world has stopped spinning. No, it is a woman who has been halted by circumstance, who has made the best of her situation and fiercely loves the family she has been given.

“Joffrey will show you no such devotion, I fear. You could thank your sister for that, if she weren’t dead. He’s never been able to forget that day on the Trident when you saw her shame him, so he shames you in turn. You’re stronger than you seem, though. I expect you’ll survive a bit of humiliation. I did. You may never love the king, but you’ll love his children.”Sansa IV, ACOK

While obviously a bit of a different situation, Cersei, who was also sold off for swords to a man she didn’t really desire, nails home what a woman’s role in this world was, and what a woman could rise to.  Brave Danny Flint, Brienne, all of these female warriors breaking gender roles in Westeros show us what can happen to those that break their ‘mold’, and Catelyn did not have anything to push to change her life and world - all she had was holding on to her husband, her children, her gods, and helping to run the household.   

That’s why Catelyn is so intrigued by Brienne - both raised on the same concepts and morals, but Brienne shied away and refused to go along with what her father wanted for her, where Catelyn took the road more often followed.

Catelyn wished they would all go away. They were good men, loyal, yet she was tired of them all. It was her children she yearned after. One day, she promised herself as she lay abed, one day she would allow herself to be less than strong.But not today. It could not be today.Catelyn II, ACOK

By the end of Catelyn’s plot, she is exhausted, cold, and empty.  What few things she had left, the things she clung to - her Gods, her husband, her children - are ripped away from her, piece by piece.

The societal norms that raised and nourished her for so long slice her neck open, just as Raymund Frey’s blade did.  

[wonderbat1216]

Justice League Review

2017 has been a great year for superhero films with “Logan,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2”, “Wonder Woman,” “Spiderman: Homecoming,” and “Thor: Ragnarok.” Now in mid-November, it’s time for the cherry on top, DC Comics’ “Justice League.”“Justice League” has opened to mixed reviews from critics but adoration from DC fans, reminding me of another DC film directed by Zack Snyder. (You can read our review of that movie here.)

Here is where I start talking about the specifics of the movie. MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT.

Much like my BvS review, I’m going to go pros and cons. Let’s start with the relationships in the film. A fundamental dynamic in the movie is the connection between Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Diana Prince (Wonder Woman). They work perfectly together in this film with their relationship shown as friendship and admiration, possibly blossoming into something more. 

The romantic subtext is subtle and reminiscent of the character’s relationship in the “Justice League” cartoon of the early 2000’s. Bruce and Diana genuinely respect one another, and in the one time that the respect lapses and Bruce says something out of line, Cyborg calls him out, and Bruce apologizes a couple of scenes later.

Another critical couple is Clark Kent (Superman) and Lois Lane. The dynamics of this relationship are proudly on display long before Clark is resurrected. Early in the film, we see Lois mourning the loss of Clark and sharing a thoughtful scene with Clark’s adoptive mother, Martha.

About halfway through the film, When Clark is resurrected, he is confused and attacks the other heroes. Lois is the one who snaps him out of it. This leads to a beautiful reunion scene at Clark’s home in Smallville and a heartbreaking reunion with his mother. Bruce knows how deep Lois and Clark’s connection is and uses it as his contingency plan for when things go south during the resurrection, calling Lois “The big gun.”

Sadly, two crucial relationships are almost entirely cut from the movie. Actress Kiersey Clemons shot scenes as Iris West, who DC fans know as Barry Allen’s girlfriend or wife, depending on the continuity. Unfortunately, her scenes were cut entirely. 

Mera of Atlantis, known as Aquaman’s romantic interest was only in one scene, and her character isn’t named. If you didn’t know better, you would just think she’s a random Atlantean.

Now let’s move on to the big bad of this movie, an alien named Steppenwolf, who comes to earth looking for three ‘Mother Boxes,' sources of almost infinite power, hidden away on earth long ago after Steppenwolf’s first attempt to use them thousands of years ago. 

I have a few issues here.First, unless you are a DC fan, you have no clue who this guy is, what the mother boxes are, or why Steppenwolf wants them. Since the movie fails to explain, I will. 

Steppenwolf is the uncle of Darkseid, a primary villain in DC Comics (comparable to Marvel’s Thanos) and is the leader of Darkseid's elite forces. Steppenwolf and Darkseid are members of a race of ‘New Gods’ from Apokolips, a hell-like alien planet. The mother boxes are Apokoliptian technology that can be used to destroy and remake planets and used as tools of conquest. Steppenwolf’s objective is to find and use the boxes to conquer earth for Darkseid

.Second, we’ve seen this type of villain before in the DCEU. We have a big guy with horns, bent on either the destruction or conquest of earth. Am I talking about Steppenwolf, Ares, or Enchantress’ unnamed brother? They’re all the same.

I will say, I liked how the villain plot tied in Cyborg. Usually, when Cyborg is included with the league instead of the Teen Titans, he’s treated as less because he’s younger. In this film, he’s integral to the league’s success. 

Without Cyborg and his mother box tech, our heroes would not have been able to resurrect Superman, or find Steppenwolf and the boxes, or separate the boxes to end the threat. Basically, without Cyborg everybody would’ve died and we would have no movie.

(This paragraph contains a “Wonder Woman” spoiler.) I appreciated the interactions between the members of the league. The mentor relationship Bruce had with Barry, was like the relationship between Iron Man in Spiderman in “Spiderman: Homecoming.” Jason Momoa was brilliant as Aquaman, transforming him into a valued member of the group instead of the underrated character that no one cared about before. Barry freaking out about Clark’s speed was hilarious, and a nice echo of both the 1967 race in the comics and the Flash/Supergirl tv crossover last year. Diana was a treat as always, trying to be the voice of reason, and taking on the leadership role with Bruce. The boys respect her authority. I also appreciated the film showing that even a century later, Diana is still struggling with the loss of Steve Trevor. 

Bruce’s butler and confidant, Alfred, played a more significant role in this film than he did in BvS, bringing with him the sass and one-liners of his comic and cartoon counterparts. While not members of the league, the early scenes with the Amazons were excellent and showed that even though Hippolyta exiled her daughter, she still deeply cares about her.

My last positive note is the setups. Early in the film, during the flashback fight during Steppenwolf’s first invasion, we see a Green Lantern fight alongside the Amazons, Atlanteans, and Man. When he falls, we see his ring fly off, presumably to find a new host. While this scene is too early in history to point to Hal Jordan or any other modern lanterns, it confirms that we will eventually see a Green Lantern from earth. 

The second setup is in the end credit scene that many people missed the scene involves Lex Luthor recruiting infamous DC villain, Deathstroke. (Fans who watched the Teen Titans cartoon will know him as Slade.) Lex wants to form a league of his own to combat the heroes, possibly setting up a version of the Injustice League or Legion of Doom. Very Exciting.

To wrap up, I’m going to go in the style of “The A.V. Club” and list some stray observations, thoughts that don’t fit into my neat little categories.

For most of the resurrection scene, Superman is shirtless. You can take that as good or bad.Near the very end of the film, 

Cyborg utters his famous catchphrase from the “Teen Titans” cartoon, “Booyah.” The entire theater erupted in applause.

Barry is never once called “The Flash.” For the third movie in a row, Diana is never called “Wonder Woman.”

Danny Elfman’s score was alright, but I wish he would’ve used more of Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL’s music from Man of Steel and BvS. I don’t think he should have used John William’s Superman theme, and I don’t think he should have recycled the theme he wrote for Michael Keaton’s 1989 Batman. A big part of interconnecting franchises in the musical motifs and I think Elfman wrecked it.

When Zack Snyder had to leave due to personal tragedy, Joss Whedon replaced him and ordered vast reshoots. This extended the production schedule forcing Henry Cavill (Clark/Superman) to switch back and forth between shooting “Justice League” and “Mission Impossible: 6.” For MI:6 Cavill is contractually obligated to have a mustache. He couldn’t shave to be Superman, so they had to CGI it out. If Clark’s face looks weird at any point, that's why. I blame Whedon.

I counted at least seven times where Diana and other Amazons were needlessly sexualized. This included wearing more revealing armor than in “Wonder Woman,” camera angles that went up skirts and lingered on backsides, and the scene where Barry trips and face plants into Diana’s chest. Again, I blame Whedon (This type of sexualization is also present in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” which Whedon also directed.

This might not be anyone’s fault specifically, but the 3D is not worth it. I watched the standard version and 3D back to back. It was barely noticeable. The only part that was made better by 3D was the “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” trailer

Overall Justice league was a great film for DC fans. It follows “Batman vs. Superman” and “Wonder Woman” well, and it sets up future DC films nicely.

[reivenesque]

Day 3 of 20 Days of Whump Challenge

Top 3 whump scenes and why?

Chicago Hope: S03E20 - Second Chances.

Danny Nyland (Thomas Gibson) is in a car accident.

In terms of whump, hurt/comfort and the medical side follow up, this episode was pretty much perfect from start to finish (the actual injury follow up in subsequent episode is a giant letdown tho, but because this episode was aesthetically perfect, I’m willing to let that slide)

An overly stressed and overworked Nyland, a doctor at Chicago Hope, wraps his car around a pole and suffers pretty much all my favourite whump trope injury. Cue all the other doctors; his colleagues and friends working together to save his life.

“Transacted pancreas, burst fracture of L-1 and L-2, retropulsed fragment. Either subdural or epidural hematoma.”

Special mention: his friendship with Billy and Billy’s anger and fighting with Wilkes because he was pushing Danny to hard which directly lead to his accident.

Nash Bridges: S02E04 - Wrecking Crew

Insp. Evan Cortez gets shot in the line of duty.

And oldie but a goodie, which should also be the 2017 tagline for this show. Something happen to Evan later on that I refuse to acknowledge or accept as reality; in my mind this is the first and only time he gets shot.

Like the one above, this fits my favourite whump tropes down to a T. Character getting shot? Check. Blood? Check. Hospital scene? Check. Intubation? Check. THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP? Check. Also bonus: weak and gravelly voice because of said intubation is very realistic and even by the end, he isn’t fully healed from his injuries.

Third Watch: S05E22/S6E01 - Monsters & More Monsters. Followed up in S06E07 - Leap of Faith, S06E12 (The L Word) S06E13 (The Other L Word)

Maurice ‘Bosco’ Boscorelli (Jason Wiles) gets shot multiple times in the chest and face while shielding his partner from gunmen.

Criminal boss played by Gene Simmons, sends gunmen to shoot up a hospital to kill the detectives responsible for the death of his son. Like with ER, the action starts at the end of the season 5 finale and people had to wait and entire fucking season to find out what happened.

Bosco gets shot multiple times in the chest and in the face (it enters his neck and exits out his cheek) protecting his partner from the incoming bullets. I don’t usually like facial injuries, but this one was written in because the actor was taking time off for an irl injury so I don’t mind it much. What I loves about these episodes were the chain reaction of events that happened as a result of that episode and that shooting. It takes five episodes before he comes out of the coma (Leap of Faith) and is only discharged in episode 13.

Special mention:

“I forgot how many personal things I tell you. I guess I forgot how much I talk to you because you weren’t there for me to talk to. I miss you Bosco.” - Faith Yokas.

Faith/Bosco partnership forever in my heart.

Honorable mention:

Devil’s Trap and In My Time of Dying (Supernatural) Need I say more?

22 Skidoo (NYPD Blue). Lieutenant Rodrigues (Esai Morales) gets shot by a disgruntled IA captain who has a personal vendetta against him.

Carter and Lucy’s stabbing (ER) A favourite whump scene list just would not be complete without the grandmaster of all whump scenes. Although I will not mention Lucy because her death remains the single most traumatic moment I have ever witnessed on television the only reason why this isn’t in my main whump list is because pretty much everyone has this on theirs.

Also Benton’s reaction (his friendship with Carter has always been something special) and the way he ran down those steps towards the ER and his reluctance to leave Carters side. Also the way everyone rallied to save Carter and Lucy’s life. Also Romano who hates everyone and their parents not wanting to give up on Lucy.

Hal Mason is paralysed for the first few episode of season 3 (Falling Skies) Unexpected (and rather strange) plot twist going into season 3, but if Falling Skies is know for anything, it is its terrible inconsistencies. 

Jimmy Doherty gets shot (Third Watch). EP: Young Men and Fire/Jimmy’s Mountain Jimmy and a few other firefighters get shot by a mentally ill former firefighter. Nice hurt scene and everyone being worried. Followed up in the episode, Jimmy’s Mountain when he comes back to work prematurely.

Steve McGarret gets shot, 20k feet in the air (Hawaii Five-O) Good whump, terrible medical scene and follow up. But this is H50 so no one should really be all that surprised.

Lee Adama accidentally gets hit by friendly fire (Battlestar Galactica). Good whump, nice drama.

[tessatechaitea]

Dark Days: The Forge #1

Sometimes when I see John Romita Jr. artwork, I think, "What did I ever have against Rob Liefeld?!"

Hawkman's final journal? Hooray! Go to hell, you stupid prick! And I thought these were going to be dark days!

Does anybody else find it weird that Carter Hall records his journal on Swiss cheese? Many years ago (I guess? There's no time stamp on the opening scene!), Carter Hall recorded the crashing of a spaceship on his lunch. But since he didn't know the word "spaceship," he wrote "sign written in metal." That will probably be important later but for now, it's time to move the story into the present. And where better to begin an adventure story than The Bermuda Triangle! Wait. I should rephrase that. "Where better to begin an adventure story in the 1970s than The Bermuda Triangle!" Oh boy! Eight year old me just came in his pants! I mean if that were possible. Nothing but pee would be coming out of there for at least another five years.

You know you can read and reread the data once you get somewhere safe? Or did you not save your data to the cloud? Idiot. You should use both terrestrial and cloud backups!

That scientist sounds like me in high school after first hearing Mr. Crowley: "There's something in the metal!" Batman rescues the scientist whose name is Dr. Madison (MADISOOOOOON!). Batman tells Dr. Madison that the only to safety is back through the volcano. Batman: "The only way out is in!" Dr. Madison: "Does that actually make sense? I don't think that makes sense." Batman: "If we don't go back through the lava, we'll be covered in lava!" Dr. Madison: "Do you ever listen to yourself speak?" Batman: "Outside will also have flying debris! Inside is just, um, you know! Liquid hotness!" Dr. Madison: "You mean lava?" Batman: "If you want to get technical about it! Now get in my Liquid Hotness Proof Bat-mech (trademark and action figure pending!), sit on my lap, and don't ask me if that's a bat-grapple in my pocket or if I'm happy to see you! I'm never happy!"

So they had to go back through the lava to get to the ocean? Batman does know Dr. Madison was standing in front of a window overlooking the water, right? How was just crashing through that not an option? Especially since Batman loves crashing through panes of glass!

Whenever an editor tells Scott Snyder to make something more exciting, he should just say, "Shut. Up!" Aquaman helps with the rescue and then he and Batman get into an argument about who's keeping bigger secrets. Batman probably wins that one because even if Aquaman had some really juicy secrets to tell, I'd never remain interested long enough to hear them. I'm already bored with this paragraph because I had to type "Aquaman" three times. Apparently the Blackhawks have some super secret covert black ops shit going on again. Remember how they returned in All Star Batman? Oh, you got tired of reading that series too? Well, believe me. They returned there. Meanwhile on Mogo, Cornelius the Guardian wants Hal to do something seedy to him.

"Don't tell Guy! I just got him to stop calling me gay!"

Oh sorry. His name is Ganthet. I must be thinking of Roddy McDowall's character from Scavenger Hunt. Speaking of Scavenger Hunt, I caught an episode of Family Ties the other day when some actor walked on and I was all, "Hey! That's short sleeves, checkered shirt, black sneakers!" Plus his son in the episode was Chunk from The Goonies. Should I mark irrelevant passages like these with asterisks?!

Ganthet having once asked Hal to jerk him off is now canon.

Once again, everybody in the universe is gossiping about how Earth is going to destroy the universe. If only the Justice League would stop saving it already! Just let somebody destroy Earth for the greater good, you hypocrites! Ganthet has pinpointed the threat to the universe in the Batcave so Hal Jordan decides to go invade it and not radio Batman saying, "Hey, buddy. I've got a possible issue that maybe you can help out with. Let's meet up in the Batcave." Instead he decides to sneak in and start going through Batman's things. I get it. It's the only way to ensure that a couple of heroes fight so all the fangenders can lose their shit over it. This part was probably Tynion's idea. "Hey! You know what I've read in comic books about five thousand times? That part where two heroes fight over a misunderstanding! Can we add that scene?!" And Scott Snyder snorts and wakes up and is all, "What? Whatever. Just write the script already! If I wanted to write it, I wouldn't have purchased you from your parents!" Anyway, Batman isn't home so Hal has to fight Meadowlark. You know, Not-Robin. Duke!

What is Duke reading to get his Green Lantern information? The Who's Who books from the mid-80s? That's where I get all of my information too!

Is Green Lantern just fucking with Duke or is there something about the yellow flaw that I don't know about? I thought it was completely gone. Is this Snyder and Tynion trying to backdoor the flaw back into the ring but only if the person using the ring is inexperienced and stupid? In the next panel, Hal Jordan says, "It's good to see Batman's still recruiting teenagers." Hey man. You better be careful with statements like that. At least he's not, you know, fucking them. Duke Thomas admits to not having a code name yet. That's adorable. All this fucking time and he still doesn't have one. Why can't Snyder just spit one out already? Waiting to find out his superhero name is like waiting for Sting to come in your mouth. Not that I'd know and not that it was the worst sixteen hours of my life. Meanwhile there's this place called The Campus underneath Philadelphia where The Immortal Men are headquartered. One of them is Immortal Man because of course it is. The other one is a guy in a robe with shaggy eyebrows that might be Carter Hall but I'm hoping is anybody else. Another one of their possible members would have been Elaine Thomas, Duke's mother. But she went crazy from Joker Toxin. They apparently know they need to save the world from something bad that's coming because it's always easier to tell a story about prophecy. It would be too hard to wedge these Immortal Men into the story if they didn't already know some huge Crisis was about to happen. So the guy in the robes isn't Hawkman because Hawkman gets the next scene. He's been having visions during the times between death and reincarnation. Whew! I thought he wouldn't have some secret inside information to get him right into this upcoming Crisis! In his vision, he sees a gigantic Batman statue with lots of people tied to its legs. I guess somebody is going to have to kill Batman before he becomes evil! After that scene, John Romita Jr. takes over on the art. I should probably snort some Ativan before continuing. Mister Terrific is helping Batman with the Mystery of the Dark Days. Hopefully they'll explain it in long, large word balloons that cover up most of the art. Something has been interfering with the harmonic frequencies of Earth-Main-Earth and Earth-2 (which I guess is back to its normal self? Or maybe Mister Terrific just got off before he wound up in that whole World's End mess? For some reason, I can't remember the story well enough to know if Mister Terrific was in any of it. Thank Jesus!) but neither Batman nor Mister Terrific know what's going on yet. To help them figure it out, Batman decides they must let Plastic Man out of his prison cell. They say they agreed to lock him up because he was too powerful but I think they just got sick of his stupid jokes. Back in the Batcave, Duke and Hal are investigating the Mystery of Batman Investigating the Mystery. It all started when somebody said, "That whole electrum in the tooth thing that resurrects the dead Talons is stupid! It's not scientific at all! Who comes up with such dumb shit?! DC Comics sucks!" Then Scott Snyder was all, "Wait! Wait! You haven't heard the whole tale of that! You shouldn't believe everything you see at first sight! You should wait for the second sight! Or maybe the third sight if everybody on Twitter complains about the second sight! But I don't think they will because this is going to be a huge Crisis! You'll love it!" So instead of electrum being in the teeth, Batman found a metal that shared the same energy signature as the helmet of fate, the quintdent of Aquaman, and the bracelets of Diana. To investigate this metallic mystery, Batman created a team that everybody forgot about. Everybody except me, of course!

Halo's costume is terrible. But Geoforce had better stay away from her anyway!

Duke has no idea who the wobbly speech bubble is. But that didn't stop him from saying, "Dick? Is that Dick? You know, Dick Grayson? Nightwing? Is that you?" So the metal is probably Nth Metal which would make it more believable that it was resurrecting the Talons. Because nobody is going to say, "Nth Metal can't do that!" I mean, they might. But they'd be wrong because Nth Metal isn't real and it can do whatever the fuck it needs to do when the writer needs it to do it. Although if it were Dionesium, nobody would say, "Dionesium can't do that!" Because that's exactly what it was made for! It's just that Nth Metal works better, plot-wise. Why would Aquaman's five-pronged trident have Dionesium in it? Deep in Batman's secret Batcave, Duke and Hal come to a door. Apparently the owner of the voice is behind it. I hope it's not The Joker. I hope it's Detective Chimp. I also hope it's revealed before this issue is over! Batman has also been keeping another secret in Superman's fortress. With the help of Mister Miracle, he unlocks the unopenable room it was stored in. It's a big yellow tower that Mister Miracle recognizes but I don't. Maybe it's Qwardian! It could also be something from Final Crisis which I've never read. Or something from an obscure 1967 Batman story. Or maybe it's something that, when it's explicitly named, I'll say, "Oh yeah. Fuck. I totally remember that thing now!" Anyway, I don't think it's important enough to reveal this issue. Because The Joker needs to be revealed in the Hal Jordan scene! Oh look! The Joker was the voice! What a surprise! Surprise! Are you surprised? Oh! You should also keep in mind how there were three Jokers, remember? That was a dumb bit that had to be thrown in so that Batman would say, "Impossible!", when he asked the Moebius Chair what the Joker's name was. Remember how that one guy on Tumblr got all pissy with me when I said they'd never reveal The Joker's name and how could I know that and I don't know what I'm talking about and all that shit? Fucking stupid kid. I didn't even get to say "I told you so!" to that kid when the reveal was that the Chair's answer was that there were three Jokers! Well, I'm doing it now! I fucking told you so, kid! So that's the end of Dark Days: The Forge! Maybe that thing Batman revealed was The Forge. I guess the next stop in this series is the event, Metal. It'll probably be about Dionesium and Nth Metal and how, when combined, everything is destroyed! What will this Crisis be called? Not just Crisis in Dark Days, right? How about Alchemical Crisis on Earths Starring Plastic Man?

[jodyedgarus]

Patrick Mahomes Is Proving That QBs From Gimmicky College Offenses Can Succeed In The NFL

When the Kansas City Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes 10th overall in the 2017 draft, scouts lauded his work ethic and impressive arm strength — but they still had doubts about Mahomes’s NFL future. It wasn’t personal; it had to do with the high-flying college offense Mahomes played in at Texas Tech and old misgivings about how quarterbacks from pass-happy systems would translate to the pros.

All of that seems silly now, of course. In truth, Mahomes came along at just the right moment: the moment when NFL teams are finally embracing offensive elements they used to consider mere collegiate gimmicks. Now Mahomes and his MVP-caliber performance through eight games have the potential to forever eradicate questions about air-it-out college passers.

The history of college QBs with video-game statistics traces its way back decades before Mahomes lit up Big 12 defenses for 5,052 yards as a junior for the Red Raiders in 2016. According to Sports-Reference.com’s data, the first modern1 major-college quarterback to break 4,000 yards in a season was BYU’s Jim McMahon in 1980 — one of multiple passers to crack the milestone in Provo under the guidance of innovative coach LaVell Edwards. (Robbie Bosco, Ty Detmer — three times! — and Steve Sarkisian would also break that barrier over the next decade-and-a-half, while future Hall of Famer Steve Young barely missed it in 1983.)

Around the same time, other similarly pass-centric offenses were piling up big numbers, too. As the 1980s came to a close, Houston run-and-shoot passers Andre Ware and David Klingler racked up stats that still defy the imagination. That same offensive scheme would migrate to the NFL in the 1990s and find new life in the 2000s with Hawaii coach June Jones, who turned Warriors QBs Timmy Chang and Colt Brennan into ultra-prolific passers. Elsewhere in the spread, Utah’s Scott Mitchell had a field day in Jim Fassel’s wide-open system in 1988, while Drew Brees, Chris Redman and Tim Rattay thrived in the ’90s while running various versions of the single-back scheme championed by coaches such as Purdue’s Joe Tiller.

And we haven’t even gotten to the quarterbacks who played in the air raid system of Hal Mumme and his many proteges. The air raid borrowed elements from both the run-and-shoot and Edwards’s BYU offense, forging a passing playbook that has obliterated opposing defenses. Playing for Mumme at Kentucky, Tim Couch threw for 4,275 yards and 36 TDs in 1998, while Kliff Kingsbury joined the 5,000-yard club directing Mike Leach’s Texas Tech offense in 2002. Leach was just getting started: From 2002 to 2008, five different Red Raider QBs broke 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns, with Graham Harrell tossing for 48 TDs and 5,705 yards (second-most in the FBS modern era) in 2007 and fifth-year senior B.J. Symons, Kingsbury’s former backup, going for a ridiculous 52 scores and 5,833 yards (first in the modern era) in 2003.

Leach was no longer in Lubbock by the time Mahomes arrived on campus — the coach had moved to Washington State, where he’s been rewriting the Pac-12 record books — but the young QB learned from the next-best thing: Kingsbury himself, now Texas Tech’s head coach. Kingsbury is part of a whole generation of quarterbacks-turned-coaches who came up in the air raid and spread it like wildfire across the college and high school ranks. Coaching the Red Raiders, he helped Mahomes become one of the most prolific passers in Big 12 history.

As the author S.C. Gwynne wrote about in his excellent book “The Perfect Pass,” these similar (yet distinct) strains of aggressive passing all came together to change the sport forever, dragging it out of an antiquated era of primarily run-based football and making it into the aerial showcase we see today. Nowadays, the college game is a passing game, one in which 86 percent of snaps come in the shotgun, and even Alabama — long religiously balanced on offense — is averaging nearly 350 yards per game in the air.

Just how much have extreme pass-first philosophies taken over college football in recent years? Kingsbury became only the third modern member of the 5,000-yard club (joining Detmer and Klingler) when he broke that barrier in 2002. Sixteen years later, the group has expanded its membership fivefold (including Mahomes), with current Leach QB Gardner Minshew on pace to join this season as well.2

But for all the collegiate success these prolific passers enjoyed, pro front offices became fearful of handing them the keys to an NFL offense. And not without cause: In the 1980s and ’90s, a number of the wide-open college passing game’s early adopters were picked highly in the draft, at least partly on the basis of their big NCAA numbers — and few were especially successful in the NFL. BYU’s Marc Wilson and McMahon, Houston’s Ware and Klingler, plus Trent Dilfer (who played at Fresno State under Tiller’s mentor, Jim Sweeney), Ryan Leaf (who starred at Washington State under spread-passing guru Mike Price), Kentucky’s Couch and Marshall’s Chad Pennington were all taken among the draft’s top picks. Pennington and McMahon had the best careers of the bunch with more than 60 points of Approximate Value (AV) apiece — the mark of a solid, if not Hall of Fame-worthy, career — while the rest went varying levels of journeyman or bust in the NFL.3

(Young, it bears mentioning, is a special case. Because he went to the USFL out of BYU, he was selected in the NFL’s supplemental draft, so he doesn’t get lumped in with the group above. Young easily had the best career of any pass-happy college product since the 1980s.)

Most stat-stuffing college QBs of the 1980s-90s fizzled out

Career NFL Approximate Value (AV) for college passers who had at least 150 more adjusted yards per game than the Division I-A average and played in a notable college offensive system, 1975-2000

Best College Season NFL Draft Player College System Year Yds TD Year Pick NFL AV Chad Pennington Marshall Spread 1999 3799 37 2000 18 62 Chris Redman Louisville Spread 1998 4042 29 2000 75 10 Tim Couch Kentucky Air raid 1998 4275 36 1999 1 32 Tim Rattay La. Tech Spread 1998 4943 46 2000 212 13 Ryan Leaf Wash. St. Spread 1997 3968 34 1998 2 1 Danny Wuerffel Florida Fun ‘n’ gun 1996 3625 39 1997 99 6 Josh Wallwork Wyoming Spread 1996 4090 33 — — 0 Mike Maxwell Nevada Pistol 1995 3611 33 — — 0 Trent Dilfer Fresno State Spread 1993 3799 30 1994 6 60 Jimmy Klingler Houston Run and Shoot 1992 3818 32 — — 0 Craig Erickson Miami-FL Spread 1990 3363 22 1992 86 22 David Klingler Houston Run and Shoot 1990 5140 54 1992 6 11 Ty Detmer BYU Vertical 1990 5188 41 1992 230 15 Andre Ware Houston Run and Shoot 1989 4699 46 1990 7 5 Anthony Dilweg Duke Fun ‘n’ gun 1988 3824 24 1989 74 4 Scott Mitchell Utah Spread 1988 4322 29 1990 93 53 Robbie Bosco BYU Vertical 1984 3875 33 1986 72 0 Steve Young* BYU Vertical 1983 3902 33 — — 171 Jim McMahon BYU Vertical 1980 4571 47 1982 5 71 Marc Wilson BYU Vertical 1979 3720 29 1980 15 40

* Selected in NFL Supplemental Draft

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, sports-reference.com/cfb

Over time, the prevailing notion became that a quarterback’s college statistics were as much a liability as an asset, a sign that some coach’s gimmicky scheme had propped up a mediocre talent, giving him numbers he had no real business producing — ones that almost seemed like they were specifically designed to deceive scouts. And in fact, Mumme did base the air raid in part around the notion of making an elite quarterback talent unnecessary for passing success. “If he could design a system that featured passing and could be run by average or sub-average football players who could not throw like Dan Fouts or Jim McMahon,” Gwynne wrote of Mumme’s philosophy, “he could truly change the game of football.”

Eventually, NFL teams all but gave up on drafting air raid or run-and-shoot products. When Kingsbury broke the 5,000-yard barrier, all it got him was a lousy sixth-round draft slot. (Unlike that other Patriots sixth-round pick, Kingsbury’s career transitioned to coaching not long thereafter.) Chang and Brennan combined to throw 248 college touchdowns at Hawaii … and neither threw a pass in the NFL. Likewise, Symons and Harrell both nearly cracked 6,000 yards in a season … and Symons wasn’t taken until the eighth-to-last pick of the 2004 draft, while Harrell wasn’t drafted at all. The system was unstoppable, but the players in it were easily brushed off.

For most of the 2000s, big college numbers got you nowhere

Career NFL Approximate Value (AV) for air raid or run-and-shoot passers who had at least 150 more adjusted yards per game than the Division I-A average, 2000-07

Best college Season NFL Draft Player College System Year Yds TD Year Pick NFL AV Graham Harrell Texas Tech Air raid 2007 5705 48 — — 0 Chase Holbrook NM State Air raid 2006 4619 34 — — 0 Colt Brennan Hawaii Run and shoot 2006 5549 58 2008 186 0 Cody Hodges Texas Tech Air raid 2005 4197 31 — — 0 Sonny Cumbie Texas Tech Air raid 2004 4742 32 — — 0 B.J. Symons Texas Tech Air raid 2003 5833 52 2004 248 0 Kliff Kingsbury Texas Tech Air raid 2002 5017 45 2003 201 0 Nick Rolovich Hawaii Run and shoot 2001 3361 34 — — 0

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, sports-reference.com/cfb

Here’s how Gwynne summarized the attitude surrounding air raid passers by 2008, the season in which Leach and Harrell’s Red Raiders pulled off a monumental upset over No. 1-ranked Texas: “The proof that this was a ‘system,’ commentators all agreed, was that hardly any of Leach’s players, and none of his quarterbacks, ever made it in the NFL,” he wrote. “They were merely products of a scheme that magically spun dross into gold, mediocre quarterbacks into NCAA record-holders.”

Because of that perception, the early to mid-2000s were a wasteland for QBs from wide-open college offenses. Some more traditional spread passers got more traction — Byron Leftwich and Rex Grossman were both first-round picks out of vertical passing systems in college, though neither ultimately lived up to early expectations. A feedback loop was established in which the shortcomings of past system passers were used as an excuse to discount current ones, whose lack of NFL success was in turn held up as further evidence that the model simply couldn’t work in the pros.

But more recently, the tide has begun to turn in favor of the college spread passer. First, Sam Bradford of the Oklahoma Sooners — where Leach worked as offensive coordinator in 19994 — was picked No. 1 in the 2010 draft. Bradford wasn’t highly regarded out of high school, either, but he passed for 4,720 yards and 50 touchdowns while leading the Sooners to the 2008 BCS title game. More importantly, he had the size and other attributes to quell concerns about the system he came out of. While Bradford’s NFL career hasn’t quite lived up to the expectations of the No. 1 overall pick, his acceptance by the scouts — and his subsequently decent NFL career — began to usher in the era of collegiate system passers as legitimate NFL prospects.

Around the same time, the NFL itself began to change. In a shocking upset in 2008, the Dolphins famously used the Wildcat — a literal college scheme — to run roughshod over the New England Patriots. Spread formations featuring the shotgun and/or the so-called 11 personnel — one running back, one tight end and three wide receivers — started being used on the majority of NFL plays. The lines between “pro-style” and college offenses began to blur even further with the quick success of mobile, read-option QB prospects such as Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson and Robert Griffin III, each of whom thrived with plays that borrowed heavily from university playbooks. While defenses ended up adapting to some of these innovations — and Griffin and Kaepernick’s careers have fizzled due to, respectively, injuries and politics — the Philadelphia Eagles used college-style run-pass option tactics to win the Super Bowl with a backup QB in February.

As Kevin Clark recently wrote for The Ringer, the NFL’s scheme wars are over, and the spread — with its influences ranging from Edwards at BYU to Tiller at Purdue, Jones at Hawaii and Mumme at Kentucky — won the day. Against this backdrop, former big-number college passers have begun to thrive at the game’s highest level. Case Keenum, whose resume in Houston’s air raid system included a 5,631-yard, 48-TD season in 2011, went from an undrafted backup to one of the NFL’s best passers last season.5 Jared Goff, who starred in Cal’s “Bear raid” offense under coach Sonny Dykes (a Leach disciple), has a 104.6 passer rating and a 19-4 record over the past two seasons with the Los Angeles Rams. Oklahoma product Baker Mayfield parlayed his college performance in Lincoln Riley’s system into the No. 1 overall pick in the draft; he’s currently holding his own as a rookie with the Cleveland Browns.

All of this might culminate in the success of Mahomes, whose 22-AV pace this year would place him second only to Steve Young (peak AV: 23) among the best NFL quarterbacking seasons by pass-heavy college-system products. Between Mahomes’s own considerable skill set, the amazing amount of talent around him in Kansas City and the coaching genius of Andy Reid — himself drawing on many tricks and ruses from the college game — the Chiefs’ young passer is off to maybe the best career start of any quarterback ever, establishing himself as the MVP front-runner in the season’s first half. In the process, he may be driving the final stake into the heart of the myth that crazy college passing stats are the harbinger of NFL failure, or that playing QB in a wide-open scheme makes you unfit to run an offense in the pros.

If so, it would be the crowning moment of a trend decades in the making. We can trace the rise, fall and return of the spread-system quarterback prospect if we map out the career-high AV and draft value invested in FBS (or Div. I-A) passers who averaged at least 150 more adjusted passing yards than the NCAA average in a season and played in an air-it-out college scheme — whether it be the air raid, run-and-shoot, spread option, single-back, Fun ’n’ Gun, pistol or BYU vertical offense:

After the stellar success of Young and some decent seasons by Mitchell and McMahon, the failures of Klingler and Ware set off a long drought for prolific college system passers. But the recent rehabilitation of the archetype is evident on the right side of the timeline, with Mahomes currently soaring highest.

Fewer than 10 starts into his pro career, it may yet be premature to anoint Mahomes as the college-style passing attack’s permanent NFL savior. But as systems such as the air raid spread further throughout the college ranks, and as NFL teams show more and more willingness to embrace those same offensive concepts, it seems likely that traditional concerns about spread-system quarterback prospects will fade into oblivion. All it took was four decades of ups and downs, changing schemes and adapted attitudes — and miles and miles worth of college passing stats.

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/patrick-mahomes-is-proving-that-qbs-from-gimmicky-college-offenses-can-succeed-in-the-nfl/

[junker-town]

MLB Draft: The all-time team of players who switched positions after being drafted

We deserved a world with Eddie Murray catching and Manny Ramirez playing third base.

Everyone in the majors was a pitcher, shortstop, outfielder, or catcher when they were in high school. Give or take. If you’re playing first base in high school, that means you’re probably not as good of an athlete as the kids playing center, short, and catcher. And right. And probably second and third base. If you’re playing with five different teenagers who are better athletes than you, that probably means you’ll need to be the best hitter on the planet if you want to star in the majors.

You’re not the best hitter on the planet.

Sorry.

That’s why the MLB Draft is littered with position changes because usually the best athletes rise to the top. It’s why before Amos Otis and Hal McRae were two-thirds of a pennant-winning outfield for the Royals, they were high school shortstops drafted in 1965. It’s why Trevor Hoffman will make the Hall of Fame, even though he was an awful shortstop.

Our job today is to make the best possible team from all the position changes in draft history. And by “best,” I mean “most amusing to me, a horrible person who needs chaos to survive.” I’m not trying to make the best team. I’m trying to make the funniest team that would have a chance to score 1,000 runs.

That team would go like this:

Catcher - Eddie Murray

Like I wrote up there, there are a lot of high school catchers who were drafted and moved immediately. They were the best athletes on their team, but the scouts didn’t like them behind the plate long term. Murray was one of those.

He was also one of the most exciting prospects of the ‘70s. He was drafted as a 17-year-old, and he didn’t stop hitting until he was 40, reaching the majors when he was 21, and methodically swatting his way to 500 homers. He was a fine first baseman.

What this article presupposes is that he stayed behind the plate. So I’m a gonna lop off 150 home runs from that career total, just because of the aches, pains, wear, and tear. I’m also going to change him from a consistent 30-homer guy to a consistent 20-homer player for the same reason. Shave some points from his batting average and on-base percentage ... give him fewer 160-game seasons ... heck, we know that he isn’t going to steal 110 bases in this alternate reality.

I ... I think I just described Matt Wieters.

Catching is the worst.

But for this team I have a powerful switch-hitting catcher. I’ll assume he would have been fine defensively because he would have been in catcher boot camp since he was a teenager, and he was a pretty good athlete. He just wouldn’t have been a Hall of Famer.

Honorable mention:

Dave Parker, Dale Murphy, Paul Konerko, Jayson Werth, Justin Morneau, Joey Votto, and Josh Donaldson

First base - Mike Piazza

I almost went with Tim Wakefield. It wouldn’t have been the best choice offensively, but in my alternate reality he still learns the knuckleball, and he would have been like the Shohei Otani of long relief.

Which didn’t seem as exciting when I typed it out. So we get Piazza.

All of those demerits for Murray’s career? We get to add home runs and batting average. Instead of a .308 career average, I’m going to make him a .318 hitter. Instead of 427 homers, he has 600. And instead of an iffy defensive catcher, he’s going to be a super-iffy defensive first baseman.

I guess we could swap Murray and Piazza, but ... no, no, this is far more fun.

Honorable mention:

Rick Honeycutt, Tim Wallach, Luis Gonzalez, Tim Wakefield, Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich

Second base - Coco Crisp

There just aren’t a lot of good players who were drafted with a listed position of second base. Chase Utley was the most notable, but for the most part, it’s an uphill battle for kids who weren’t athletic enough to wrest control of the shortstop position at Iona College.

Crisp gives this team some speed and slashing. Looking at his stats and remembering his defensive prowess, someone, somewhere, made a very good decision about his career. That .912 fielding percentage at second base with 24 errors in Rookie League probably helped the decision make itself.

Honorable mention:

Buddy Bell, Danny Tartabull, Russell Martin

Shortstop - Jim Thome

NOW WE GET TO THE GOOD STUFF. It’s hard to remember Jim Thome as a third baseman because we’re so used to his years as a first baseman. But he played third for six years, and he was generally okay. Just not as good as Matt Williams.

Imagine an 18-year-old Thome, hitting .237/.314/.296 while making 15 errors at shortstop for the Gulf Coast League Indians. He must have been so skinny, so spindly. There’s no way he could have been America’s Baseball Dad back then, even if he was clearly America’s Baseball Dad before he turned 30. He was moved to third base the next year.

In this scenario, Thome sticks at shortstop.

HARGROVE: Alright, Jimmy. You’re my starting shortstop. And Omar, you’re at first.

VIZQUEL: Skip, I appreciate you thinking outside the box, but I have a minor suggestion. What if ...

HARGROVE: I’m the manager, and I’m not going to repeat myself. Now get out there.

THOME: lol owned

HARGROVE:

There were a lot of contenders for this spot, and I was tempted to go with Tim Raines. Heck, I wonder if Chet Lemon becomes a Hall of Fame candidate if he sticks at short, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Mike Schmidt could have handed the position, too. But I think we’ll all agree that Thome is the funniest choice.

Honorable mention:

Gene Tenace, Amos Otis, Hal McRae, Bobby Grich, Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Willie Randolph, Chet Lemon, Wade Boggs, Paul Molitor, Tim Raines, Eric Davis, Bret Saberhagen, Jeff Kent, Chipper Jones, Jorge Posada, Adam Jones, Ian Kinsler, Dustin Pedroia, Justin Upton, Mookie Betts

Third base - Manny Ramirez

As a single tear rolls down my cheek, I proclaim this to be the most beautiful vision I have ever seen. Imagine the 1995 Indians, scoring 1,000 runs and allowing 1,000 unearned runs in the same season, with Thome at short and Manny at third. We deserve this alternate reality.

Alas, while he was drafted as a third baseman out of a New York high school, he never played an inning of infield in the minor leagues. We’ll just have to close our eyes and imagine what it would have been like.

JOE WEST: Now just how in the hell did you break the base clean in half like that?

RAMIREZ: [shrugs]

Come back, alternate reality. Come back!

Honorable mention:

Dwight Evans, Lou Whitaker, Cal Ripken, Devon White, Jose Canseco, Mike Greenwell, Jeff Bagwell, Jason Giambi, Matt Holliday, Pat Burrell, Mark Teixeira

OF - Todd Helton, Bill Russell, Michael Young

Here we find one of the strangest truisms of the MLB Draft: When you’re drafted as an outfielder, you stay in the outfield. Apparently, there just aren’t a lot of opportunities for kids to show off their infield prowess when they’re drafted as an outfielder.

My methodology went like this: I searched the Baseball-Reference database for players drafted at each position. I would sort by WAR to get the major leaguers at the top, look for players out of position, and then move on to the next year.

I did this twice for outfielders because I was absolutely certain that I had missed someone. But I’m pretty sure I didn’t, which means that outfielders almost always stay in the outfield. Infielders might move out, but it’s very rare for outfielders to move in. Huh. That’s a draft tidbit that I didn’t know about, and I’m giving it to you because I’m not sure what to do with it.

If you can find a flaw in this search, please, let me know in the comments and give me a better out-of-position outfield. As is, it’s pretty athletic, I guess, and Helton has that quarterback’s arm in right.

Honorable mention: Dave Stieb, Jason Kipnis

P - Dave Winfield, Mark McGwire, Buster Posey, Jack Clark, Mark Trumbo

I had to cheat a little with this one, taking some players who were drafted as pitchers out of high school but didn’t sign. When you have a player like John Olerud who could be drafted legitimately at either position, the team announces their decision when they draft him, and that’s generally the end of that. There are exceptions, such as Winfield, who was announced as a pitcher, only to make the majors two weeks later as an outfielder. For the most part, though, when a two-way threat gets one of those ways amputated, it doesn’t grow back.

McGwire went to USC instead of the Expos, where he would have pitched. Posey would have been pitching with the Angels, probably in relief. Jack Clark walked 19 batters in 15 innings while hitting .321 with power, and the Giants figured that one out pretty quickly. Trumbo was drafted in the 18th round of the 2004 Draft as a pitcher, but he appeared in his first pro game in 2005, as a first baseman. I’m guessing either instructional league wasn’t very kind to his pitching, or the Angels knew where he was playing all along.

I do want a simulation that lets us see how well these players would have hit if they were full-time pitchers. They would have been awful, probably, because even the best-hitting pitchers are awful. The best comparison for what would have happened is probably Ken Brett, who is one of baseball’s all-time best what-if stories. He was a great hitter for a pitcher, but he could have been a great hitter for a hitter if someone, somewhere, pushed him down a much different career path.

Honorable mention:

Brandon Belt, Ryan Klesko, Charlie Blackmon, Jermaine Dye, Brad Wilkerson, Bake McBride, Adam LaRoche, Nick Markakis, Howard Johnson, Dave Kingman

Would this team have been one of the best ever? It would have the funniest infield defense ever, I’m pretty sure. And they would probably sock a few dingers, especially when the #9 spot came up. My idea of heaven is a place with a computer that can run these simulations, and it would take me about 200 years to get sick of it.

COMPUTER, tell me what Dave Winfield’s career would have been like if he pitched.

As is, we’ll just have to guess.

Pretty sure we were robbed of Manny at third base, though. Pretty sure someone needs to pay for their crimes against baseball.

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1159

Monday, April 17, 2017

 I'm back. Missed posting last week while I was vacationing in Cuba. It was a nice break to be totally unconnected. I managed to read two week's worth of comic books for today's deadline so this will be longer than usual.

 Weapon X #1 - Greg Pak (writer) Greg Land (pencils) Jay Leisten (inks) Frank D'Armata (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). That was a very promising start. This new mutant team book opens with Old Man Logan chillaxin' in the wilds of Washington state and ends with him teaming up with Sabretooth. The age old enemies must work together to fight a common enemy. I look forward to seeing how they hook up with the other three mutants featured on the credits page.

 Superman #20 - Patrick Gleason & Peter J. Tomasi (writers) Patrick Gleason (pencils) Mick Gray (inks) John Kalisz (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). Venom was all over Marvel variant covers recently but I didn't expect to see him in a DC comic book. Part one of "Black Dawn" is a World's Finest team-up that has Batman visiting the Superman family on their farm. Seems the neighbours are not what they seem. It's stories like these that make me appreciate the biweekly release schedule.

 Godshaper #1 - Simon Spurrier (writer) Jonas Goonface (artist) Colin Bell (letters). This is the story of Ennay, the godshaper. He travels around reshaping gods for people in a weird new world where personal gods make life easier. See, natural science doesn't work in this world so gods are what helps people live. I like Ennay. He's a hustler with a conscience who is just trying to get by

and not a con man. Jonas's art is vibrant and colourful and Ennay's little god sidekick Bud is cute.

 Deadpool vs. Punisher #1 - Fred Van Lente (writer) Pere Perez (art) Ruth Redmond (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Well, that's one way to start a feud. Frank hurts Wade's accountant and the battle is on. I know that neither killer will win this fight but I might read it to see how they settle the feud.

 Action Comics #977 - Dan Jurgens (writer) Ian Churchill (art) Hi-Fi (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). Part one of "The New World" starts off with a rehash of Superman's origin story going right back to when his parents put him into a rocket ship to Earth just before the planet Krypton explodes and Ma and Pa Kent finding baby Kal-El on their farm in Smallville. I found the retelling tedious but there are a few pages peppered in showing a mysterious new super villain that almost made up for that feeling of reading a rerun. This new villain will keep me coming back for more.

 Riverdale #1 - This new Archie publication is based on the new "hit" TV series. I have not seen the show but I have a long time love of these characters, especially for a certain blonde girl next door. There are two short stories. The first by Will Ewing (writer) Joe Eisma (art) Andre Szymanowicz (colours) Janice Chiang (letters) features Archie going through the varsity football team's hazing rituals. I am impressed that Will made me like this version of the redheaded teenager. The second story by Michael Grassi (writer) Joe Eisma (art) Andre Szymanowicz (colours) John Workman (letters) features my gal Betty Cooper as she endures hazing by Cheryl Blossom, the wicked witch captain of the cheerleading squad. This book made me want to tune into the show now.

 X-Men Blue #1 - Cullen Bunn (writer) Jorge Molina & Matteo Buffagni (art) Matt Milla (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This is the original young X-Men team with Jean Grey/Marvel Girl as leader. It reads like a straight up super hero comic book with Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Angel (with flaming wings, when did that happen?), Beast and Iceman fighting Black Tom Cassidy and Juggernaut on a luxury yacht. Not very interesting until the surprise twist at the end. The twist bothered me more than intrigued me because the character is also in other X-books and I'm wondering are they good or bad in this one? The back-up story looks like it features Wolverine but this guy is a blonde. I liked the art throughout, especially the cover by Art Adams but my opinion is that these kids should be in their own little world to make it interesting for me and that isn't this.

 Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #18 - Robert Venditti (writer) V Ken Marion (pencils) Dexter Vines (inks) Dinei Ribeiro (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). The Green and Yellow Lantern Corps working together would be like the FBI and the CIA working together. Things are going to get testy at times. Having Guy and Arkillo make peace after almost killing each other in a slugfest is hokey but it kind of works for this comic book. This is a good issue to jump in on as it starts the new story "The Prism of Time". I don't know how long I will stick with this story as it involves time travel. I know because the surprise guest star on the last page gives it away.

 American Gods #2 - Neil Gaiman (writer) P. Craig Russell (script & layouts) Scott Hampton (art) Rick Parker (letters). I have a mild obsession with time. I like to know how long something lasts. I put a date label on Bic pens to see how long it takes for the ink to run out. We rarely lost one at the Snail and one pen would last just over a year. A can of my shaving gel runs out after just over a month. The number 44 is bad luck in Chinese culture so I wear an analogue watch rather than a digital. It always seemed that whenever I looked at the time on a digital it was 44 minutes after the hour and I would get anxious. I kid you not. There's an incident in this issue that relates to a certain time and now that I am aware of it I am going to see if it happens in real life. This is the kind of stuff that makes reading comic books a lot of fun for me. Seeing the incident unfold in three panels made the impact on me even bigger than just reading about it in a novel.

 Jessica Jones #7 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Michael Gaydos (art) Matt Hollingsworth (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This issue starts and ends with Maria Hill and leads to a new case for Jessica. There's a touching scene with Jessica, Luke and their daughter Danielle but not a resolution to their damaged relationship. I really hope Luke forgives Jessica.

 Batman #20 - Tom King (writer) David Finch (pencils) Danny Miki & Trevor Scott (inks) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). The finale to "I Am Bane" was meh. It's a fight between hero and villain that I've witnessed many, many times. This one is just brute force versus brute force and how Batman puts down Bane (because we all know that's what will happen) was very mundane. I hope the next story ends in a more interesting way.

 Rat Queens #2 - Kurtis J. Wiebe (writer) Owen Gieni (art) Ryan Ferrier (letters). The main story has the Queens landing the demon Canada goose to tie up another quest. The back-up story by Patrick Rothfuss (writer) Nate Taylor (art) Ryan Ferrier (letters) is a nifty little campfire story that was very clever. Fooled me.

 Guardians of the Galaxy #19 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Valerio Schiti (art) Richard Isanove (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This issue is "Bendis' big-time bye-bye blowout!" and it is an artists lover's dream. The guest artists here are Phil Noto, Andrea Sorrentino, Ed McGuinness & Mark Morales, Arthur Adams, Kevin Maguire, Mark Bagley & Andrew Hennessy, Sara Pichelli and Filipe Andrade. It's basically a big fight between the team, a few of their friends and Thanos. My one complaint is that Gamora did not act like I thought she should but it was an expedient reaction to seeing the Mad Titan in that situation. I loved Brian's run on this book so writer Gerry Duggan has a hard act to follow.

 Wonder Woman #20 - Greg Rucka (writer) Bilquis Evely (art) Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colours) Jodi Wynne (letters). Veronica Cale has exhausted all medical means for getting her daughter Izzy back from the clutches of Phobos and Deimos so it's time for the mystical option. I like Greg's incarnation of Circe. She can give Loki a run for his money.

 Paper Girls #13 - Brian K. Vaughn (writer) Cliff Chiang (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) Jared K. Fletcher (letters). Time travel makes my head hurt but I have an emotional stake in these girls now and want to know what happens to them.

 Champions #7 - Mark Waid (writer) Humberto Ramos (pencils) Victor Olazaba (inks) Edgar Delgado (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). That's twice that the team has tussled with the Freelancers and the super villains have given up too easily. There's a good reason for that other than because they're cowards and bullies. There's more than one way to hurt the good guys besides beating them up. Time to call in Matt Murdock.

 Kingpin #3 - Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Marc Laming (layouts) Ben Torres (art) Jordan Boyd (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Sarah the biographer gets chummy with Wilson Fisk which leads Sarah the reporter into very deep trouble with Tombstone. Can Wilson protect her from harm? I like this portrayal of the Kingpin.

 Savage Things #2 - Justin Jordan (writer) Ibrahim Moustafa (art) Jordan Boyd (colours) Josh Reed (letters). Ruthless terrorists who have no qualms about killing women and children make for some very nasty bad guys. It's interesting that the good guy Abel trained with these same men. I am anticipating the much larger threat that Cain has planned.

 All-New Wolverine #19 - Tom Taylor (writer) Leonard Kirk (pencils) Cory Hamscher (inks) Michael Garland (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). The 3-part "Immune" starts here. Laura and Gabby take down a human trafficker while an alien craft crashed on Roosevelt Island, New York. That crash has consequences for Laura. I am waiting to find out what the connection between the alien and Laura is. I really like Gabby and I hope she plays a bigger role in this book.

 Red Team: Double Tap, Center Mass #6 - Garth Ennis(writer) Craig Cermak (art) Vinicius Andrade (colours) Rob Steen (letters). This issue adds some true romance to the true detective plot of the story. Detectives Mellinger and Giroux break the cardinal rule of workplace romance and that never ends well. Garth will get back to blood and mayhem soon I'm sure.

 Amazing Spider-Man #26 - Dan Slott (writer) Stuart Immonen (pencils) Wade von Grawbadger (inks) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Plenty of action in part 2 of "The Osborn Identity" with Spidey and Silver Sable fighting Norman's henchmen. Some mild intrigue with Doc Ock in the background. I don't get S.H.I.E.L.D.'s stance on what Parker Industries is doing to help Symkaria. Dan has made up some political drama for the sake of the story that doesn't make sense to me.

 Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #6 - Kieron Gillen (writer) Kev Walker (pencils) Marc Deering (inks) Antonio Fabela (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). No killer droids this issue made it a lot less fun but I did like how the story ended.

 The Unstoppable Wasp #4 - Jeremy Whitley (writer) Elsa Charretier (art) Megan Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I really like this energetic and slightly naïve super hero. She did try to reason with a super villain but when she had to kick butt she did. I hope she can save her old Red Room mate.

 Spider-Man #15 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Szymon Kudranski (art) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). It's time for Miles's mom to find out about his secret identity. She's not taking it as well as the Ultimate Universe Aunt May did when Peter's secret came out. Szymon's turn on the art for this book is okay but I wish he wouldn't copy panels so much. I feel like I'm not getting my money's worth when artists do that.

 Uncanny Avengers #22 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Pepe Larraz (art) David Curiel (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). The team de-powers the Red Skull of Professor X's super powers and Charles Xavier can now rest in peace. There's a page in this issue where Rogue is thinking about Professor X and the major decision that she made that Pepe and David did a beautiful job of expressing. I'm sure when Gerry wrote the scene he could not imagine how well rendered it would be.  That page choked me up and stopped me reading. I had to send Pepe a message right then to let him know that image is burned into my memory like John Romita Senior's Peter Parker walking away down an ally with Spider-Man's costume in a garbage can in the foreground. Some comic book art is unforgettable and their page qualifies. Geez Pepe, you outdid yourself.

 Spider-Man/Deadpool #16 - Joshua Corin (writer) Scott Koblish (art) Nick Filardi (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). I did not leave the best for last. This is a tie-in issue. "'Til Death Do Us…"  part 4's only interesting thing for me was seeing who Deadpool teams up with in his other book Deadpool & The Mercs for Money. This did not make me want to read that book nor the grand finale in Deadpool #29 to see what Wade and his monster queen wife Shiklah will wind up doing. I anticipate it will be the divorce from hell. I hope we get back to the silliness that I have come to expect from this book soon.

[aion-rsa]

WonderCon: DC Universe: Rebirth Panel

A year ago at WonderCon 2016 in Los Angeles, DC Comics announced its initial lineup of “Rebirth” titles and creative teams. WonderCon has returned to Anaheim for its 2017 edition, and brought with it a new “DC Universe: Rebirth” panel showcasing the line on Saturday afternoon. No roster of creators has yet been announced for the panel, but expect plenty of the current Rebirth talent.

CBR is there live, so keep hitting refresh for the very latest details.

DC All Access host Jason Inman took to the stage as the moderator of a massive panel of DC’s creative talent, including the Benson sisters, Sam Humphries, Phil Jimenez, James Tynion IV, Chad Hardin, John Semper Jr and Danny Miki with surprise guest Geoff Johns.

Inman began the panel by asking Johns for his favorite moments of Rebirth. Johns replied by first, thanking the fans for supporting Rebirth across the board. “I’ve worked with everyone on this panel, and I’m so proud of the work everyone has done,” Johns said, before singling out that Jimenez is one of the first artists that Johns met at DC.

Inman asked for a tease for Rebirth’s future from Johns. “I’m going to be returning to comics to do a series this year.” Johns said, surprising the audience. “You’ll hear more about that soon.”

Next up is the Benson sisters talking about the “Birds of Prey” — Shawna Benson spoke about bringing Roulette in to the book to make the universe feel more “lived in” with a meta-human fight club. Inman asked about bringing a new Oracle in for the Birds as a team, and Julie Benson fielded the question saying they will be looking into Gus’s origin soon.

The Bensons also spoke about Black Bird, the new villain for the Birds, who will be “a real problem” for the birds in the future.

Johns then spoke about how the Birds about how the Birds of Prey as a team are a corner stone of the DCU, and then continues to tease a potential Rebirth for other “cornerstone” teams like the JSA and the Legion of the Super-Heroes, to a very excited response from the crowd.

The focus then shifted to “Detective Comics” where Tynion IV takes over talking about Cassandra Cain’s role in the story. “I started reading comics monthly around “No Mans Land,” Tynion said, “Which is when Cassandra was really introduced to the comics. She’s very important to me.”

Tynion continued, “This upcoming arc [of “Detective Comics”] is when we find out what the connection between the League of Shadows and the League of Assassins actually is, and where Ra’s Al Ghul comes into play. He is not there as an ally.”

Inman asked Tynion about a twitter interaction between Tom King and Tyion on Twitter about who the most skilled fighter in the Batfamily is — King said Cassandra, and Tynion said he definitely agrees. “Cassandra’s first language is fighting,” Tynion explained, “If Cassandra and Batman wanted to fight and go-all-out, Batman might not win.”

“The core tragedy of Cassandra,” Tynion went on, “Is the danger in her. She’s afraid of herself, in a way. And she worries that the people around her are also afraid of her.”

Johns then went on to shed some light on the creative process in deciding the roster of “Detective Comics” “You can’t say “I loved this character as a kid” that’s not good enough, you really have to get under the hood of that character and that’s something I think James has really done with Cassandra.”

Inman then asked about the process that went into creating “Green Lanterns” behind the scenes, since they are characters that Johns himself created. “When DC approached me about the book,” Humphries said, “I was like “where’s Hal? But as time went on I realized that these new characters were the next Hal Jordan, the next Kyle Rayner.”

“Green Lanterns” is a story about “courage over fear”, Humphries elaborated, and expressed his excitement about the depth of the world of Green Lanterns with “Hal & The Green Lantern Corps” being so different a story. Johns chimed in at that point to explain that Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz’s contrasting personalities are what make “Green Lanterns” so strong, and singled out Cruz’s anxiety as a specifically relatable concept for fans like himself.

Inman then steered the conversation toward cliffhangers and Johns chimed in “Writers out there, don’t ever do a cliff hanger where your characters walk into a building and that building blows up. It never works.” Humphries laughed, “No, no, there always has be a personal component for a cliffhanger.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever do a cliffhanger as crazy as the one I did in “DC Universe: Rebirth,” Johns laughed.

Next up, the focus is moved to “Superwoman” with Phil Jimenez. Inman asked for some retrospective from Jimenez now that “Superwoman” has been collected.”

Jimenez laughs and says “I have a hard time reading my own work. I wrote Superwoman about two characters who may have not ever gotten along or been friends, but they realize they’re better together. I didn’t want to be the “Superman” guy, I wanted “Superwoman” a little more off beat and quirky. I wanted to address some of the weirder parts of the Superman world.”

“I loved writing a moment in “Superwoman” #5 when I got to write Lana call Lex Luthor out on being an awful human being. He’s an awful human being, and I was so glad I got to write that scene,” Jimenez recounted.

Johns had to depart the panel, so Inman refocused to “Harley Quinn” with Chad Hardin. “The whole creative team is like a group of 12-year-olds,” Hardin said, “Sometimes we push it too far and have to dial it back, but we’re having a lot of fun.”

Danny Miki, inker of “Batman” then took focus for a moment, when Inman asked Miki what it’s like to ink David Finch. “He’s got this heavy metal feel to his work,” Miki said, “It’s like a puzzle. It’s a wild ride.”

“Is there anything David just doesn’t like to draw that you just fill in? Like does Finch hate drawing cars?” Inman teased, but Miki laughed and responded “No no, he’s down with everything.”

Next up is “Cyborg” with John Semper Jr. “Now John,” Inman started, “You’ve been writing “Cyborg” for 11 issues — are you afraid of your phone yet? Skynet? Technology?”

Semper laughed, “I’m always afraid of my phone.”

Some teasers for upcoming issues of “Cyborg” were presented on the screen featuring Cyborg facing off against a villain in a stylized 8-bit world, which Semper explained was partly inspired by his own interest in classic video games and his love of pushing new limits with Vic as a character.

“Was there any difficulty in finding Vic’s voice as an individual hero apart from the Teen Titans?” Inman asked, which was met with a quick “No, no, I was given a blank slate with this character going into it,” from Semper, but he went on to explain that the complicated elements of “Cyborg” are leading up to a “cataclysmic” event he can’t talk about.

Updating…

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