#and it involves some Proper Comic Book stuff

[motleyfam]

PLEASE COULD WE MAYBE GET LIKE A VIBE OF WHAT THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF SETTLE OUR BONES IS GOING TO BE ABOUT NO PRESSURE JUST CURIOUS

The vibe is it’s kicking my ass 😂

[wolvertooth]

realized that the reason xmen origins is one of my fav movies is cuz it really seems like someone read the origin comics and went 'well thats stupid, they shoulda done this instead' which always makes for the best stories(<- majority of my fanfics follow this logic)

also, team x is just something that isnt talked about or elaborated on often in the comics. same with silverfox, who they actually turned into a whole character for this movie. so those are interesting things to make a plot about, since its not something the actual source material had attempted to do a proper story on yet. aside from origin, there was some clear influence from the weapon x 2002 series(agent zero, deadpool, victors buzz cut + chin patch), but it also brings stuff in from the earlier comics too. like a hybrid of the early 90s and modern plots that were popular at the time, while also giving the characters more...humanity? personality? motivation? very much a 'he wouldnt fucking say that' to the comics.

its not perfect, and i definitely get a more privileged view on it due to owning the script and seeing all they cut out, but its a side of these characters that even the comics have neglected to show imo. its not a comic book movie, its a fanfiction movie. its a 'what if' movie. its a character study movie. its a movie that wouldve done better as either a tv show or actual comic, bcuz of how much plot potential they werent able to fit in that short amount of time(hell, itd even do well as a video game tbh).

the movies post credits scene of logan being in japan literally ends it on a cliffhanger, a cliffhanger that involves a new timeline where victor still likes him, something thats never been done in any comics to this day. what does victor do after all that? after seeing how his father figure was actually the bad guy again? and now that stykers dead? if he was so scared of his brother forgetting him, how does he react when he learns that stryker succeeded in that anyway? so many changes that could be had in their lives just from that one little difference.

and, to me, this movie said things that the comics keep avoiding to say.

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Batgirl (2024) #1

writer: Tate Brombal artist: Takeshi Miyazawa colors: Mike Spicer

I guess the comics creation process has changed in the last 20 years, because there's no longer separately credited pencils and inks. Is inking just not a job anymore? If not, who does that part now? "artist" or "colors"? Lettering is still a separate job - Tom Napolitano for this issue. I haven't been listing letterers with these reviews... should I be? & should I be calling out editors, for that matter?

Just a heads up: I didn't dislike this issue overall, and I do call out the stuff I liked, but I spend a lot of this post comparing it negatively to Batgirl 2000. If you're a Cass fan who's just hyped that she has a new solo title, and don't want to read a bunch of negativity while you're still celebrating then maybe skip this one.

Anyway, Cassandra Cain finally has a proper new solo ongoing title as Batgirl again, and the Cass fans on tumblr have seemingly been pretty hype about it. I'm considerably more trepidatious going in, because my reread of Cass's original appearances (link) has mostly shown me that I'm maybe not so much a 'Cassandra Cain' fan as I am a fan specifically of the initial Puckett/Scott run of Batgirl (2000). Of the unique tone and story-telling style of those issues, of the particular relationships between Cass and her main supporting cast at the time - Bruce, David, Barbara, later Stephanie.

I recently wrote a too-long post about what I was hoping for out of the new book (link) - but to recap I DON'T want to see a return of OG Cass's character and continuity - that version of the character is too tied up in her particular relationships with other characters that either don't exist or don't exist in the same form anymore. Plus, the impulse of middle age comic creators to try to force continuity back to whatever the status quo was when they first became fans is exactly what led to original Cass getting tossed aside and trampled over in the first place. New Cass is a new character, and I don't want her fans to have to go through what I went through just because people my age are in charge of editorial now.

What I DO want is a return of original Cass's storytelling style. Self contained stories, sombre tone, focus on emotion over action, leaning into Cass's personal motivations and fraught interpersonal relationships (just those of new Cass instead of old Cass), with a heavy emphasis on the individual humanity of all parties involved, with story and emotions conveyed primarily through the art - especially the facial expressions - while minimizing the reliance on dialog and especially narration blocks wherever possible.

That's a tall order, especially the last bit. There's a reason Batgirl 2000 caught my attention and stuck in my head. It takes a special kind of artist to be able to convey all that visually, and a special kind of writer to understand that less is more, to trust the artist to convey these things and trust the reader to pick up on them without spelling it all out explicitly in text.

So that's all what I want. But what do I expect? I'm a old school Cass fan. What I expect is disappointment.

...............................

So, first two pages, and we have some positives and negatives right off the bat. The art & colors are good. I mostly like the way Miyazawa draws Cass. It's a solid take on her costume, even if I prefer the wider angle ears from the recent Birds of Prey run. I like the classic chonky yellow belt pouches, though I'm not as big a fan of the yellow outline bat symbol. Yes it's also a classic, but it's a bit fiddly and doesn't read terribly well when she's smaller in the panel, like on that second page, so I always though a solid yellow bat symbol would have been better. I like the white eyes.

Cass's proportions feel a bit off. I like the emphasis on her musculature, but the overall figure feels too hour glassy, and the head to body ratio kind of visually implies a much taller Cass that I'm used to, especially for her post-reboot incarnation. This is an issue in Birds of Prey as well, if maybe not to the same extent.

New Cass was apparently supposed to be 16 when she was first introduced in B&RE & her earlier Detective run and like 17 or 18 in later Detective, outsiders, and Batgirls appearances - through from the way she was drawn and depicted I had thought she was like three years younger than that the whole time. Now she's 18 or 19, and has apparently gone through an extremely late and extremely sudden puberty? Eh, continuity in Bat books especially regarding canon ages was never good and has been an absolute wreck ever since new 52, so that's not something to fault this book in particular for. But even so, the body type feels a bit off.

The big tragedy, is, of course, the way Cass's mask blocks her face - especially her mouth. This is another throwback to her original batgirl costume, but Damion Scott was still able to convey a full range of emotions on Cass by just ignoring physics and drawing her face straight through the mask. Miyazawa seems to be going for a slightly more... I don't know, 'realistic' maybe isn't the right word. And there is some expression still showing, but given how much more expressive Shiva's face manages to be in this issue, it really feels like breaking from tradition to go with something that keeps her face exposed, like the domino mask of the Blackbat costume, would have better served Miyazawa's style.

Speaking of Shiva...

Yup, that's post reboot Shiva there, looking basically exactly how I expect her to look. Which is to say she looks fine. Good even. Her face is very expressive throughout the comic, which I really like, and I also like that she's deliberately drawn a bit older - something about the lines on her face, the sharpness of it. This is a woman with a history, been around the world, killed a lot of people, and that experience shows on her face. This in particular I can credit Miyazawa above Scott on, because in their first few meetings in particular back in Batgirl 2000 Cass and her mom looked about the same age.

There's a deliberate choice in this first introduction to pose her away from Cass, despite the fact that in the narrative she's the one going to Cass and Cass is rejecting her. But while it doesn't fit the narrative, it does play into some of the underlying character dynamics between them. It ties into the idea that since she understands body language like Cass does, she can 'speak' that language deliberately, allowing her to deceive Cass in a way that normal people can't. Her interior emotions are closed off to Cass - not because Shiva isn't expressing emotions but because her ability to lie means Cass can't - and doesn't - trust what Shiva 'says'.

That's all good stuff. The kind of interpersonal dynamics that I want to see out of Cass stories, so in that at least I'm happy. Most of the Cass-Shiva stuff in this issue is really solid. It was a natural and imo correct choice to start the book with a narrow focus on Cass's relationship to Shiva, given how core that relationship has been to both of their characterizations since Cass's post-reboot reintroduction. But that's for both better and worse, especially in Shiva's case. I know there are fans of Shiva out there who don't like how much of her individual character and motivation has been pushed aside to just make her 'Cass's Mom'. Unfortunately, that particular problem isn't one that's going to be fixed in a Cass Cain solo title.

Less good is how much Brombal relies on blunt narration blocks to explain this dynamic between Cass and Shiva to the reader, instead of allowing the reader to pick up on the emotional undercurrent through the art the way Cass perceives it through body language.

I'm willing to cut Brombal some slack here, because where they're working with Shiva - a reserved, withdrawn, calculating, and emotionally deceptive evil parent - Puckett & Scott were working with og David Cain. He was original character they crafted specifically to fit the kind of story they were trying to tell, so they made Cain the kind of man that never had a sincere emotion that he didn't wear all over his face for the world to see. Like, here he is in Batman 567, Cass's first appearance, with the Puckett/Scott creative team.

look at this man

Look at his face! See how expressive it is!

And yeah, Shiva's just not going to be expressive in the same way. So it really is honestly impressive how good a job Miyazawa does with her face in this issue:

Those are some good & fun faces. It's a good thing Miyazawa is doing such a good job with Shiva's face, though because it's near about the only face we get to see in this issue. Which is a problem I pitch a big old fit about below regarding the antagonists, but even more than that it's kind of frustrating that we don't get to see Cass's face even one time in the first issue of her new ongoing.

And while these Shiva faces are good, they're rarely the focus of the page. We're never given the kind of close up faces that take up half a page or more to really let us drink in the characters' emotions like Batgirl 2000 used so effectively.

.....

That's about as much as I can wring out of those two pages. Unfortunately that means I have to get to the actual content of the book.

First, what the hell is Cass doing in that first panel.

Second... come on. This book wants me to believe that Shiva is worried about some random assassins killing her and Cassandra? In this continuity the League of Assassins are the worlds top evil ninja society that every other random evil ninja society is afraid of, except for the League of Shadows who are the super secret even more ultra evil ninja society that even the League of Assassins is afraid of, and Shiva and Cass are each individually established as being so far beyond even them that either of them could outfight and take down the entire League of Assassins on their own. "Faceless ninja mooks Trained killers are coming to get us" is so far beneath either of these characters as far as threats go that Shiva should feel insulted, not afraid.

And I guess that's supposed to be the point? Like the writer is saying "these guys who you've never heard of are so scarry that even Shiva is afraid! Aren't you intrigued?" And, like, no. I'm not. If Shiva isn't feeling disdainful and insulted, then I'm just kind of forced to feel insulted on her behalf. This isn't something Shiva should think Cass needs help with, and if Cass did end up needing help I'd expect Shiva to help, but also to make a big show of how disappointed she was that Cass couldn't handle it on her own the entire time.

That last panel with Cass and Shiva is cute. Again, most of the direct interactions between them in this book are good, and they're the ledge I'm desperately clinging to in order to say I don't actively dislike the whole issue altogether.

On the other hand when I say 'faceless ninja mooks' I mean it. These guys are as generic as mooks get, with no individuality at all. Store bought ninja halloween costumes, swords and bows instead of guns or anything serious. These guys aren't people, they're the putties from Power Rangers. They don't even have real dialog, just a corny mantra.

Compare to these generic thugs from Batgirl (2000) #1. Even without names and almost no dialog, each one is a completely unique individual, to the point that we easily recognize 'Merc' in the middle when he shows up later in the issue.

Mob guys, bank robbers, just random civilians on the city streets, everyone who shared a panel with Cass with under Scott's pencil had a unique face, and whenever any of these background characters stepped forward to actually take part in the story Puckett invested them with personalities and motivations and lives of their own.

And I'm not just harping on it because I like that kind of storytelling better, it was part and parcel to Cass as a character. Her unique superpower, her whole body-reading gimmick, essentially amounts to super-empathy. It's why she doesn't kill, it's why the one time she did kill as a child messed her up so bad. It, along with the guilt from that murder, forces her to connect to even the villains she interacts with, to see them as full human beings and not just enemies that need to be stopped. It's why Bruce once characterized her as 'gentle', despite all the killing skills that were trained into her. And yeah, new Cass is a new character, but these core elements are, or at least should be, shared between both versions, between every version of this character, even as the specific details of that history vary from continuity to continuity.

Emphasizing the individual humanity of all the characters in a Cass story - from Cass herself to the primary antagonists to the random mooks to the background extras - is essential to conveying that aspect of Cass as a character.

And these guys are the literal opposite of that.

Now, they're not all bad. We do get a bit of a fun fight scene out of them. Very 70s hong kong martial arts movie vibe, which Cass and Shiva can play into. And a faceless crowd of ninja mooks makes sense in that context. This isn't as fundamentally obviously a terrible decision on the creative team's part as I'm making out.

But there are any number of martial artist characters in the DC canon that can be used to do this sort of thing. IMO it just doesn't speak to what's uniquely compelling about Cassandra - old or new. Which is a problem for the first issue of her new ongoing title.

And nothing here illuminates why Shiva would be in any way worried about these guys. They're not uniquely skilled, they're not uniquely anything, and they're not portrayed as being on Cass or Shiva's level.

Cass and Shiva eventually get bored of fighting generic nobodies & make their way down to the street via window and hang-glider-cape, where we get this bit... that I actively kind of hate?

Because, see, the incident Shiva is talking about is something that happened in Batgirl (2000). This shouldn't be in continuity anymore, and it doesn't fit into current Cass timeline at all - unless there was some other shiva-worshipping temple in gotham death/revival incident with Cass post-reboot that I don't remember.

I've seen people celebrating this exact line as marking the return of pre-reboot Cass's continuity and the wholesale erasure of post-reboot Cass. Apart from the frustrating indifference of that sentiment towards any fans of post-reboot Cass, especially coming from fans who should know better, it doesn't even work. Because the Shiva we've spent this whole issue with is 100% post-reboot Shiva. This IS NOT the character that Cass fought in that temple. As out of character as it is for this Shiva to be afraid of random mooks, we can at least accept her behavior IF we suspend disbelief about those mooks representing any sort of threat to her and Cass in the first place.

But the Shiva og Cass fought in Batgirl (2000)?

Death matches, putting her own life on the line to test her skills against the deadliest martial artists in the world, was her whole deal. Batgirl (2000)'s contribution to that deal was that Shiva was such a skilled fighter because she had the same body-reading ability as Cass, and just like Cass that ability forced Shiva to experience the deaths of those she killed as they experienced it. And just like Cass had been consumed by guilt from that experience, Shiva had been consumed with... well, not guilt exactly. But a burden of karmic debt. She had killed and she deserved to die for it. But her martial pride didn't allow her to just take her own life, so she traveled the world looking for someone who could give her the warrior's death she deserved.

After Shiva "killed" and then revived Cass, she hoped that Cass would be, at least for a moment, sufficiently freed from the sense of guilt that prevented her from killing again to go all out against Shiva and finally put an end to her. Cass, recognizing how much they had in common, was then able to use her new understanding of the death wish they shared to defeat Shiva without killing her.

All this is to say that if the Shiva Cass fought in that temple had been confronted with an ancient secret order of martial artists out to kill her and so skilled that they could actually do it, she would have relished the chance to finally meet the end she had been chasing across the world for decades. This Shiva is not her, so the comic deliberately invoking that story via this temple reference is kind of jarring to me.

This is part of why I didn't want this book to try to revive pre-reboot Cass's history, whether in part or in whole. That character was founded on relationships with a bunch of other characters whose present versions are all as different from the versions og Cassandra knew as the Cass of Batman & Robin Eternal was from the Cass of Batgirl (2000).

The clock only turns the one way. You can't turn it back, you have to build forward from where you are.

If we ignore this line, and the inclusion of this temple in the story, then I'd argue the comic at least begins to do that with the relationship Cass and Shiva's have built up in Detective and Outsiders and Shiva's brief appearance in Batgirls... but are any of those events even in continuity anymore? I don't know, and that's pretty frustrating.

We do get this cute moment of Cass disappearing on Shiva and Shiva blaming 'her father's influence' - by which she obviously means Bruce. Again, mostly good character interaction between Cass and Shiva. Unfortunately this cute moment is immediately undercut by Cass just being there anyway in the next panel, but still.

....

I'm getting tired, and this has taken way too long already, what's left?

Yeah, Shiva's temple explodes, Cass & Shiva go there and meet the temple keeper from the same story back in Batgirl (2000) as he dies, the faceless ninjas attack again. There's at least one more really good bit with Cass and Shiva worth calling out:

This is good. This is a good moment, calling back to the start of the issue when Shiva was trying to convince Cassandra how much she she meant her, and Cass accused her of lying, while here she is trying to convince the putty patrol that Cass doesn't mean anything to her, and Cass can tell that that's the real lie.

This is probably my favorite Cass & Shiva bit in an issue that has a lot of good bits to point to in that regard.

Unfortunately the comic pretty much ends here, which brings me to my last big complaint about Batgirl (2024) #1: It doesn't tell a complete story. It doesn't even come close - hardly anything even happens. Cass & Shiva barely talk in a pent house, fight some random nobodies for a few panels, barely talk outside, and then end on a cliff hanger fighting the same nobodies in a burning building. That's it. We barely recap Cass's backstory at all, we don't find out who these guys are or why they want Cass & Shiva dead, we hardly interact with any characters, and they end on a cliffhanger after hardly doing anything only 20 pages in, wasting like 6 pages on an adds for wrestling comics after that.

Batgirl (2000) #1 managed to do so much more with only a few more pages - giving us flashbacks to Cass as a child beating up 'Merc' & the thugs as part of training with David, training with barbara, Barbara trying and failing to connect with her, another flashback to cass after she had left david encountering Merc again, patrolling with batman, barbara and bruce talking about her abilities and disabilities, the little wham moment of Babs being like 'No wonder she's so good at stick fighting, I just thought it was from Cain training her', and Brucy replying 'Cain never taught her stick fighting, I did, last week, took five minutes', Bruce & Cass sparring - which the comic doesn't even show because the page space was better used on close ups of their faces to convey their emotions afterwards, Cass patrolling again and starting to find herself as batgirl when she meets Merc for a third and final time, how that final meeting tied the rest of the issue together in a satisfying way, tying together the drifting life that led to her becoming Batgirl, before closing on Batman laying down the rules for Cass as a crimefighter (no costumed criminals, etc) which also served as a message to readers about what to expect from the book.

....

I get that it's not fair to compare this book to the Puckett/Scott run of Batgirl 2000, one of my favorite comic book works and probably my absolute favorite mainstream superhero comic work ever. I will stick with this book and post my reactions to it going forward, but I don't intend to do this kind of expectations-laden comparison to Batgirl 2000 again. I hadn't even intended to do it this time, except that while I was working on this post I kept seeing "Cass is so back!" style reactions from old school Cass fans at the kind of sort of maybe restoration of an unspecified amount of her pre-reboot continuity, and that's just frustrating to me.

Because to me what made og Cass special wasn't a fan-wiki style breakdown of her lore, it was the way her stories were told, and how that storytelling style brought the characters and relationships in it to life. Batgirl 2024 #1 isn't a bad book at all. In terms of modern Cass appearances, so far I like more than B&RE or Outsiders or Birds of Prey, but a bit less than Detective or Batgirls or Spirit world - though there's plenty of room for Batgirl 2024 to surpass those books in my estimation going forward.

But one thing it absolutely isn't is the second coming of Batgirl 2000.

[gabriel-xander]

Don't Forget

[Sans x Female!Reader]

27: DJ KHALED!!!! (Another One)

♪────✿⁠(⁠✧◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕✧⁠)✿⁠────♪

You unlock the door to Sans’ workshop, and you are pleasantly surprised that it actually worked. He did say it was the key, but still. Maybe you have unresolved trust issues? Ah, but that’s a problem for a future you to worry about.

Sans is already inside, sitting in the pink beanbag while lazily writing some things down in that journal of his. That reminds you, you didn’t actually get to read anything from it yesterday night since you were too preoccupied with something else.

He doesn’t look up when you enter, though you notice him tensing up and faltering with his writing for a moment. You make sure to lock the door behind yourself, smiling awkwardly at him.

“Hey there, bone boy,” You toss the key in your hand, “Did you want this back now?”

Sans raises a bone brow and finally looks up at you, “huh? no, i… i made a spare for you. that’s yours if you want it.”

“Really?”

“figured i can… i trust you enough for you to have it. ‘sides, if we ever need to talk about serious stuff or whatever, we can just do it here now. don’t gotta worry about undyne finding you and thrashing your ass.”

You hum softly while making your way to the other beanbag. “Aw, that’s a shame. I really liked that place in the Waterfalls.”

“oh, uh…” His cheeks flush a very soft pink, barely noticeable were it not for you looking at him so intensely, “then… i guess we can do that. and–you can use this place for anything else, you know? if you just want to chill… by yourself or together. it’s whatever.”

God, he’s so awkward sometimes. You’d think he’d be better at this stuff, but no he’s just as emotionally constipated as every other man you’ve ever spoken to.

“anyway,” The Comic snaps his book shut, “you’re back early, huh?”

“Yeahhh, Pollux noticed I wasn’t all there and basically told me to leave to focus on myself. Seriously, I think you’d like him, he’s really nice! You should come with us tomorrow night and get to know him.”

Sans grimaces at the suggestion, “i think i’m good. one of us gotta be the actual loner.”

“And you’re up awfully early. Papyrus was sure you’re snoozing away right now.”

“heh, can’t blame a guy for getting excited about his old toy working again. but hey, you okay? you said you weren’t all there.”

“Mhm, I guess I was just anxious thinking about that Gaster thing from last night. I couldn’t focus on anything else,” You tell him honestly.

“great, ‘cause that’s what i wanted to talk to you about.”

With a sigh as if it causing him great inconvenience, Sans gets up from the beanbag to get closer to the machine. It was still on, but the screen was showcasing something different that you weren’t sure how to describe. You might be a smart cookie, but you’re not Sans smart, and you’re certainly not smart enough to understand the things he specializes in.

“i was messing around with it this morning–a little after you went to work. pretty cool, right? look at me go, being productive and all that.”

“Wow.”

“anyway, i realized that it’s not… 100% working just yet,” He leans an arm on the console of the machine, looking at it longingly like it’s an old friend, “i still need to do some fixing up on my part. on the bright side, it really shouldn’t take too long to get it to proper working order. i’m pretty sure gaster did most of the work, the rest of it is pretty superficial.”

You nod along to his words, not really getting the deeper meaning behind them but hoping he feels heard anyway. No, actually you can comprehend enough that it’s not fully working, but that’s about it.

“That’s great, right? That means you can boogie and do your thing soon.”

“half right. based on the set number of coincidences, and perfect alignments that involve you, i think it’s clear that both you and myself are supposed to use it together.”

“Ahh, okay. So, we’re gonna get roped up in some wacky adventures!” You stand up and put your hands on your hips, “Quick question, bone boy.”

“‘sup?”

“What exactly does it do? Er–what is it supposed to do?”

“it was a personal passion project of mine before gaster… you know. anyway, i call it the dj.”

“…The DJ.”

His grin turns mischievous and full of schemes: “the dimensional jumper.”

“…Okay, fine. That one was good,” You grin back, “Wait a damn minute. A Dimensional Jumper? This machine…!”

“yeee-up. this bad boy can take us to different alter–or in your words, different au’s and different timelines. once i get it fixed up, you can expect us to visit our first au, so you gotta be ready for that.”

You blink owlishly like a frog, “Are you serious?! Isn’t that a little…”

Isn’t that too fictional and crap? You can come to terms that you’re practically living that fan-fiction life, but going to different Au’s?! Also, is that even safe for you two?! What about the laws of time travel and crap!!

“Wait, why do we have to go there in the first place?” You ask him, because you know, that’s a vital point of this in the first place.

To your horror, Sans just shrugs, “no clue. but…”

Sans has to remove his gloves to use the terminal, stuffing his cute pink gloves in his pockets. Whatever the fuck he types makes the screen change, going back to the previous screen from last night that showed the different AU’s and timelines. The flashing dot was still there, blinking away lazily.

“my theory is that gaster is trying to lead us to somewhere, to this au. i don’t know what what we’re supposed to do or how we’re supposed to do it, but whatever it is we’ll probably figure it out once we’re there.”

You wince, “That sounds really risky. What if it takes us days or weeks to do what we need to do? What are we gonna tell our friends? What about Papyrus?”

“one thing at a time, [y/n], don’t stress it. the dj isn’t even working yet, so let’s worry about all that stuff later,” The skeleton then bumps your arm with his bony hands. “on the plus side, papyrus isn’t completely clueless on this stuff, either. he doesn’t care about all this like i do, but he’s caught up with my space and time shenanigans.”

…Oh yeah. In the Pacifist route, there was a secret you could get about Sans’ room that let you learn about the workshop in the first place. Papyrus saved you from the treadmill saying how Sans liked to prank across space and time.

Cool facts.

“Sounds good but, Sans,” You gesture to the screen, “Which AU is this? I mean, I know about a few of them, but at a very surface level.”

Sans fingers are hard and pointy, and when they press against the buttons it makes a very satisfying clicky-clacky noise.

Nice.

The screen zooms into that enlarged into that particular AU. Folders and folders appear on the screen, and when Sans hovers over one it opens up and even more files jump out of it for you to read. The text was too small for you to really comprehend what you were seeing, but Sans was kind enough to just tell you anyway.

“oh, this one is one of the older au’s. everyone’s personalities and roles gets swapped with each other.”

You widen your eyes and smile big, “Oh, my gosh! Wait, this is UnderSwap!”

“pfft–ah-ha ha ha! wow, you’re also a huge dork too!” He snickers, “of course you’d have a name for the au.”

“Okay, I get it, I get it,” You roll your eyes, “But anywho, the first stop is UnderSwap?”

“yeah, sure. do i gotta tell you the important rules of dj-ing, or do you know the gist of it?”

“Dude, the most I know about anything related to time travel or universe jumping is Back to the Future.”

“…so, no?”

“So, no.”

“hmm.” Sans leans against the machine, careful not to press against any buttons, “it’s not really as complicated as they make it in the movies, i swear. also, this isn’t time traveling per say, so we don’t got as many rules, either.”

You raise an eyebrow and smirk knowingly, “‘Per say,’ but there is a grey area.”

“look at you, einstein,” Sans smiles cheekily while patting your shoulder, “i really don’t think we gotta worry about that now, especially in this au. so we’ll get back to that later.”

“Alright, alright. So, the rules?”

“unless it’s another me, or in this universe, i guess it’d be papyrus, no one can know about the au’s. seriously. don’t tell ‘em where we came from, who we really are, or how we got there.” Sans pauses for a moment, “actually, it’s best if we avoid the other me altogether. if they found out we got our dj working, they might try getting me to do the same to theirs.”

You hiss, “Oooh, and it won’t be that simple…”

“right, cause my guess is, they don’t have a you,” Sans crosses his arms, “i guess… wow, yeah. this is an au…”

“An AU or timeline? I think this is an alternate timeline, no? There’s nothing else that’s different so far, only that I exist.”

“...i think you’re right. this timeline changed irrevocably the moment you were inserted. but the fact that we will be going to the other au’s with you existing, does that not make this a whole new au in itself?’

“Okay, Socrates. Let’s not think too hard about that before we just go in circles or implode,” You pat his back with a sympathetic nod, “Short story long, avoid the “you’s” in the other AU’s and timelines, and just keep our DJ-ing secret in general.”

“yep, yep.”

“But what if we need help? Oh-ho! Or what if the fucking goal of the mission is some metaphorical shit like: ‘friendship was the real treasure the whole time’?”

The monster snorts and shakes his head, “if it really is something corny, then we’ll figure it out once we get there. next rule… hm, never stray too far from me. i get the feeling you’re no push over, but we don’t really want you to have to go too far if you need to protect yourself.”

“Aww, so you’ll be my knight in shiny, tinfoil armor?” You bat your eyelashes dramatically while clasping your hands together by your head, “Oh, Sans. You’re so romantic.”

He shrugs with a blush, going along with it, “i do okay.”

“Next rule?”

“uhh… oh. don’t do anything that would dramatically affect future events of the au or timeline. i feel like that’s a given, but it’s harder than you’d think. after all, take us for example. i know you changed a lot just by showing up.”

You puff out your cheeks, “You’re right, I guess… Man, I didn’t realize-”

“-don’t tell me you’re gonna fall into a self-pity party. come on,” Sans nudges your arm, “it’s not your fault you’re just so cool and amazing, you can’t help but fuck up a timeline just by walking in a room.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Is Sans… Was that Sans’ attempt at flirting?

“Were you just trying to flirt? Was that flirting?”

His face flushes a deeper pink, his eyes avoiding you while his smile wobbles.

“oh, come on. was it that bad?”

You laugh, unable to help your teasing, “It wasn’t baaaad, but I know you can do so much better than that. Put more backbone into it.”

“ouch,” Sans puts a hand to his chest, “i guess i gotta up my game. and here i thought you liked it better when i was fully authentic.”

“Mehh, a little fairy-tale romance is nice,” You playfully shake his shoulder, “Anywayyy, we keep getting off track. Any other rules I should know about DJ-ing?”

“not that i can remember. you make me head empty.”

…Sure, that one was a little better.

“Alright, little buddy.”

“please don’t call me little buddy when i’m trying to flirt with you.”

“How about lil’ bro then?”

“that’s even worse, actually.”

“You never like my ideas.”

“when have i ever-”

“-SANS!”

“oh, my god–what?”

“Focus.”

He sighs in defeat.

“no, i really can’t think of any other rules. but in the meantime, i suggest you start prepping to get ready for an adventure. at this rate, i’d give us…” Sans pulls back his sleeve but the man isn’t even wearing a watch, ”about another two to three weeks before i have this working.”

“Awesome possum, I’ll talk to Grillby and Pollux about giving me a vacation. Eugh, not a good look to ask for vacation days already, but it is what it is. Oh!” You clap your hands together suddenly, making him flinch, “By the way, I wanted to ask about that notebook from yesterday? I never actually got to read it since we got so distracted.”

Again, he blushes and looks away, “yeah, about that. i uh, i changed my mind. i only gave it to you in case i needed to convince you that i wasn’t lying about the timeline and resets and all that.”

“Oh? Don’t tell me you’re embarrassed about it.”

“ah-hem. so, you said before you have two brothers, right?”

What a terrible transition to topics. Still, you’re nice and merciful, so you let it slide. Besides, you love talking about your precious brothers and abuse any opportunity to yapp about them.

“So true, bestie. Let me tell you about the time Alejandro and Noah accidentally stole a couple of penguins from the Zoo.”

“…wait, what?”

Taglist:

@lemonboy011

@adriixboo

@fluffyart5000

@fetusbaconegg

[lucabyte]

HOWDY! *slams pile of papers on the desk* i have Inquiries. OKAY SO-

1.) i know the bridge between infurno and purrgatorio is Ali realizing they cant leave, so like, whats pawradisio???

2.) wtf happens ta Ali durin the 'age ???' section of their design timeline. what type cult stuff do they get involved w and how. its haunting me i needa know

3.) whats with the 3 year memory erasing thing in that one ali purrgatorio relationship chart. Really funny chart ive shared it w a few friends but also im staring intently at it like Huh What O_O

4.) what is mymk's final form? is it gonna be written, a comic, etc?

5.) got any music you associate w any mymk characters/ali? besides like, in canon reasons like Chrome more like any songs/artists/lyrics that remind u of anya em :0??

anyway yeah huge fan! also hope ur vacation's fun!

Hehe hi :)

1. We shall get there when we get there <3 my lips are sealed. Though I will say, there are further books by Dante one can animal-pun the titles of... Though they aren't part of the divine comedy..... (Alludes vaguely to plans that will inevitably take me years)

2. Okay so spoilers for Creature Feature, Ali's home setting (and @samhainian's thing) (because this is all a bit of an open secret) but Ali is, as I've alluded to previously, an Antagonist.

Creature Feature is a real world adjacent setting, set in our modern day, only with all manner of monsters and cryptids living secretly alongside humans. Ali lives in Wraithbrook, a hidden town populated primarily by monsters (albeit, most everyone still upholds a disguise, just in case). Being a (very) small town with an effectively captive population.... The post-high-school ennui tends to set in bad for people. Hope you enjoy the family businesses, kids.

So... This leaves the listless vulnerable. And boy is Ali a bit malleable. A trusted figure in their life takes advantage of this, part of an accellerationist group looking to break these confines, having singled them out as candidate for their most recent attempt to mold a magic user into a weapon to shatter the veil. And, well, if you've got a self-hating isolated guy who is predisposed to a bit of Catholicism already... Why not utilise the concept of the antichrist? They will be bringing a world together, in a way... And when you've been around as long as some immortal librarians have, doing a little bit of time dilation in the later stages of indoctrination isn't thaaaaat hard... Sooooo....

(But don't worry. They get better. Eventually. At least they look it. Everything is A-OK!!!)

(as for if purrgatorio is canon to this timeline....? Yes! But in a fucked up way! Can't make it too easy for the little guy....)

3. Okay so I was coy literally a sentence ago but yeah purrgatorio is set dead on like.. at the exact same time MYMK proper *should* start. Thus, it cannot exist at the same time as the main story... Ali's narrative powers keep them from being subsumed by the universe and just becoming a funny animal themselves.

But should a time come where Ali is *gone*, and the world is similar enough to the moments before they arrived? Well, the narrative can just pretend the time hasn't passed! Just, don't think too hard about your count of how many Halloweens and Christmasses you've had doesn't really line up....

(A normal person would simply name Purrgatorio noncanon, but hey, if Ali's whole thing is that they manipulate reality like a Narrative... Well. May as well use it! So once canon is over for both parties, things can start creeping back in. It's needlessly overcomplicated but I'm having fun)

4. Written with illustrations! An Online picture book, I suppose. I was initially damning myself to a comic, but after playing in the space with Purrgatorio, I realised I prefer prose. I'll probably write the thing in whole and then release it bit by bit as I work on the illustrations? I have a working outline as of right now and it's not a super long story lol. But its likely going to come after some practice with smaller projects like my reworking of Hazeclan and maybe Damonquest (name pending) (the latter featuring a cut main character of mymk lol)

So! ETA: a while. But we stay silly

5. OKAY.... so I can't link character playlists sadly since they don't exist (..... Yet.) and I'll stick primarily to our at present Purrgatorio cast.

I am like. Famously bad with identifying songs (<- usb stick full of songs on shuffle in the car as a kid) but I have been trying to put thought into this recently (my gold standard for this being my friend @teddymedley who's so good with character songs I did ask him for some vibe checks for this even)

So these are messy and some are like, inherited from earlier drafts of the characters so can be a bit off but I'll give a handful and their reasonings. (No links or embeds though I'm on mobile and Tumblr might eat my visibility if I do. I'll reply with some though)

[Ali Alighieri]

1. "Here comes the flood" by the Divine Comedy (self explanatory really, that animatic will exist someday I promise. This is THE big one to me, but @samhainian may have a different top spot opinion lol) Bonus: it has a demo version that also fucks supremely

2. "All the angels (demo)" by MCR. (Ali is not the MCR sibling, they're the P!ATD sibling. But I don't listen to panic lol)

3. "If you could save yourself you'd save us all" by Ween (peak "sorry what was that line just there?" song)

4. "In the meantime" by Spacehog (I like Spacehog. Everyone gets a spacehog song yaaay)

5. "Here comes the sun" cover by Ghost (not their style of music at ALL and you KNOW they're contrarian about the Beatles, but grim irony is such a vibe here)

[Chromium Mono]

1. "Manicure" by Lady Gaga (this is such a flippant "because I said so" choice lol)

2. "Let it grow" by Renaissance (this is such a nice cheesy song. I like to think of this as speaking to the actual nice loving guy chrome can be when he's not being a prickly bitch)

3. Kissing Ancaps by Patricia Taxxon (... GOD this song is way too cool or smart for chrome lol. It's a chrometab song to me because of the big words and cynicism. It's too modern and online for them but I'm attached to it... Also it contains a sample from let it grow)

4. "Run away with me" by Carly Rae Jepsen (more vibes based! Love some ms jepsen. But at least has a coherent theme wrt to eloping lol)

Bonus: oh god I really have to finish the voiceclaim video I was making. Premiere kept melting on me but I should probably let the world know chrome sounds like Donald Glover huh. The marshall lee to live action Simba pipeline.....

Bonus 2: @teddymedley suggested "Ratchet" by Bloc Party, with the phrasing "subject matter younger chrome sound older chrome" which I like!

[Tabitha Boss]

1. "Cable Rat King" by Gem Milsom (this one genuinely feels like a solid choice to me. It's polite and tentative and about depressive spirals, and is from the same album as the Number One Main Labyrinthine song, Pipes. That animatic will exist someday too I promise)

2. "This too shall pass" by OK GO (Preferably the brass band version. I think Tabitha would adore their videos, he'd be delighted by the moving parts and generally light tone. Also, Labyrinthine has a different "this too shall pass", being by Danny Schmidt)

3. "When will you die?" By TMBG (goofy song. But you get it.)

4. "Zeroes" by Spacehog (Spacehog again 👍)

Bonus: Jimmy buffet discography. He is living on island time baby

Bonus 2: @teddymedley assigned "Happy Hour" by Eels and I think the strange upbeat lethargic energy fits

[Lavender Wafeu]

Lavender is really funny because I honest to god don't think she listens to much music. This means I barely associate music with her apparently.

However @teddymedley did suggest "Black Rainbows" from Hawaii: Part 2, and I think that's better than any of my previous notes. Those previous notes being entirely the words "Little shop of horrors". She, Knives and Mafioso do also share an association with "Panda Hero" by Hachi but that's more visual to me?

I have however begun associating some Zelda OST tracks with her though... Hmmm....!

[Markus Felidae]

This poor bastard has shed and gained characterisation recently enough to have shook the MCR out of their system.... I don't have all that much for them.

Now. Hm. I think I'd have to go with some very on the nose musical tracks? My mind immediately goes to the opening track to Disney's Notre Dame, and maybe like, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer from Cats? These are such dreadful picks lol. Sorry buddy, characterisation overhaul syndrome. They probably also would listen to P!ATD same as Ali though so do with that what you will.

Bonus: in Markus' earliest iteration over 10 years ago..hrm. long story short, 121 guns is so fucking unfitting but it's lodged there forever lol

[Lupus Felidae]

Lupus is associated in my head with the kind of dub anime opening best codified by 4kids era Pokémon. Like the ideal song here is that one from Yugioh. "No matter what"? That kind of cheese and boyish power of friendship. "OK!!" From the JP endings of anipoke goes here too it's cute to me.

"I can go the distance" from Disney's Hercules is also up there for the same vibes. She's just silly and having fun!

Bonus: "Don't let's start" by TMBG is a Miao song to me, but in relation to her family. So it's also Lupus and Markus' by association.

[Ess Somil]

The idea of an ess playlist is hysterical to me. I feel like it's a Mother 3 battle theme in that man's head all the time. What's your time signature boy.

Anyway, "Numbers" by Neil Cicierega. Since it is overwhelming enough of a soundscape. Or just "Doctor Worm" by TMBG. For that they live in the soil.

.... And that's probably enough!!! This ask is very long now! Sorry it took a while to answer lmaooo. I've been very busy but it's been nice to chip away at during my downtime! Thank you so much for the questions :)

[maurofonseca]

Are you working on any personal projects? Any comics from you on the horizon?

Hopefully!

I've got a main idea of comics I want to do, but I'm gonna take longer talking about it, so I'll first mention a couple others-

I've in the past drawn a lot of like, online meme characters. Not this exactly, but stuff like "Earth-chan". Lately been thinking about revisiting that, making them my own characters, changing designs and names, and working from that for small slice-of-life things.

I've got a friend I collab with on ideas, and I asked him ideas for short stories. Planning to draw a couple of his ideas, both for portfolio and because he does good stuff.

However, the main thing, of course, is my ideas involving my characters Lalla Shepherd, Jackie Pollard, Lily Rock, etc etc.

Gonna go on at length about it now, so putting it under a read more.

I've got a setting of characters etc I've nurtured for a few years now. It's a setting of cartoon animal people, adventure, fighting, etc. Very much trying to replicate the Disney comics I grew up on, stuff like Barks, Cavazzano, Gottfredson, but also stuff like Tintin, Indiana Jones, Sonic the Comic. It's set in a fantasy version of Earth circa the 1960s, by which I mean it's just Earth, but everything's been renamed for denial purposes, a layer of distance. If I want "London" to be the 60s but "Lisbon" to be the 80s, I get to do so, because it's not really London or Lisbon, it's Fumdon and St. Vincent, right? If I want there to be a war in the backstory, it can be WW1, WW2, Korean War, and Vietnam War all at once, because it's not really any of those, it's a fantasy one. Kinda what Pokémon does with its regions.

The idea is to do multiple stories, small stories, short stories, in this setting. Again, like the comics I grew up on- adventure stories of 10 pages, rather than epics of 1000.

You can read an early first go at an introduction to it here. It's kind of outdated, in aesthetics at least, but it's still overall matching what I plan.

The starting point is, there's these three characters- Lalla Shepherd, a racer and former soldier dealing with what happened to her during the War, Jackie Pollard, a girl with a mysterious past who appears in Fumdon looking for a job and with an amazing aim; and Lily Rock, a supremely confident fighter who's travelled the world and is sent to Fumdon to cover the upcoming Tournament. Said Tournament is going to be a combat tournament held in Fumdon but part of the culture of a separate small nation-estate, as a diplomatic move between countries. This is attracting weirdos and people with ill intent, so our three main characters get made into a team of sheriffs to deal with it in the months leading to the event proper.

The tournament is primarily just a plot excuse though- it'll be happening "soon" for as long as needed. It's a near-future event that excuses why any character would be appearing now and making their entrance in the public stage, no matter how weird they might be.

It's also about a bootlegging criminal in another country, whose wares get stolen by a wannabe gentleman thief, and how that drags a lot of other characters into that story.

Open and obvious about it, it's primarily made of me seeing characters and ideas in other stuff, and going "I want to make my own version". Very Alan Moore League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in that sense- "I want to make fanfiction where James Bond fights The Avengers (the british spy team) and Mina Murray (from Dracula), but I don't have the rights for them, so I'll switch names around etc." Very cape comic books in that sense too- "we want to tell a story about Superman, but we're Marvel, so we make a Superman pastiche called Hyperion".

Part of it was influenced by the upcoming wave of public domain stuff in the US. As you can see by my drawings, it was planning to use specific characters like Mickey Mouse, but then I got confirmation that that's really really not gonna work internationally. Ah well.

Some of you might've been here long enough to recognise a lot of these ideas and characters were part of an abandoned webcomic I was doing before, 4QC. Well yeah, this is me trying to make that one work and avoid the pitfalls that killed it lol.

Dunno, hope that's enough context. I'm hoping I can get a new story of this, a remake of the old one I did maybe, out before the end of the year; and then to do a lot more next year, using the money I'm saving from Sonic work this year.

[tessathegamefreak]

So, Tessa. Remember when I sent you the ask involving Nala fighting her green-eyed state?

Well, now it's the Next Generation AU cast's turn!

What would their reactions be and what would they do to calm her down and help her.

Please note that two certain characters won't be able to help her, but I'd like to see their reactions!

Also, sometimes, while trying to fight her green-eyed state, Nala would feel an extreme pain shoot from her head to the rest of her body.

(Ah, now a new cast will be a fun one! It will definitely shake things up! Because this list is already very long, I will limit this to the children themselves)

[P.S. Sorry for the wait. There are a lot of children whose reactions I had to figure out]

Tootsie Fluggerbutter (daughter of Taffyta×Rancis): She would easily be the most concerned of all the children. She would be extremely scared for Nala, and she'd want to help calm her, but she herself would be more than too nervous to be of proper help.

Autumn Orangeboar (daughter of Candlehead×Gloyd): She is an easygoing, but not a very bright child. She'd probably try and calm her by having her sit down first, and figure it out from there.

Pepo "Fun-Sized" Orangeboar (son of Candlehead×Gloyd): Being one of the youngest children, he has little emotional intelligence. He'd probably place a toy by her side, hoping playing with it would make her feel better.

Sabrosita Chamoy-Bing-Bing (older daughter of Jubileena×OC Lord Lucas Chamoy-Amargo): She is the wiser of the children. She'd try and instruct Nala through some breathing exercises, until she successfully represses Distortia.

Cerecita Chamoy-Bing-Bing (younger daughter of Jubileena×Lucas): She is the most aggressive of the children, so she struggles with her own emotions. She'd probably point Nala to her big sister since she is very helpful with that stuff, and that's where Sabrosita comes into play.

Jolly-O Wipplesnit (son of Sticky×Swizzle): At first, he won't take Nala's green-eyed state seriously. As a weeb, he'll think her alter-ego is some very cool anime character trait. Then he'll realize this is serious AND too much for him.

Telrina L'amato (twin daughter of Crumbelina×OC Giul L'amato): She is usually a self-centered child, but she can't deny that she feels bad whenever someone is having a breakdown. She goes over and, reluctantly, hugs Nala.

Kaffe L'amato (twin son of Crumbelina×Giul): He prefers to let actions speak louder than words. If there happens to be a piano in the premise, he'll go over to it and attempt to play Nala a calming tune. Otherwise, he'd sit by her and hum a tune for her instead.

Oriana Batterbutter (daughter of Torvald Batterbutter): She is a very emotional kid. The same case as Pepo, she is actually very young compared to the other children and doesn't have the knowledge to actually help Nala. The only thing she could think of is to wrap Nala up with her comfort item: her hooded cape

Brezziana Flugpucker (daughter of Citrusella Flugpucker): She'd seem calm, although she is actually dying from her nerves on the inside. She does not handle being faced with conflict well, but it doesn't mean she won't try. She'd lend Nala either her phone or gaming device, and let her play a game to distract her.

Akai "Pez" Treat (twin daughter of Theresa×Mez[OCs]): Pez actually is very calm at this time. She is a composed child, so she is in a better state of mind to help. She'd take a moment to try and assess what had triggered Nala, before she tries to talk it out with her.

Cadbury Treat (twin son of Theresa×Mez[OCs]): He is the opposite of his sister. He is not calmed, and he is fumbling and stammering over his words as he tries to figure out how to help Nala. He will try to talk to her in the same way Pez does, but keep in mind he's not collected.

Sourpat (daughter of Sourbill×OC Coalette): She is the youngest of the Sugar Rush children and is not so prepared for this. Still, she does recognize something is wrong. She often carries a comic book or graphic novel on her person. She will sit on Nala's lap, she will pull out the comic or novel, and she will non-verbally signal to Nala to read to her. She believes that reading calms a person down, especially if they are made to read a book out loud

Steep (younger KC): He understands Nala's situation. Although he doesn't struggle with an alter ego [at least not to his knowledge], his defect is a burden and he had to come with grasps over how to resolve it. He could try to talk it out with Nala, he could hold onto her hand as he tries to assure her she is safe, or he could- last resort method- calm her with a smoke break.

Florence "Flo" Samir Von Schweetz (adopted son of Vanellope): Although he doesn't suffer from an alter ego, his Sequence Breaking Glitch can consume him too, so he knows how scary this is. He knows that he and Nala don't see eye to eye, but he still cares. He wants to make it clear to her that she is not alone. If he somehow played a part in Distortia trying to take over, he'll apologize as much as he possibly can. Whatever it is, he'll try.

Guard-It Gloria (Oldest child/daughter of Felix×Calhoun): She is very mother-like in her approach. She'll be panicked at first, but she'll smother Nala in a hug and hold her close, patting her back as she shushes her and tries to get her to calm down.

Deidamia Calhoun (Middle child/youngest daughter of Felix×Calhoun): She... she is not exactly the best person to be around if you are panicking. Deidamia is very loud, and she'll be shouting, thinking she is helping, but it more than likely has the opposite effect.

Felix the III (Youngest child/son of Felix×Calhoun): He is an anxious and soft-spoken fella. He'll be a bit nervous by Nala's panic, but he'll try and calmly talk her out of it. He'll try and keep his distance, but he is trying to be as respectful as possible

Anatoly (Son of Zangief; Ralph is like a mentor to him): He isn't normally a serious kid, but he can take a hint. He'll offer Nala a snack, something to eat, before he tries to help her relax and lay back. He'll talk her through it all the while.

*Panting* THAT'S EVERYONE-

[keepsmagnetoaway]

Incredible Hulk (1968) 150 (April 1972)

Archie Goodwin/Herb Trimpe & John Severin

The Incredible Hulk? In my X-Men tumblr? It's more etc etc. We're now into the early 1970s wilderness period where the X-Men had no ongoing series of their own but still existed in the Marvel universe, getting puled in for guest appearances here and there, which means the next few weeks of posts will be weird one-offs and glimpses of other Marvel books of the era. Like this one, which is a Hulk comic that unexpectedly involved Lorna Dane and Alex Summers, mostly because Lorna has green hair, which makes Hulk horny.

I actually loved this issue. To be fair, Hulk is not just generically horny for green - he thinks Lorna is his alien princess lover Jarella, who also has green hair. This is after the opening sequence of poor Hulk being persecuted and hunted by the US army through the New Mexico desert again - this happens to Hulk constantly, obviously, and I think if I was reading his series regularly I'd be a bit bored of it, but it's fun for a while. I really do love Hulk: and, crucially, Hulk talk proper here.

I also love me some scary bikers - these are probably the ones who attacked the X-Men in Coffee-a-Go-Go way back when, now taking a trip through the desert. Lorna is doing the same, in her case because she's looking for her love, Alex, who self-exiled late in the ongoing X-Men series after almost killing Bobby in a fight over Lorna.

I also really like Alex and Lorna - they've always felt like an interesting pair, more emotionally complex than the mainline X-Men and a really important addition, proof that the series can have - and, indeed, needs - recurring supporting characters. So this issue combines all that with some enjoyable desert landscapes.

There's also, of course, an unnecessary but inevitable showdown between Alex and Hulk, which is quite well-done, with their powers and the landscape giving us some striking visual effects.

The end result is that Alex decides he can, in fact, return to society and use his powers for good - though obviously given the current publication situation I have no idea where he will be using those powers. But as a little character story with some fun Hulk stuff, this was really good, and a hopefully good indication of the possibilities these guest-star issues provide.

[tuiyla]

https://at(.)tumblr(.)com/tuiyla/gleeful-paintbox-project-week-12-what-the-world/jeqd6uxsv0y0

this is such a fun gifset! <333 Could you please explain how you made it? Like where you found these images and textures, how you created this white outline around the characters, which font you used etc. I hope that's okay to ask.

Yes of course it's okay Anon, I love to help with giffing when I can. We're gonna go through the Santana gif but I'll share the layers of Kurt and Rachel too to demonstrate that it's the same principle. And of course if you have any further questions please do ask.

So my comic book-style gif making started with the set before this one, Kitty's Paintbox Comeback set that's more like my most recent Quinntana hallway fight one. I'm pointing that out because I unfortunately, shamefully, didn't link to the tutorial I had used with later ones but did there. @yuutta’s wonderful tutorial is the one I based them all on so check that out for the comic effect itself.

So, Snixx Attack:

First, we just have the first half that’s a pretty straight-forward gif with some adjustments and last-minute colouring:

Now, we need to cut out Santana from the last frame, where we want this pop-up sort of freeze-frame thing to happen. I used the pen tool to do the actual cutting. And actually, I was lying that the first thing we need is the proper gif part because you’ll want to prepare for this freeze-frame step before doing anything else. To make your life as easy as possible, select in advance what your last frame will be and duplicate that layer. Then, when converting to Smart Object, leave it out and just drag with the Smart Object itself. Like so:

On that second one you can see that I move the single frame to the very end so it just stays like that once the clip ends. We can then cut Santana out, or rather cut around her.

Once we cut our character out, we apply the “comic book” filters and play around until it looks good. In Photoshop, the filters look like this on my gif:

I usually just copy these as they are to new comic book gifs I make. The white outline you asked about is just a stroke applied to this cutout and then black and white and other adjustment layers are applied as they would be to other elements of gifs. Layer 4 copy is a duplicate of this (don’t let my lack of naming convention fool you) with a color overlay and nudged to the right.

As this set was inspired by this one, I kinda followed the example and nudged the main cutout a bit as well as making it a bit bigger. Compared to where Santana freezes on the original it looks like this:

And then I put on the color overlay layer as well, put a comic background behind it and do the text and its effects. We’ll get into those in a second, but broken down all these layers that appear at the end of the “normal” gif look like this when separated into three main parts:

For the red background, I just googled “comic book background” until I found the right one. Lots of googling involved when you see stuff like this in my sets. Same goes for the Rachel and Kurt backgrounds. This is the one I used for Santana, slightly adjusted for the gif:

I placed it so Santana was in the middle and the lines felt like they were “coming out of her”. And then it was the text and all its effects, arguably the hardest part.

The first element is a type of comic effect-thing, again found via google:

The devil horns and tail, again, googled, and placed on this new layer + with the bg:

The text itself was a lot of trial and error but it’s ultimately SF Comic Script Condensed with gradient, stroke and drop shadow effects. Or, well, with “just” those and some rise warp text applied it’d look like this:

I was looking into how to turn text into a 3D sort of effect in a simple way in Photoshop and probably struggled more than I should have. It’s been a while so I don’t fully remember, but basically there’s a duplicate layer under Snixx Attack nudged to the right to create that final look. IIRC it was duplicating and slightly moving the layer and then combining all duplicates into one, and applying the following effects:

To get this:

That bottom layer is a few nudge and duplications merged and with the effects above on. On its own, it doesn’t look appealing but with the OG text I’d like to think it achieves what vision I had in my had.

It’s a similar process with Rachel and Kurt, just different scenes of course and different logo/text. The hardest part was figuring everything out with Santana and then recreating the process two more times was quite fun, experimenting with different things. I won’t upload all the files used for those two but you get the idea, googling around and combining images.

With Kurt’s unicorn, again I googled “unicorn” and did some effects on the best png I could find

I know I sped through some things and apologies I’m only answering this now. Please let me know if I need to clarify anything. Ideally this would have been a better tutorial but lack of time and a need to let you know this was more than okay to ask prevailed. I hope it is helpful though and again, happy to answer further questions.

[atla-lore-archive]

Hello. Hope you are doing well. Are the things written here canon ? And are the Earth Kingdom Chronicles canon ? Thank you in advance for answering. Have a nice week!

Honestly, I'm not sure there's a solid concept of 'canon' for the Avatar franchise.

We could say that everything approved by Nickelodeon is canon, but then that brings in things like the Trading Card Game, and a lot of fans don't consider the unique elements from that to count. Likewise, this policy would include the material from the old website that's archived here, but stuff like Ursa's background has been contradicted by later works.

Maybe we can go by stuff that Mike and/or Bryan have worked on, then? But thanks to Mike's involvement, that would include this information, so are we left to conclude that the 'Bryke Canon' contains contradictions which cannot be reconciled? Or do they have a ranking system favoring primary works over reference material?

And in cases like the Earth Kingdom Chronicles books, it's hard to tell who worked on what. The books are officially credited to Michael Teitelbaum, but they're based to an unknown degree on the episodes of the cartoon. Did Teitelbaum have access to original scripts and/or the completed episodes? Were the books reviewed and approved by any of the cartoon's writing team? Did Teitelbaum have the opportunity to ask questions of Mike, Bryan, or the rest of the writing team?

We don't know and we can't know.

The only statement I've ever seen from Nickelodeon or any of the creatives was a recent quote from Mike regarding the comics, novels, and other spin-off material:

"We've been involved in all those main ancillary stories, so in our minds it's mostly canon. There’s probably some stuff if we may go back, like: 'that doesn’t totally line up with this', so there may be some little tweaks here and there, but as of right now we’re proceeding as if all this stuff is part of the proper universe and hopefully building on it."

So there you have it. The 'Bryke Canon,' at least, makes use of out-of-universe retcons, and seems to include at least everything they've had a hand in. There are no definite boundaries that we fans can know about, and of course Avatar Studios is bringing in lots of other creative influences. For now, Mike and Bryan are still in charge of Avatar Studios, but I have no doubt that Nickelodeon wants the franchise to remain active and profitable for many decades, so it's entirely possible that eventually we'll be receiving major 'canon' works that don't have any involvement from them at all. (I also have no doubt that, at that point, fans will be arguing about whether the new stuff fits with the 'Bryke Era.')

So all this is to say that if anyone wants to cite the Earth Chronicles books as canon in arguments about Azula, you're probably just going to want to say, "those kiddie book adaptations say this" and leave it up to your audience how much credence they want to give it.

[watchagonnado]

Okay I watched the first two episodes of the new PJO show and I have some opinions!!! So please don't read if you haven't seen it already or read the books!

1) "Annabeth is supposed to be white and blonde" "why doesn't Percy have black hair" shut up. Everybody shut up. Can we talk about the fact that they actually managed to cast KIDS? Not 18 year olds who look like they might start university any minute, but 14 year olds who actually LOOK like the age they're portraying? This is such a huge deal for me, because it also makes the terrors of being a half blood so much more real, bc it's KIDS having to fight monsters and losing their loved ones and struggling with being bullied and punished for not fitting in the normal world. So this is an A+ choice for me.

2) I LOVE the way they included Sally in the storyline. They didn't cut down from her parts in the book AT ALL and I'm so so so happy she got a decent amount of screen time and a proper charactarization. This was one of my bigger worries; that they might try to reduce her introduction to cut more screen time for the magic stuff and the camp. But I'm glad they showed her relationship with Percy in a little more depth bc I think it is/will be one of the biggest motivators for Percy throughout the whole story.

3) Gabe could have been WORSE. Yes, he's an insufferable dick but I was looking forward to his comically evil friends playing poker and trashing the living room. They probably thought it would have been too exaggerated, and I can kind of see that. But still I fucking giggled at his "who the hell is Yancy".

4) Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysos. That's it. A better casting choice has never been made.

5) My favourite scene so far is the fight between Percy and Mr D regarding the quest. "No, I am Sally Jackson's son" might just be my favourite line ever. I don't remember wether if it was in the book or not, but either way I love that they included it. Percy is tired. He is in pain. In the span of a couple of days, he has fought two giant mythical creatures, has seen his mother die, has been bullied, harassed and thrown into a new world where he literally knows no one and nothing. He doesn't care for some stupid god who ignored him all his life despite being literally almighty but conveniently shows up when he needs Percys help. He cares about his mom.

5a) Followed by "who is Sally Jackson?!" by Mr D is just equally as powerful and really sells the point that the gods couldn't care less about any human's life or wellbeing. They see the "greater picture" and it really makes you feel Percy's frustration with the whole godly world and their disregard for the mortals involved in it. So far, really really strong writing.

That's it for now, maybe I will add some more later but these were the thoughts immediately popping up as I was watching.

[bellmo15-blog]

As I’m sure most of you know by now I was largely a 2000’s kid growing up. I was born in 1996 and as a result saw this era all the way though to it’s end until becoming a teenager at the end of the decade. And as a result, I also grew up alongside the Sam Rami Spider-Man trilogy. This trilogy alongside the PS1 game Spider-Man 2 Enter Electro were pretty much the main way I experienced my Spider-Man media as someone who never read any comic books at all outside that one Simpsons and Futurama crossover comic.

As I’m also sure you all know I also have a thing for the Symbiote Suit, one of the most iconic and best suits for Spider-Man and you can’t convince me otherwise! Unless we are talking about the 2099 suit and Spider-Gwens suit which are also peak. You may also remember I’ve said in the past that Spider-Man 3 was the one Sam Rami Spider-Man movie I never saw as a child but not because it was getting clowned on by everyone, in fact I never even knew about the hate this movie had until 2012 when I was only three years into high school and the first Amazing Spider-Man movie had just come out. I just never did watch it as a child and only saw it in full for the first time during the pandemic. Why did I never see Spider-Man 3 when it came out originally? Good question! …………………… Oh were you expecting an actual answer? Yeah sorry, I don’t got a proper answer. I’m pretty sure it was because I had other interest at the time especially as video games became my preferred media for entertainment over movies. Of course, one of the things that always stood out to me was the Black Symbiote Suit seeing as how it was a living black suit that also looked really dam cool. It was only until I became an adult and got as into the stuff I am now that I truly started to develop a real love for the Symbiote. Yeah, even as someone who only ever saw advertisements for this film back in the day the seeds were still planted back in 2007. So of course, I was going to end up getting a pic involving the Rami Black Suit one of these days and now here it is!

Honestly, even though the movie itself isn’t that great I do feel slightly bad that I never got to see the movie in theatres as it’s the only one in the trilogy I never saw in theatres. Some people give this depiction of the Symbiote Suit crap for being more or less just the regular Rami suit but coloured black when the Symbiote Suit in most depictions has a unique design to Peters normal suit and to be honest, that is a completely fair and valid reason to dislike the Rami Black Suit. But I didn’t care back then! This was the coolest shit to me back as a child and it still is pretty cool to me now as an adult and I'd be lying if I said if Symbiote's were real and I was forced to wear one I'd be fine with the Rami Black Suit. Venom himself in this movie was pretty bad though.

Artist is Trujilo: https://twitter.com/NegroTrujillo99

[the-firebird69]

Marvel's The Punisher All Best Fight Scenes | All Major Deaths

He's very violent always up for it grabs and takes them down says a lot of stuff they think I do got it from the comic books and people got it from hearing people that look like us. Some of it we say some of it we don't but the Mac proper say the stuff too. Now we're going to start going to war with people over this kind of thing you can't just get up and walk around and shoot people and we're talking about both sides and our son is talking about authorizing separatist cities are authorizing their own police force to hire specialists they'll say and they are stronger faster than usually have military experience they need to it's a nightmare. We're going to and people fall asleep but really these cities are out of control it's a good idea.

Frank Castle hardcastle there's a lot of risk involved but usually the talk and rumors faid off in just hours

We're going to go ahead and recommend it I'm going to run testing it's an outstanding idea then we need it now

Duke Nukem Blockbuster

Olympus

[sakuratwilight]

non-comprehensive list of things i want to watch/read/play, in no particular order (jesus this got long enough that i included a read-more to be nice):

rwby (full series rewatch + finishing the books and looking at the music and other side stuff, like the games)

miraculous (full series rewatch, as above)

(i consider this the Duology Of Things That Are Overhated.)

finish the story of tears of the kingdom

finish the pikmin 4 postgame

meet my arbitrary goals of completion for yakuza kiwami & start on 0

play more cult of the lamb

finish more of the elder scrolls online dlc (& maybe someday finish the skyrim main story)

i bought tales of vesperia like a year ago and haven't touched it yet

finish actually playing og twewy but it pisses me off on switch bc i hate motion controls and i don't have a good stylus for touchscreen purposes

pick up the splatoon 3 DLC and play it for the lesbians (also finish story mode of splatoon 3 bc i never did)

finish the game changer episodes i haven't seen yet + finish watching smartypants (ideally involves partaking in a powerpoint night. i have OPINIONS.)

check out that new yakuza series

ranma (the new anime and maybe the og manga? i never read it but it was pretty much always in my peripheral vision somewhere)

a couple random cute-looking anime from the last couple seasons. that cat cafe one looked cute

toradora (read the light novels. maybe rewatch the anime too)

pokespe (reread the full series; but also more specifically reread bw/bw2)

haruhi suzumiya (reread and rewatch that goes in light novel order and directly compares the anime to the books until i run out of space. includes all side content, including theatre; so will probably wait a little longer to start so by the time i hit theatre there's a fan tl at least)

love is war (rewatch of the dub this time now that i've finished the manga)

detective conan (just the kaito eps/movies and also the crimson love letter because i adore it)

sailor moon (full manga reread; maaaaybe revisit the 90s anime. maybe check out the live action show or the musicals if i can find good subs of either)

tokyo mew mew (full series reread; probably rewatching new along with it)

warrior cats (finish catching up on the new arc)

oshi no ko (check out the manga/anime at least)

pokemon horizons (i think i literally only saw the first couple episodes. oops.)

batman no man's land (i was gonna read all the cassandra cain comics and decided to start here, got really into it, and fell off midway through volume 1 of no man's land proper. i DID finish the road to volumes though!)

the spider-gwen comics

i should really catch up the idw sonic too

now that i think about it i never finished spectacular spiderman season 2 either

at some point i also i want to watch the tale of princess kaguya (the ghibli? i think? movie)

[airspeedprime]

As a fan, I feel like SOMEONE needs to tell you that your review of a comic for 5 year olds that is essentially for parents to play peekaboo with their young kids who can barely read, makes you sound completely unhinged :/

The fact that you can say that after watching my review and hearing my thoughts and discussions on what an Avatar comic for Young fans should actually be, I think makes you sound more unhinged than me.

The comic is canon, hence why they market Tim Hedrick being involved, the core story has potential. It is perfectly valid to highlight that the book fails on a fundamental writing level, and I hope you can eventually come to understand how bad of a point it is to defend the quality of the book with "ItS fOr kIDs".

Again the book is set post series and thus to some degree requires you to at least know the basics of Avatar to understand what we are doing in this story and who these characters are.

I do think the book fails as a book both for veteran fans and for its intended audience. I feel kids need to be given a bit more respect and for me this book aims WAY down and it impacts the writing quality and presentation of the characters, so much so it barely feels like Avatar and these characters outside of the nice art.

This looks to be an ideal Avatar book for that age range, a proper intro to Avatar with nice art. There are literally whole books filled with short stories suitable for young fans that are exactly what they are trying to do here.

But no, none of this nuance matters, I am apparently *checks notes* UNHINGED, and the reason I am UNHINGED is because *checks notes* I want a better quality of book and writing for young Avatar fans which benefits them and hardcore fans/collectors who pick the book up too. Really unhinged stuff here. Baffling critique.

So thank you for being that SOMEONE, brave enough to end my unhinged reign of tyranny.

[mostsanescarletspiderfan]

Ok so other than the local comic book shop, libraries are also a good place to find comics and so are the local nerd gatherings (like Comic-Con but smaller). Mind you that if they haven't been reprinted the old ones are gonna be hard to find.

Even tho I've been reading comics for almost a decade it's hard make a proper reading guide/recommention list since I don't stick with anything for too long, also since I'm broke I usually just read online.

SPIDER-MAN

Amazing Fantasy #15 - the origin story

Amazing Spider-Man #1-100 - the original Stan Lee run, it's a bit outdated but it still an incredible comic that established so much and made great stories.

Amazing Spider-Man (1999)/amazing Spider-Man vol 2 - J. Michael Straczynski is probably my favorite Spider-Man writer of all time, this run questions so much about Peter's origin and how much the spider part is connected to him, it doesn't involve many classic villains so it gonna be a bunch of new faces for you. Also skip the "sins past" storyline and stop when you reach "one more day", if you can't find it under amazing Spider-Man 1999 #30-58 then you gonna search for ASM vol 1 from #471 to #500.

Spectacular Spider-Man: Peter Parker - the first few issues aren't really that good but it picks off really well.

Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man (2019) - pretty short but contains a lot of 10/10 stuff, one of my favorites.

These were to get you started on stuff, now some mini-series that I think are really good.

Spider-Man/human torch - this one was part of a series of comics about Peter and his most trusted friends and families in crime fighting, this one is my favorite simply because of the spidermobile.

Spider-Man/X-Men - not to mutant heavy (X-Men is really my area) so you probably won't get too confused, it's a good story that follows the same narrative style of Spider-Man/human torch.

Spider-Man/wolverine - probably the worst of the bunch but still pretty nice.

Spider-Man/fantastic four - another really good story that explores Peter's second family.

Spider-Man/Daredevil - a quick one-shot to pass the time.

Daredevil/Spider-Man - very Matt heavy but still very good.

Spider-Man vs wolverine - now this is pretty dark and if you have triggers about suicide it might be better to not read it, it isn't talked very much but it's still a very good story.

Astonishing Spider-Man and wolverine - crazy time traveling adventure, worth it.

Spider-Man: fever - I want whatever the writer was smoking while making this.

If read them you'll get a pretty good idea of Spider-Man's most important friends.

Non-stop Spider-Man - a fun comic, nothing really incredible but pretty cool.

Savage Spider-Man - the continuation of the previous one.

Fear itself: Spider-Man - 3 issues of pure awesomeness, it's a tie in but you can just read it without the event.

Spider-Man & the X-Men - the X-Men are a little bit ooc here but otherwise a really good comic about Peter being a teacher.

Spider-Man: blue - a heartfelt story about Gwen Stacy drawn by the late Tim Sale that brings more life to her than her original appearances ever did.

Spider-Man special: black and red and blue all over - a really good one-shot about what it means to reveal who you are and the support of those around you.

Spider-Man: last hunt - not a mini but but an arc that explores one of Peter's greatest villains - kraken, and how he hunted the spider.

Spider-Man: lost hunt - one of the sequels to that story that explores it ramifications and the consequences of losing a part of you.

I'm the type of fan who considers most adaptions bad but I recommend you watch spectacular Spider-Man and Spider-Man: into the spider-verse.

It would be easier if you tell me what exactly do you want to dive in.

Pt. 2

@mostsanescarletspiderfan :

I'm searching for more content. Comics, Movies, Shows, whatever. Feeling overwhelmed from all the branching pieces of media that I thought I'd ask other fans what they like. Especially since the comic world is very new to me and I'd like to organize where i should go next.

@cookiethedragon :

I have only watched the Gotham when it comes to the CW series, I have heard good things about The Flash.

I guess young justice would be the best to watch after Justice League and Unlimited, I'm just worried that it won't click like the other cartoons.

I'll look into Ultimate Spider-Man as well.

Do you know if any of the comics you suggested have physical copies? I like to read it in my hand (i.e. Super Sons & Gotham Academy etc.)