#and yeah dc keeps trying to either make him evil or some bullshit or makes him batman in an awful au

[sporkberries]

Yeah, the whole thing on bio kids and adopted kids and the approach towards legacy is really gross. Especially since it obvious that DC is trying to have their cake and eat it too. All those stories about found family with adopted kids gets thrown out the window the instant a bio kid shows up. Cass can't be Batman because that's reserved for Damian, Chris Kent is removed as Superman's son and becomes evil when he shows up again, etc.

It's especially weird with Damian in my opinion. because i feel like sometimes DC really markets him as the heir and bruces "real" son but also they keep behind the scenes trying to make him evil or just doing the weirdest shit imaginable there. Then there is shit like DCeased that make him Batman that are awful and also ship him with cassie sandsmark. this whole "bio kid problem" started with Damian yeah but with the Damian story it had something to say. When Damian(10 and traumatized) kept trying to prove himself as the real son the point was that he was wrong. and his journey in healing and stuff made him into a healthier person and also made him not want to be batman. I think DC really saw damian and was like oh man we should do a bio legacy character(completely ignoring any of the damian nuance) and made Jon Kent which... yeah. I'm not super into a lot of the superfam fandom but of my mutuals/pals that are I've seen that a lot of them don't like the lasting affect Jon has had on the superfam( and also HATE the erasure of Chris Kent)

This mixed with the now revealed Trinity leads to my main problem which is DC's marketing of these characters. With playing into them inheriting their parents legacies, and centering them as succesors ignoring like... everybody else.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Egg Fu

(WARNING! This analysis contains RACISM! Seriously, just look at this fucking guy, holy shit! What were they thinking?!)

People always have different answers to why people just don’t know Wonder Woman’s adversaries to the same extent that they know Batman or even Superman’s, despite her being one of the Big Three of DC. Some say it’s because Diana is all about diplomatically resolving conflict, and thus ends up befriending her foes. Others claim it’s because she kills her enemies. I’m not sure if either of these groups know what they’re talking about because I don’t read comics as extensively as some, but considering what we’re talking about here I’m guessing DC wants to keep people from knowing her enemies because if they do, they’ll find shit like Egg Fu.

Like, just look at this fucking guy. Look at him.

Like I get comics were racist back in the day, but this one takes the cake. What's even more insane is how they keep trying to revamp and revitalize the character in the modern era, from being a bad guy from Apokolips:

To... whatever the hell this is:

There's got to be reason, right? Why are writers so dead set on trying to rehabilitate the racist communist egg man?

Motivation/Goals: As a Yellow Peril villain, Egg Fu exists to show the EVILS of communism while also making sure to show Asians in the most unflattering light possible. He's not particularly good at either job to be honest, dying every time he comes across Wonder Woman and being so utterly absurd a concept it's hard to take him seriously at all. Like, he's an egg. For what reason? I mean yeah there's the pun, but why is he a fucking egg in-universe? What's the benefit of being an egg with a prehensile mustache? How exactly does it help dominate the filthy Americans (oh, I'm sorry, the Amelicans).

Final Fate: In his very first appearance, Wonder Woman does the right thing and fucking cracks this egg:

When the next Egg Fu shows up, she does more of the same:

Unfortunately, when another Egg Fu named Dr. Yes (he's a robot duplicate, because of course he is) showed up, he got away.

As for the modern Egg Fus, they're probably still kicking around. I'm not reading through fifty issues of storyline to discern the fate of some rebooted racist egg man, sorry.

Best Quote: Surely such a character as Egg Fu must have some great dialogue! Let's see, how about...

Oh. Oh dear. That's, um, not great. Uh, what about...

Oh fuck that's even worse. Er, there has to be something here...

Oh god, the only thing worse than racism is finding out a mid-tier DC movie starring Dwayne Johnson has arrived!!!!

Yeah no this guy gets no points in this category, his dialogue ranges from generic bullshit to the kind of stuff you'd hear from the City Wok guy on South Park.

Final Thoughts & Score: So a while ago I reviewed Fu Manchu, a villain that absolutely fascinates me. He is the archetypal Yellow Peril supervillain who has had an absolutely undeniable impact on popular culture, altering history by spawning legions of imitations (such as Egg Fu here) as well as doing things such as giving a name to a style of facial hair. As with all villains that have such a colossal influence, he got an 11 with an asterisk denoting how monumentally racist the character was, despite their being positive aspects to him that were fair for the time period he was created in.

Now imagine that but without any of the positive qualities. That’s Egg Fu.

This is such an absurd, baffling supervillain even for the time he was created. Like, okay, I get racial stereotypes were prevalent in a lot of comics… but a giant communist egg with a prehensile mustache?! Far be it from me to suggest writers were on drugs when coming up with their wild ideas, but you have to admit that substance abuse would go a long way towards explaining why this was allowed to happen. Simple racism can’t explain this; it’s a giant fucking egg.

I think the sheer insanity of it all is what draws me to this character. Not only is it blatantly racist, they also keep trying to bring back and reimagine him. And like, yeah, that’s kind of sick and I love when weird-ass ideas get revamped and recontextualized for the modern era… but Egg fucking Fu? It’s bad enough we had Egg Fu the Fifth and his evil clone Dr. Yes all within the span of a year before being dropped for decades, but then they decided to dust him off and try a redo? Why?

I think the appeal to try and revitalize him comes from the fact that, as far as stereotyped and racist caricature villains go, Egg Fu is so fucking bizarre. Like I can't stress enough this is a giant communist egg who speaks in broken English and has a prehensile mustache. In a sea of Yellow Peril villains he easily stands out despite being relatively obscure from the sheer fact he's not simply a racist stereotype; he's an insane racist stereotype that just boggles the mind as to what the writers and artists were actually trying to say with this.

The history of this character is just so weird, his very existence is weird… He’s the opposite extreme of Fu Manchu for me. While Fu is fascinating for his impact on culture and deserves the highest marks with that caveat that he’s also extremely problematic, Egg Fu gets a 3/10 with a similar caveat. He’s so bad it’s good, but he’s bad because he’s a racist caricature, which isn’t great. I see this like I do the movie The Conqueror, the movie where John Wayne played Genghis Khan. Yes, it’s absolutely absurd and tasteless that these white people are playing Asians, but at the same time everything about this is so absurdly racist it crosses the line twice and somehow manages to become hilarious. Like what are you even trying to do here? It’s offensive in a way where you can’t do anything but laugh at them because they genuinely thought they were on to something here.

And that’s ultimately how I feel about Egg Fu. They really thought they were cooking something with this one, but this egg didn’t poach them any new readers and he hasn’t gone over easy with modern audiences. It’s really hard not to crack up at this complete yolk of a character. So yes, Egg Fu is enjoyably bad in a “What were they even fucking trying to do here?” sort of way, and he’s definitely one of my favorite insane comic book villains that time has forgotten… but there’s no denying that this is a character who is inherently problematic.

Anyway, this review has given me excessive racism poisoning, so I think I'm going to review a comic villain who isn't horribly offensive next time.

COMING SOON! PSYCHO-ANALYSIS: HEMO-GOBLIN!

The South African white supremacist vampire who gives people AIDS!

(Just kidding, I'm reviewing Snowflame).

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

It's also worth pointing out that every single justification used to explain why it's fine and good for Batman to be a billionaire is a justification used by real life billionaires to justify their real life evil.

And yes that includes the cults and the aliens.

Like, seriously, why do you think right wing nutjobs keep going on about secret demonic cults and alien lizard people running the deep state shadow government? It's because those things justify the existing power hierarchies and allow them to live in a make believe world where it's fine and dandy to have billionaires running around while other people go without homes and clean water.

I am not the first person to point out that the Court of Owls bears a striking resemblance to real world antisemitic conspiracy theories. So yeah, sure, evil cults and an innately cursed Gotham would absolve Bruce of a lot of his responsibility to stop being a billionaire HOWEVER this does not absolve the narrative of having mimicked real world fascist conspiracies in order to justify the "Hero" occupying the same position of power that the fascists are trying to justify with those conspiracies.

Personally, I think that's actually a lot worse than simply having him be in the wrong when it comes to his wealth.

In real life billionaire charities serve two main purposes: First is to act as publicity that hides and distracts from the evil they commit and the Second is to prevent them from having to pay taxes and actually provide for the rest of society and share their wealth. I have watched people favorably compare Bruce to real world billionaires who pretend at being a force for good while lobbying to destroy labor protections so that they can force their workers into the worst conditions and wages possible! Because they fucking fell for the charity smoke screen and decided that a real life billionaire was the good guy!

The fact that the same propaganda props up both of them is worthy of criticism!!!

It's not just his wealth either

In Batman comics the police are prevented from protecting people by the laws and procedures that limit police power. Warrants, due process, right to attorney, et.c. are held up as reasons that they need Batman to swoop in and break all those laws so that they can catch the guy they've decided (without a trial!) is guilty. This is the EXACT same logic that real world cops use to justify breaking the laws meant to protect citizens from them. This is the logic trotted out every fucking time a police brutality/misconduct scandal comes out "we had to break all those laws otherwise we couldn't catch the bad guys!" and some of them will even cite stories like Batman as 'proof'!

I think that's worthy of some fuckin criticism!

Batman is a billionaire and acts like a cop - Any story about him being unambiguously the Hero needs to answer the same questions that both groups get about their conduct, and almost all of them end up spouting the same justifications.

I feel that we're left with two options: either we accept that the justifications for Batman are just as bullshit as they are for real world evil, or we accept that in DC's world those justifications are objectively true. Frankly, I find the latter option infinitely more bleak and damaging to the concept of Heroes than the former.

I wish people who made posts like this:

("Why does Batman need to be a billionaire?"

"He has to fund the Justice League. They often have a space program."

"But couldn't he do more good if he just invested-"

"The Earth is routinely invaded by aliens, gods, and the forces of an extraterrestrial god of tyranny.")

Understood several factors of what people who complain about Batman being a billionaire are actually saying.

1: Not every Batman is dealing with fucking alien invasions and other hyper dimensional bullshit. A lot of them, especially the most marketable main brand movie one's are just fighting gangsters, criminals and terrorists.

2: The idea that a billionaire should be able to build his own space station with a lazer canon (Or have his own spy network letting him listen to every single phone conversation in the city) is terrible no matter the circumstances, You might as well just admitted you're in favor of an all power arbiter at this point.

3: The idea that its 'necessary' is dumb because Wonder WOman comes from a technologically and magically advance civilization. Superman has a sci-fi Fortress of Solitude and so on. There is nothing stopping 'them' from building a space station that's more advanced than anything Batman could fund is. Or hell, maybe just have them take over a space station used by a villain?

4: And this is the most important one. Batman is not real. When we talk about Batman being rich being a problem, its a discussion of how so much culture is built around the worship of the wealthy. Its similar to how people will discuss why its problematic Batman caves people's heads into walls and hospitalizes people for minor offences. What does this say about us, that this is the hero?

So no, nobody missed the point, nobody forgot the aliens, no one fails to acknowledge the fact he has charities (That accomplish nothing because in comics nothing can change) We're talking about the writing decisions of real people and fans alike.

[stxleslyds]

NIGHTWING #81

UMM... HOW ABOUT NO. 

Ever since Tom Taylor took over Nightwing I have only made a post about one issue of his (I will leave it here Nightwing #78), that issue was beautiful, it was a solid start and the little things that made me feel a bit icky were not mentioned in the post because the issue was good.

Then the issues felt like connectors or just very bland story wise. I had problems with the book also feeling like a Nightwing and (fake) Oracle book instead of just Nightwing. There were many instances where Dick alone could have gotten himself out of situations without Barbara, but because she was there the opportunity to show that he can do things was taken from him. I guess what I am trying to say is that the book has disappointed me but I didn’t feel like making a post because it was too early and this is an ongoing book that Taylor said he planned on continuing for a while, but now I can’t not make a post.

A few days ago, I finally read the Red Hood story in Urban Legends (I have a review for that one too I will link it here Red Hood part 4) and I couldn’t stand how OOC and disappointing the story/characterization has been. I am saying this because I am only reading these two books at the moment, ONLY these two, and all I have gotten from them is shit.

I know it’s still early to say that the Nightwing book is bad but…I hated this issue, I hated it with all of my heart. But now that I am a bit calmer, I have come up with some ideas of what is truly going on with the Melinda situation.

Anyway, let me give you my thoughts.

There are big Wilson Fisk vibes coming from both Blockbuster and Melinda Zucco. Those two will lie, manipulate and be evil every chance they get. They are working together to make Nightwing disappear. I know it. The whole “make us all much wealthier and to extend your power beyond the city” idea does not include Nightwing.

Melinda might not want to burn anything down but she sure isn’t a hero. This woman accepted the position of Mayor after watching Blockbuster kill the former mayor. I understand that talking with the BHPD isn’t the best idea but this woman feels way too comfortable in the presence of a killer.

She is cunning and she has plans, I strongly believe that she might be a villain and that she will betray Blockbuster and take all the power (if it reaches that point) to herself.

Heartless is just another weirdo, he tricks both Nightwing and the reader into thinking that he has a soft spot for kids but surprise! He doesn’t. There isn’t much to say about him, he just has very complex gadgets and doesn’t know how to fight. I don’t even have any ideas about who he might be.

What I know though is that there was absolutely no need for Dick to think that he had “underestimated” Heartless, my love you threw your stick at him while he was looking directly at you, there was a 50/50 chance of him catching it. I swear I don’t understand the need to write him thinking that mostly because Taylor then has Dick swiping the floor with the guy, not only is it a simple fight (for Dick) but it’s also boring for him. Taylor’s writing is so annoying sometimes, he just loves to write extra things that are out of place like the “Tim Drake. Thought of by many as the best Robin” why the fuck did he put that there? Honestly, what was the point of having Dick say that, I don’t read a Nightwing book to have Tim Drake praise. If it doesn’t offer anything to the story that is being told then keep the thought to yourself Tom...

Moving forward the scene in the pier was quite nice, mostly because it’s Dick’s quick thinking that gets everyone to safety, he knows exactly what to do and how to contact the Maritime distress channel.

He has hope for his city, he knows there is good in it and he believes help will show up when lives are about to be lost. I loved that, just like Heartless said, Nightwing IS Bludhaven’s Guardian Angel. Once again, I am having Daredevil vibes from Dick (like from the show)

After the fight we get to see consequences of Dick not healing properly from a shot to the head. He loses his consciousness which is extremely dangerous but luckily Tim is at arm’s reach to help him out of the pier.

There are many things I want to talk about from the scenes that happen after Dick wakes up in his apartment so here we go.

First of all, Bitewing is adorable, she loves Dick the most and was happy to see him awake once more, what a good girl!

Secondly, Barbara, honey, you do not have three names, you aren’t Batgirl anymore, you are a grown woman that needs to move on from a mantle that has other people that can do something else/better with it. And we all know that this Oracle is just the ableist version of Oracle. So yeah…all I ask is for Barbara to move on from Batgirl, Cass and Stephanie are right there, enough is enough.

In these panels we have Dick, Tim and Barbara being kinda dismissive about the homeless kids, and it has been happening for so many issues, what is the point, Taylor? You made Dick a millionaire and you just can’t have him say or think for a second that he will monetarily help those kids and make sure they are put somewhere safe? You are really going to wait up until you have Dick running for Mayor or something to help the kids? I just don’t get it. Kids living on the streets and each time they are mentioned the three heroes of the book act like it’s normal and doesn’t need fixing. What the fuck.

Then we have the gang finding out that Melinda Zucco is the new mayor, the woman has an FBI file and a redacted one! This makes me think two things, either things are like I thought in the beginning of the post (she is evil and very good at it) or this woman is actually FBI and she is undercover (this one is less likely because of what happens at the end of the issue).

What we can see from the file that Barbara found is very little, but in these two pictures we can see that maybe she was put in foster care and x age? Also, she was apparently investigated in April of 20xx, the investigation must have been recent, why would the FBI investigate a minor or college student? What if these files were implanted by Melinda for someone to find them, and for her to have some sort of proof of her lies? If the file is about her being left in foster care or something while would the file be redacted? I don’t know, everything about her is shady and I don’t trust anything from or about her.

This could be a complex and very interesting character but Tom Taylor and DC really love to do stupid shit for shock value (more of this later).

All the new information (the Maroni, Blockbuster and now this very shady Mayor) has Dick saying that it is a bit too much for him and yeah, it is too much, you know who could help? Red Hood. I am of course not talking about current DC comics Red Hood, I am talking about the Red Hood that I would love to see, just yesterday I had an ask about who would I like to see working with Jason and I said Nightwing because Dick puts a lot of responsibility on his shoulders so it would be nice if they negotiated and each could work on different crime areas in Bludhaven, if only DC would hear me…

Anyway, now that we come to the end of the scene let’s talk about Barbara’s shirt.

That was unnecessary and not funny. That’s all it was. Yeah, I know it’s a meme and I know it was included for funny ha-ha purposes but I am not laughing. Bruce has been written as abusive towards his kids for so long, Jason, Tim and Dick have been physically harmed by Bruce and writers use it as just something that happens, there are never repercussions for the Bat. And this shirt sucks because Dick was Robin there and he was a kid, so having Barbara or anyone wearing a shirt with Batman hitting Robin!Dick right in front of Dick is just disgusting. What if someone wore a shirt that had Joker beating Jason with a crowbar in front of Jason, would that be a funny ha-ha too? What about Dick wearing a shirt with the Joker shooting Barbara, is that a funny ha-ha? The answer to those questions is no, it’s not funny.

The idea of that shirt shouldn’t have been pitched, drawn or included after the editor took a look at it.

The picture is a meme in our world, not in theirs. And the readers aren’t laughing.

 Back to the issue, Dick is left alone in his apartment to rest (seriously? You think the man that showed up to help Bruce in Gotham with a knee brace is going to rest?) but he can’t, he just found out that Mayor Zucco might be trouble for Bludhaven and might be working with not only Blockbuster but the Maroni family. He is not waiting one more second to have a chat with her.

Dick is obviously still concussed so of course he grabs a mask that has a camera that Oracle can view, and of course he enters yet another window without being careful.

Melinda and Audre were obviously waiting for him.

But here is where the real bullshit begins. Dick is unmasked.

I am so mad; it’s been four issues and Dick gets his ass in a trap and is unmasked by a villain? Are you kidding me right now?

But that’s not all, after Dick breaks free and accuses Melinda of being the daughter of the man that killed his parents, she pulls out a uno reverse card and says that her actual father is John Grayson, and that she is his sister.

How about no. Absolutely not. Go away.

Let’s re-visit Melinda’s appearances in the book so far so we can start theorizing about her real intentions or if she could be saying the truth.

Back in issue #78 where she is first introduced to us, after Melinda watches Blockbuster kill the mayor, she goes home and tells her Audre that she is now mayor because Blockbuster did what he does, so she knows that this guy is trash and a killer. But that’s not all, Audre asks her if she came across Dick Grayson to which Melinda answers “I am not ready for him yet”. Audre suggests she talks to him sooner rather than later because she might not have “another chance”, and the issue ends with Melinda agreeing with her while she is looking at a Flying Graysons poster with a red circle framing Dick’s face.

That whole thing? Shady. Melinda, obviously, wanted to talk to Dick Grayson, probably to tell him that she is his sister, but why is there a time limit, why is Audre telling Melinda that she can’t wait too long? Is it because her undercover work is ending soon? Is it because it’s not real at all and she needs to tell that lie in order to move forward with some sort of plan? I don’t know…

In issue #79 Melinda (and Audre) are out in the open with Maroni and they are talking about her becoming the next Mayor, Nightwing was watching from afar so this is his first contact with her. And it might be the first time that Melinda and her friend see Nightwing in action too. I cannot tell if she is aware that Nightwing/Dick Grayson are the same person here.

In #80 she doesn’t make an appearance.

But now in #81 she is taking her place as Mayor of Bludhaven, there Commissioner McClean takes her somewhere she didn’t expect to go (she is shown not knowing that Maroni and Blockbuster were in the next room over). Once in the room she refuses to take the cash from McClean but she will take the money as a transaction (for a second I thought she wouldn’t take the money but she did because she is very corrupt) and talks to Maroni once more. Before I talk about what happens with Blockbuster let me say this, she acts so distant to Maroni, she calls him Mr. Maroni every single time and she comes off as cold and feeling no type of way while talking with someone that is part of the family that actually raised her, and this is not because she is in a room full of other people, she did it too in #79. It seems weird that she acts that way with someone that took her under his wing since she was eight years old.

When she sits with Blockbuster he says “tell us your plan for my city” to which she says all of this: “My plan, Blockbuster, is to make us all much wealthier and to extend your power beyond the city. But to do so in a way that builds on the good work you’ve already done I have no interest in burning anything down.”

At the start of the post I said she gave me big Wilson Fisk vibes and that right there is why. She is shady, she has plans on top of plans, she calls Roland Desmond Blockbuster to his face but says that he has done good work for Bludhaven, which is weird because Blockbuster destroys Bludhaven a couple of times a year…

As I said before whatever she has planned does not include Nightwing, and here is where I kinda start theorizing a bit more, what if Blockbuster told Melinda Nightwing’s real name, he used to know who he was once upon a time…

Later in this issue when Nightwing is going to Melinda’s place Audre is already waiting for him right next to the window (with a sword), so, was he making an insane amount of noise or were they told to be ready for him?

Melinda traps him and takes his mask off, she barely seems surprised about Nightwing being Dick, she barely reacts when he jumps at her. She is in complete control of the situation and proves that by disarming Dick, as fast as he accuses her of being Zucco’s daughter she tells him that her real father is John Grayson.

She is in complete control. She has to be lying, she put a stop to whatever Dick had to say and do in seconds. This woman is trained and she is manipulative as fuck!

And if she isn’t lying then fuck DC and fuck Tom Taylor, this woman is either younger or the same age as Dick, John Grayson was not a cheater, the man is dead, has been dead for so long, don’t throw dirt on his name at this point. I refuse to believe this is true.

I honestly think that she is evil, and knows more than we are aware of, her first appearance was shady as fuck, let's suppose that she didn’t truly know that Dick was Nightwing, why on earth did she have a Flying Graysons poster with a red circle on top of Dick’s face? That doesn’t seem like something a sister would do! And why would this be information that is so important that she NEEDS to tell him in a certain amount of time?

It’s fucking insane. Tom Taylor, if she is actually Dick's sister then shame on you. Disgusting, what is with writers and cheating, what the hell is going on? Dick doesn’t need to think back to his parents and see a cheater in one of them. This better be Melinda being a cruel and vile human being that is trying to emotionally hurt Dick/Nightwing so she and Blockbuster can do whatever its they want to do.

That’s all I have to say.

[red-hood-redemption]

SO I know I’m like, super late to the party, but I finally got my hands on Robin 2021 and there is literally no one for me to talk to about it so now I’m just screaming my thoughts into the void ✌

First off, before i even bought the first two issues, I read through a lot of other people’s opinions on it to kinda get an idea of where it was going characterization-wise for Damian, and because of all the mixed reactions, I figured I should just read it myself and find out. Now I am the FURTHEST thing from a comic book authority, so like, this is truly just an opinion piece but if it convinces anyone to give the run a chance, then yay!!! Honestly, I’m really glad I gave it a shot because I’m genuinely hooked! I’m actually excited about this series (and it scares me lol)!!!

I'm gonna separate my thoughts into two sections: characters, and story, mainly for my own ease, but also if anyone cares more about one thing or the other it's easier to distinguish. But,  the line is a little blurry so if I end up getting a little too much into the characterization in the story section, just bear with me lmao. OH and I'm going to try and keep this as un-spoilery as possible but we'll just have to see. SOOOOOOOO

Characters

I think it goes without saying that Melnikov's art is absolutely gorgeous, and really does show how much Damian has grown up. It makes me want to sob its so beautiful, everyone is so pretty, even the guy that looks like a washed up, high as fuck Tony Stark lmao. But moving on to the actual characters,

Rose Wilson

I honestly don't know too much about Rose, I haven't read enough about her to say anything about her characterization and how it compares to her other appearances, or whether or not she is OOC, but so far, I'm enjoying her taking up the "big sis" role, like, immediately lmao.

I don't know how much I trust her yet, but I definitely get the vibe that even if she does betray Dami in any way, she's probably gonna stick her neck out for Dami again and he's probably gonna do the same.

I'm really intrigued about her motivations for being here. Obviously, Respawn has something to do with it, but I want to know what's up with that. I've seen a lot of theories and I'm so excited. Also side note, that Black Swan chick is hot, and I can't wait to see more of her in action!!!

I feel like Ravager knows a WHOLE lot more than Dami does about the interesting things going on on the island, mainly because she's been doing a lot more sitting and waiting than he has as of yet, but I'm hoping to see more of the two of them doing detective-y sleuthing together. We love a mysteryyyy

Flatline

Okay but real talk, why does she look like a character straight out of Monster High

Honestly tho, I dig it. It's cute! She's cute! She isn't annoying (yet) but I don't know if I care too much about her other than she would make a cute friend for Dami.

I think the problem with DC is that they know people LOVE Harley Quinn and they try so hard to make characters just like her but it always falls short, so honestly I am a little wary of her character development in this run, but I'm willing to give her a shot since her little coffin purse on the cover of the second issue is so damn cute. I'm a slut for character design, okay?

Oh speaking of Flatline and Dami, I don't ship it and I don't want them to force a romantic relationship into Damian's "coming of age"/"soul-searching" moment okay? Because that's what this run is about, at least to me! More on that in the story section!

They're literally 13/14 years old. That's 8th-9th grade, babes lets think about that for a minute

Also let's stop the whole "lets introduce a female character just to make her a love interest!" bullshit okay?

Basically, Flatline is interesting, or at least has the potential to be, but I don't want to get my hopes up because DC is notorious for disservicing their female characters 😕

I think the mixed reaction to her is valid, I don't think she's had much time to make a solid impression yet, so I guess you'd have to read it for yourself. Personally, I don't understand why people immediately hate her, especially because she's like, 14, and what kid that age isn't annoying? like at least a little bit lmao! But, yeah. I don't trust her either but literally everyone on this island is sketchy at least and a murderer at best, so hey 🤷‍♀️

Damian

His new outfit lmaoooo at first I was like "WHaT is this child wearing? You'd think Dick would have rubbed off on him and taught him what good taste looks like" but then I saw the later outfit, with the gold patterning and those sleeeevessssss ugh and I take it all back. A Fashion Icon TM. Truly stunning. A sight to behold. So proud, look at him go 😪

I think there's a lot of different opinions on Damian's characterization in this run, and I can definitely see where its coming from, but I disagree with the notion that Damian has been done dirty and reverted to a blood-thirsty, feral child.  And I have a LOT of opinions on the whole "feral" thing regarding Damian period (but that's for another time).

I don't think of Dami's rampage as a regression for his character. He's letting of emotions right then and I think its very similar to him venting. Its just not verbal, its physical and he knows he's not going to have to grapple with the consequences of his actions on the first kill. He knows he's technically not doing anything wrong.

He is clearly upset at Bruce and his failure to protect Alfred, and while Dami and Bruce are really often described as being very similar personality-wise, they are still distinctly different individuals who came to their current moral codes in vastly different ways. Bruce came to his "no killing" rule on his own; he made that decision for himself. It wasn't taught to him, it was a moment-of-truth kind of situation. Damian, on the other hand is in a vastly different situation.

Dami is, I think, at the beginning of the climb to his own moment-of-truth. He is in his rebellious phase like Dick, where he's gone off to spread his wings. It's not his conscious intention (at least that's not the vibe I got from reading the first two issues), but its directly underlying his "mission".

Damian is growing out of the expectations of his parents and into his own person. We all know he's been thrown from one moral code to another, both drastically different from each other. I don't think its a regression for him to lose his way a little, because realistically, he's going to have to in order to find it, specifically a moral compass that he forged on his own. He's just what? 14? Like hell a kid his age wants to listen to any form of authority. He's as stubborn as it comes. Damian needs to come to his decision regarding the path he takes in life on his own. It can't be made for him. He's seen and lived both sides of the coin, and I don't think he should be forced just yet to choose a side or pave a middle ground, but I do think that he should get the opportunity to see and experience all the gray areas on his own.

I think I'll transition from characterization to story here, because let's face it, this story is about Damian dealing with his confused emotions right now, in the wake of losing Alfred, a man that kind of acted like a grounding presence, a voice of reason, or a moral compass for him (and honestly Bruce and the rest of the bat crew if we're honest).

Story

So there's a lottttt going on in the story that is really enticing and exciting, and I'm really interested to see how it all plays out.

All the rules to the tournament are so, sketchy? Like they don't sound like they are meant to be sketchy, its basic safety and guidelines or whatever but with all the glowy green shit and the stakes of the tournament? Yeah, you can bet your ass its the "no fighting at night" and other shit is gonna be broken, and that's likely when the fun begins *insert evil laughter*😈

I was slightly put off by the whole "let me teach you to have fun" thing with Rose, because it's not like Dick, Steph, Jon, and like the Titans haven't done that with him too, but eh, not something I'm too concerned about. It's definitely just a segway to get us introduced to more characters that might become Damian's friends which will be interesting considering what Mother Soul said about fraternizing.

And that's another thing! I want Damian to make some friends! I know he already has some, but here's the thing: I think he's already been struggling with belonging, and he's definitely been feeling the disconnect between his life and other kids', whether they're supers/vigilantes or not. I think it'd be nice to see Dami have the experience of meeting people who he at first thinks are just like him!! and then realizing that maybe he doesn't really fit in here either, and that it's okay to feel like you don't belong, as isolating as it may feel at times. It just means you have a set of values. I want him to realize that its not always a bad thing, and you learn more about yourself and your own heart this way.

And from there,,, lets talk about the thing that stuck out to me the most in these two issues! GUILT!! It's mentioned SOO many times already, and I think its going to be a really fun, heartbreaking, and interesting aspect to explore about Damian. Is it guilt about his actions? Leaving behind family? Not being able to save Alfred? Not being a perfect example of Robin? He may call himself Robin but he doesn't sport the OG look or symbol like before. I love that his guilt takes on the form of Alfred though, or at least his conscious. I think it'd be really interesting to see this conscious disappear when Dami strays too far from his center, and when he finds it again, it reappears.

I really think that seeing Damian's actions in this run as a failure of character development is an unfair assessment, though. You can't do everything right in order to grow! You have to screw up, lose your way, experiment with life to find your fit, right?

Something tells me he doesn’t care for the tournament itself, but the end result, and the people behind it and more about WHY it was hidden from him. I mean he finds out the tournament TRULY begins once everyone has died once and tHEN he kill everyone? Felt to me less like a “killing spree” as everyone put it to a calculated decision to get the tournament going. He literally cuts Mother Soul off in the middle of her speaking to start fighting at the beginning

Anyway, just my thoughts lol. I do have some issues with the past two issues, and I might make a separate post about that, but honestly not enough for me to dislike Robin 2021 so far. I mean, besides the very obvious white-washing in the second issue, because DC can absolutely do better. And they should. It’s like they thought we wouldn’t notice???? But besides that, story and characterization-wise I’m looking forward to more. Here’s to hoping it stays that way, just with a better colorist!

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

top ten things comic writers fucked up

Marvel

10) House of M ending with NO MORE MUTANTS, fucking up years of continuity and shattering the whole community and shit. Given the circumstances I add Wanda and Franklin Richards suddenly losing their status as Mutants for bullshit reason (In the case of Franklin it was due to that bitch Dan Slott being a petty bitch).

9) The Ultimate Universe, but, like, not all of it, just the worst parts. Like that one time the Blob ate Janet Van Dyne alive for starters.

8) That one time Peter Parker was sexually assaulted by the Spider-Queen or some shit, which lead to him getting pregnant with himself, turn into a giant spider before dying and giving birth to his human body. This is also here because his wife MJ berates him for being, again, sexually assaulted, which is bad.

7) House of M having Peter's big wish be about him being married to Gwen with kids and MJ is a rich famous actress (homo sapiens actress in a pretty much mutant ethnostate? A testament to her skills I guess). Like, just the whole "Peter doesn't REALLY want to date MJ and thinks he's be happier with Gwen" and "MJ would be happier and more fulfilled in her career if she was single" propaganda bullshit Marvel keeps to spout.

6) I'm pretty sure there was a thing with Arcade and underage people dying during some death games? Either that one or Sins Past but that would make this a bit too much Spider-Man centric tho.

5) Dan Slott killing off MC2 Peter as well as several happy MJ X Peter couples from different universes during comic book Spider-Verse because he is a petty bitch.

4) Civil War being pretty much a allegory of the Patriot Act and still trying to paint it as a good thing, while also enforcing shit like concentration camps and bomb collared villain slave cops and also child soldiers programs and shit.

3) That one time Dan Slott almost had Felicia get r*ped in a woman prison post Superior Spider-Man because he has a issue with women. In fact, Dan Slott general treatment of female characters really, with how he treated Silk (his creation too mind you) in the context of Peter, The way he treated MJ and had Superior Ock almost r*pe her, the way he writes whatever sexually liberated woman in general, and I guess him trying to pull the same thing he did with Silk and Peter, but with Johnny and Sky, but instead of using spider-pheromones he used magical alien bracelets of love instead.

2) Avengers 200 attempting to "kill off" Carol from the narrative by having a extra dimensional being r*pe her via mind control and get her pregnant with himself so they can remove her from the team and have her "retire" in the extra dimensional being's dimension without ONE avenger raising objection to that.

1) One More Day and One Moment in Time as a concept. Period.

0) The Clone Saga as a whole I guess? Like, pretty much nothing surpasses that in fucked up shit, so here it is as special mention.

DC Comics

10) Amazon Attack. Like, as a whole, but especially the Female Concentration Camps the US President set up during the invasion. With trains running on time and all that.

9) That one time Kyle Rayner's girlfriend got cut to pieces and stuffed in a fridge for pure shock value.

8) Like, I get the story Moore was trying to make, but The Brutalisation of Barbara during the Killing Joke was unnecessary and also dumb (who the fuck doesn't check the peephole of their door in FUCKING GOTHAM). The animated adaptation was also bad.

7) That one time they fucked up Cass' whole character. You know, the one where she implied she wanted to bang Tim and shot her dad with a magical flintlock pistol with two bullets in it for some reason.

6) I guess that one time they had Wonderdog be revealed to be a hellhound and have him murder Marvin in front of Wendy before traumatizing and paralyzing her for life, and just to do some edgy "this is NOT your grandpappy super friends!" Or some shit.

5) Deathstroke seducing Terra, a literal underage girl, and the narrative presenting it as either Normal or as her being evil or some shit, like, the whole thing was icky especially how they treated her and the fallout of it all.

4) The whole "Batman can't be happy AND Batman" bullshit they used to fuck over Bruce and Selina's wedding.

3) The treatment Wally West got at times. Like, him becoming a mass murderer recently for starters. Not him being best buds with literal Fidel Castro tho that was extremely "based," as the youngsters these days say.

2) Hal Jordan as a whole, either him being even more of a republican compared to the LITERAL CEO Oliver Queen (Socialist compared to him, him dating a minor and saying it's fine since her ring aged her up to "legal" age, or that one time some jackass wrote he had a threesome with two members of the Gail Simone's Birds of Prey because they were projecting.

1) That one time an Apokolips Dude used mind powers to shoot a porno with Big Barda and Superman, pretty much committing r*pe on them.

0) You know that one time Sue Dibny was pregnant and they had her get killed for dumb reasons and shock value? Yeah, this isn't about that. I mean, it's ALSO about that, but more specifically, this is about that one time they had Doctor Light become a r*pist and then fucked his mind to turn him into a joke. That whole thing was trash since it also had Deathstroke solo the new Justice League as if that's how it works. Also the whole "villains can't change it become better unless mind fuckery is involved" bullshit shit like this and similar stories did, which is indeed less serious than this mind you, but is still related.

[bigskydreaming]

why-this-kolaveri-machi replied to your post:

Can’t wait for the Ric Grayson storyline to end so...

that it seems like they’re going to go the route of having ric grayson pressured into becoming a talon is going to make reading about the inevitable apology tour even more nauseating

That specifically is what has me pissed off the most, like I was just reading the December solicitations. Like, its inevitable that’s what this is all building up to...and because that’s how DC and so much of fandom regards Dick and his place in the Batfamily, that’s inevitably how the aftermath is going to play out. Ric is going to become a Talon at least temporarily, either because his great grand-douche manipulates or tricks him into it, via all the information that Dick had and thus knew when and where not to give William the time of day, and that Ric LITERALLY DOESN’T HAVE AND THUS KNOW TO WATCH OUT FOR...

Or else he’s going to be coerced or brainwashed into it, as the Court’s attempted many times before in various ways, but Ric lacks both any real support system and also the conviction of belief that Dick was able to use to resist them at times (because Ric is essentially a kid in a lot of ways, still figuring out day by day who he himself is and what he believes, its not that he’s any weaker as Ric than he was as Dick, he just HASNT HAD TIME to form all those steadfast convictions, he just woke up one day and was an adult all of a sudden, as far as things look from his eyes.)

But either way, its going to happen, and Dick is absolutely going to feel guilty and he’s absolutely going to apologize to people and take full responsibility for it like “yeah but it wouldn’t have happened if ‘I’ hadn’t insisted on you all staying away from ‘me’, like you couldn’t have warned me even if you wanted to, because ‘I’ wouldn’t let you.

Like its so frustratingly inevitable. And yet the REAL questions are, in light of this storyline....in whatever time and interactions Ric DID have with Bruce or Babs before he insisted on being left alone....how much of a primer DID they actually give him on Dick’s enemies and who might be gunning for him, whether Ric wanted anything to do with the Batfam or not? Didn’t they have a responsibility to warn Ric? Was there really NO option of passing him this information and making sure he got it, whether he wanted to receive it or not? 

This family of geniuses couldn’t at least leave him messages like FYI, you have an undead assassin great-grandfather around, who’s obsessed with making you Undead Like Him....or they couldn’t like....leave him a binder filled with all the information he NEEDED to know, and even just count on his/Dick’s innate curiosity to sooner or later make him flip through it, just to see if it answered any of his questions about himself or who he used to be?

This family, notorious for its lack of boundaries and refusal to respect each other’s privacy, especially in the name of being worried for each other’s safety....they’re SERIOUSLY not keeping an eye on him from a distance, even despite his telling them to stay away? They REALLY care so little about the family member they all clearly still believe is in there, deep down, or else have just so easily given Dick up for dead and accepted he’s never coming back (much like nobody it seemed thought to question his death after Forever Evil, just accepted it)...but either way, whatever they believe, they all really feel so little obligation to the man who gave so much of himself for them, time and time again, that not a SINGLE one of them is keeping even a cursory eye on him and the going ons in Bludhaven, via hacked security cameras, bugs, even just an ear to the ground that might be all that’s needed to realize there’s a bunch of people calling themselves Nightwings fighting crime in Bludhaven and one of them got strung up and left for dead all stuck full of Talon blades? 

NONE of them, even as busy as they are with their own shit, has a second to spare to run down to Bludhaven after even the POSSIBILITY of a rumor of Talon activities happening there...hell, none of them even stopped by to watch from the shadows when they heard rumors of multiple Nightwings, to see who the hell was using their loved one’s name...given that historically, he has not been a fan of just anyone running around naming themselves after him like its no big deal? 

Nobody stops by to defend their brother’s name and reputation from what are essentially a bunch of cops on a power trip, using vigilantism as an excuse to break the law in ways even they can’t on the job, rather than even that time Dick was a cop, and tried at least to use his role there to do through legal means what he couldn’t do even as a vigilante? Cuz I hated Dick as a cop, but even that wasn’t remotely the same thing as what these cops are doing, guns in hand as Nightwings, breaking down doors that they wouldn’t be allowed to during daylight hours, etc.

But not Damian, not Tim, not Jason, none of the girls....hell, not even another superhero like one of the Titans, or freaking Superman....no, nobody so much as makes a guest appearance to lecture the Nightwings about the responsibilities they’ve chosen to accept by taking on that particular mantle, and how very many people won’t fucking look kindly on them disrespecting it or dishonoring it via their actions, so they damn well better prove themselves worthy of it?

Nobody, upon doing even the most cursory inspection of the new vigilantes in Bludhaven, calling themselves by Nightwing’s name and naming themselves his successors....nobody eventually realizes, oh hey, one of those is actually RIC himself....and thinks, hey, maybe this is a sign that he’s either softening towards his old life and his refusal to know anything about it or have anything to do with it, or else maybe this is a sign that there’s more of Dick Grayson left than he thought, or they thought...and either way, NOBODY notices this huge freaking step on Ric’s part, given his initial refusal to even HEAR about his vigilante exploits....and thinks hey, maybe it might be time to try approaching him again, even just try and feel him out via a professional drop-by about a case we’re working on or they’re working on, see if maybe he might be more open now to getting to know some of us again....

or at the very least, NOW might be open enough to listen to us warn him about certain individuals he DESPERATELY needs to know to watch out for, now that he’s operating as a vigilante, and with a bunch of people using his old name, no less....something that all but guarantees that any old enemy of his that knew him well, from Deathstroke to Luthor to the Court, is going to know how to put two and two together, which gives them a HUGE advantage over the guy who’s out there, getting in the way of crimes like their endeavors...but with no clue how much they know about him and how vulnerable that makes him to them?

But none of that. Not a single effort towards any of that. And yet, we all know damn well that however it happens that Ric becomes a Talon, it’ll inevitably be Dick that gets the fallout...and people aren’t going to be shy - either in canon or in fandom - about reading him the riot act about how what happened could have been prevented, with there likely to not even be a damn mention of how THEY all should have done something about that then, since they actually COULD, on account of having BEEN there...which Dick really, was not. And yet they’ll all pretend he was, retroactively, as will he, in order to once again play out the drama of Dick Grayson the Scapegoat, as Dick takes full responsibility and falls on his sword so nobody else has to, because its inconvenient to expect whole casts of characters to apologize for MAJORLY dropping the ball and letting HIM get screwed over as a result...and its super inconvenient to ever expect anyone in his family BUT him to apologize for shit, like...EVER.

And not like Dick won’t inevitably feel guilty enough for whatever he/Ric/Talon does as a Talon that he’ll be beating himself up about it forever, anyone wanna take any bets on if we’ll get a SINGLE character comforting or consoling him that it WASN’T actually his fault and he can’t blame himself for things he couldn’t have done anything about? Or are they all gonna just, yet again, pile on, and make him feel more guilty because of how THEY were affected as well?

Seriously, this is all just Forever Evil/Spyral 2.0, all over again. Yet again, Dick’s screwed by a massive, life-altering plotline that RELIES on nobody really giving a crap about him in universe, or at least not demonstrating this....because it REQUIRES his family to be absolute shit at looking out for him in any meaningful way, in order for it to even exist. 

And its so frustrating because this is the kind of bullshit fix-it fics are MADE for....BUT because its Dick, and so much of fandom just implicitly accepts canon’s take that Dick is the only responsible adult in the entire Batfamily and thus the only one who is responsible for things that go wrong, ever - that’s how that works, isn’t it - there won’t be all that many fix-it fics, just like there weren’t after Spyral, where the majority of the aftermath fics were about fans not being satisfied with canon in the sense that they wanted MORE of an apology from Dick, MORE remorse for ‘what he did,’ MORE acknowledgment of HOW he’d fucked up and hurt them all.

Like, thanks, I hate it.

Sidebar....but anyone else notice, that be it in canon or in a majority of fics.....that the ONLY time Dick’s family ACTUALLY manage to respect his wishes and do what he asks of them, like, oh so conveniently happens to coincide with the times where respecting his wishes means they don’t actually have to do anything at all?

Like Bruce, who again has trouble respecting his kids’ boundaries and privacy practically any other time....was more than willing to respect Dick’s desire for distance from him after Bruce took Robin away, fired him, adopted Jason, all of that.....which was super nice of Bruce except oh wait, huh, kinda also meant that Bruce never had to be the one to make the first move to mend fences with his kid, apologize for what he did, ASK Dick to come home, any of that, huh? Nah, respecting Dick’s desire for some distance from him THIS time meant Bruce got to just sit on his ass and wait for Dick to be the one to come home, to apologize, to try and make things right.

Rinse and repeat after Bruce threw Dick out in the wake of Jason’s death, when Dick came to try and grieve WITH Bruce.

Rinse and repeat multiple more times, and with other characters too....who always put up a fight when Dick asks for something or expresses an opinion and they’re so sure they know better, but the second Dick expresses a demand for space....oh sure, that they can do, they can let him go off and do whatever for as long as he wants, no big deal, happy to accommodate. (Ironic that there are so many lines and headcanons and fics about the Batfam’s diehard belief that Dick is the one person they’d all go APESHIT over losing or being hurt or any of that - when time and time again, canon bears out that actually, Dick is pretty much the only member of the family they’ve all proven they’re more than capable and willing to live without him in their lives).

And now, yet again....Bruce, who couldn’t respect Dick’s wishes when Dick BEGGED Bruce not to make him fake his death, send him away, make him do the Spyral op....Tim, who EXPECTED better of Dick, expected Dick to know that you can’t just do something or let something happen when you know it’ll hurt your family or let them get hurt, just because Bruce told you to, or someone said you had to, even when you felt it was wrong....Jason, who PUNCHED Dick because ‘you don’t just do that to family,’ you don’t just let them grieve or feel abandoned or leave them on their own without you when you can actually do something about it....Babs, who he DISAPPOINTED YET AGAIN by ‘letting himself be talked into’ something he felt was wrong instead of doing what he should have known was the right thing to do, the right way to do right by her....

Somehow, ALL OF THESE PEOPLE are just....fine with respecting Ric’s wishes in ways they’ve never bothered respecting Dick’s. They’ll leave him alone, let him do his own thing, because that’s what he wants, see.

It has absolutely nothing at all to do with how it also just so happens to be the option that’s less hard on them too, to not have to be around this man who looks so much like Dick and yet isn’t them, to not have to struggle with remembering what it is or isn’t okay to expect of him or to hold against him for things he doesn’t remember, to not have to TRY to build a new connection with a man who expresses no interest in building one with them, because see....they never had to TRY before with Dick, because with EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM.....

DICK DID THE WORK. Dick was the one who reached out and TRIED.

Even when - ESPECIALLY WHEN - they didn’t want him to. Didn’t make it easy for him. Made him WORK for every scrap of ground he gained with them, before they actually HAD that connection, the one they don’t have now.

And that’s the part that pisses me off the most. Yeah, we’ve seen this story before. Ric will become a Talon, Dick will become the scapegoat, he’ll apologize for everything he didn’t do and take responsibility for all the things that should’ve been done, nobody will say a damn word about what THEY could have done differently or take responsibility for how HE might feel about any of this going down, that might’ve been prevented if more people had insisted on more of a presence in his life, whatever form that took....

And ultimately things will go back to normal, as Dick will eventually settle back into his expected place in the Batfamily of being the emotional support call center, no outgoing calls allowed while on active duty, which is 24/7 for him. And most Batfam fans who aren’t Dick stans specifically will go right back to expecting that role for him, because that’s never stopped, even when he’s not actually around to fill that role. Business as usual. 

[davidmann95]

Best comics of 2018?

A handful of disqualifications up front: since they’re just beginning, I’m not counting Electric Warriors, Martian Manhunter, The Green Lantern (though Evil Star explaining his name in #2 might be my favorite moment in comics this year), Ironheart, DIE, Shazam!, Killmonger, The Batman Who Laughs, or Miles Morales: Spider-Man, all of which almost certainly would have ended up somewhere in here with some more time. Additionally, I switched to a new online pull list system in March, so I don’t have a list of what I got before then - if I’m forgetting about something great that came out early this year, there’s a good chance that would be why.

Honorary Mentions: While there were plenty of comics I was happy to keep up with, a number stood out as exemplary examples of straight-take relatively traditional capeshit: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and companies’ Justice League, Steve Orlando’s Justice League of America (which would probably go among the best of the best if the art was a bit more consistent or the lineup more to my personal tastes), Brian Bendis and Nick Derington’s Batman work in the Walmart 100-Page Giants, Donny Cates’ Thanos and Doctor Strange work (the latter might not have quite made it, but that last issue with Irving and Zdarsky was gangbusters), Steve Orlando’s brief Wonder Woman run with Laura Braga, ACO, and Raul Allen, Tim Seeley’s Green Lanterns, Nnedi Okorafor and Leonardo Romero’s Shuri, Robert Vendetti and Bryan Hitch’s Hawkman, Saladin Ahmed, Javier Rodriguez, Rod Reis, Dario Brizuela, and Joe Quinones’s Exiles, Captain America by both the Mark Waid/Chris Samnee team and the current Ta-Nehisi Coates/Lenil Francis Yu lineup, Dan Slott and Valerio Schiti’s Tony Stark: Iron Man when it’s committed solely to being a superhero comic and not Dan Slott trying to be Contemporary, Brian Bendis, Patrick Gleason, Yanick Paquette, and Ryan Sook’s Action Comics, and Kelly Thompson and Stefano Caselli’s West Coast Avengers. 

On the slightly different side of things, Steve Orlando and Giovanni Timpano showed how you do an intercompany crossover right with The Shadow/Batman, Max Bemis’s Moon Knight while not living up to all it could have been - and likely to age poorly - had moments of truly bizarre grace, Saga was Saga even if I’ve lost the plot, Ahmed and Christian Ward’s Black Bolt concluded as well as we all might have hoped, Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt’s The Wild Storm continued to build up steam in its own fascinating style, Doomsday Clock remains utterly captivating in spite of itself, and Tom Peyer and Jamal Igle’s The Wrong Earth is making the most of a deceptively tough premise. On the one-off end, Chip Zdarsky and Declan Shalvey’s Marvel Two-In-One Annual is an essentially perfect off-kilter Doom/Richards story, Action Comics #1000 had no chance of living up to all it needed to be but was largely a great set of Superman stories regardless, and while the remainder of the miniseries has thus far been fine, Tim Seeley and Carlos Villa’s first issue of Shatterstar was a strange, special delight.

My Favorite Comics of 2018

Rock Candy Mountain: Technically Jackson - the rail-rider who can beat Any One Man in a fistfight - reached the end of his journey for hobo heaven this year, and flat-out, every Kyle Starks comic is a perfect one. This is a book where the first issue has a dude beating ass with a beautiful savagery that leaves an awestruck onlooker declaring “He’s got punch diarrhea and their faces are the toilet bowl”, and by the end it built up to one of the most moving climaxes of the year. It’s a comic about fallen men finding redemption in friendship and in dreams, and also there’s a cage fighter who calls himself Hundred Cats because it would be really hard to fight a hundred cats.

Dark Knights: Metal: This is the final, perfected form of traditional Event Comic Bullshit. Everything good about Snyder, Capullo, Glapion, and Plascencia’s Batman post-Court Of Owls is retooled and reenergized to fit the scale of a Crisis event, everything that I would have considered to be a weakness regarding their partnership either burned away or placed in a context where it becomes a strength. This is the Morrison approach to the DCU rightfully ascendant and presented in a form even more fit for mass consumption, and manages to live up to being the first classic-style, large-scale DC event comic in almost a decade - Marvel may blow its own load every six months until it’s simply got nothing to offer anymore, but DC waited until they really and truly had something, and that something was bloodsoaked magic.

Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man (by Chip Zdarsky and assorted artists): I actually wavered a bit on whether this belonged in the best of the best as a whole; most of the issues this year were definitely very good (regarding Zdarsky’s run specifically, I haven’t checked out the Spider-Geddon tie-in stuff), but more on the honorary mention end of the scale. Ultimately however, the Amazing Fantasy arc and #310 are Spider-Man comics I’m going to be coming back to for years to come - the latter is going to end up in every ‘Best Spider-Man Stories Ever’ softcover from now until the end of time - and they tipped the scales.

Batman: Very much in the same boat as Spidey above; a lot of this year didn’t do it for me in the same way as this run has in the past, but The Best Man is the best thing anyone’s done with Joker since Morrison, the ‘wedding issue’ itself worked really well for me, Cold Days made a premise that’s often stymied creators work as well as people have always wanted it to, and the Dick team-up issue was a perfect little summation of a relationship, nevermind how much this year succeeded in getting me hyped up for things to come.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: This is one of those comics where it’s so consistently good in such a specific, quiet way that people stop talking about it, but for real, this has never not in the top five or six things Marvel is publishing at any given time for as long as it’s been around. Erica Henderson leaving right before hitting the Kraven story that had been building literally since its first issue 3 years earlier could have been disastrous, but North and new artist Derek Charm manage to hit their own rhythm and continue delivering one of the funniest, cleverest, most sincere superbooks on the stands every month.

Mister Miracle: Yeah, it really was that good.

The Immortal Hulk: So is this, and if I have to name a single best comic of the year, this has probably gotta be it. Al Ewing’s been Marvel’s best creator for a long, long time, and putting him and Joe Bennett (who holy moley, I don’t think anyone would have guessed had this in him) on a tentpole character Ewing’s got genuine reverence for worked out even better than a fanboy like me might have expected. It’s sublime horror, it’s perfect Marvel comics continuity bullshit, and if the superhero is at heart a morality fable, this is very much a soul-searing apex of the genre as it speaks of how we can all go wrong.

Eternity Girl: …or maybe this is the best? It’s probably gotta be this, Hulk, or Miracle. Mister Miracle’s where the comparison really becomes clear, as they’re both books way out on the fringes of the DCU dealing with a character grappling with depression amidst the mundanity of their cyclical existence. However, as perfectly constructed and rawly human as Mister Miracle is, this hits a lot more of my own buttons and expresses its own brand of more surreal emotional authenticity, and rather than the expected and beautiful next step of a pair of already-acclaimed creators with an established partnership, this was a shock coming out party for Visaggio and Liew, who do things stylistically just as odd to see in a DC Comic as anything King and Gerads came up with. It seemed to sail under the radar for readers but also seems to be racking up awards, and I hope this’ll attain the reputation it deserves in years to come.

Ice Cream Man: Likely the respectable fourth place to the three above, while I can’t quite sing its praises in quite the same way when it’s playing so hard-to-get that I can’t quite put a pin in what it’s ultimately about, oh my GOD this is as good as gut-punch horror gets. Not simply grody shock-value stuff, but pit-of-your-stomach-everything-in-the-world-hates-you-and-you-were-wrong-to-ever-believe-in-love shit that’ll rattle your bones and fuck you up good. Not usually a horror guy myself, but this is an essentially perfect comic.

The Man Of Steel: Screw all y’all, this kicked ass and after how hard the Rebirth books blew it - Jon and the new status quo were both excellent, Tomasi had good bits here and there alongside some quality fill-in teams, but those books were still aaaaaaaaaaassssss - this is exactly the fresh start Superman’s needed for years. Granted the Fabok interstitials had some wonky pacing, but this was on-point and insightful for Superman as a character, exciting as hell, and has thus far led to nothing but more good comics as far as I’m concerned.

Milk Wars: Did the various tie-ins live up to the bookends? Nah, though the Shade/Wonder Woman story was pretty good. But those bookends? Friends, those books were AAA+ sup-per-he-ro-bull-SHIT, and while I was initially let down because it seemed as though it would have Superman in a major role and then didn’t, this is even more of an apotheosis of the Morrison approach to the genre than Metal. ACO is ACO, Eaglesham slaughtered it, and Orlando and Way should be as joined at the hip as cowriters as Abbnett and Lanning used to be. This is a gold standard for strange, edgy, colorful, wondrous, fucked-up superhero comics, and there should be a million more like it every day.

Justice League (by Christopher Priest and assorted artists, primarily Pete Woods): On the exact opposite end of the scale, while I don’t think I can say I enjoyed this book as much as the current Snyder-helmed gonzo cosmic adventures, I absolutely feel this was the better of the two. More importantly, this run is the successful version of what just about every other Justice League comic of the past 15 years has been trying and failing to be as the post-Authority, post-Ultimates, post-Civil War take on the concept. It’s as smart and atmospheric and bold as a book like Justice League ever CAN be, building its exploration of the conceptual stress points of the team around one and two-part adventures and clever character dynamics, illustrating an interesting new take on how to handle the main team book with the power players: taking their ability to handle physical threats as a relative given, a structural conceit acting as a delivery mechanism for the politics and people in play. It hardly breaks new ground in terms of redefining the superhero concept, but it’s as far as they’ve gone with the marquis characters without ending in disaster, and it’s an approach I’d love to see more often applied to this scale.

Superman: Walmart 100 Page Giant (by Tom King and Andy Kubert): Of all the places for King to do a regular Superman comic, huh? Still, we’d already seen what he’d done in that Batman two-parter and Action #1000, so I’m more than willing to take what we can get (even if most are going to have to wait for this to come out in trade). There have been four installments so far: the first is the sort of stage-setting that’s common to this type of long-form arc but with a distinctly different atmosphere than how this is typically done with the character, evoking a sort of Miller-tinged Golden Age flavor connecting Superman back down to Earth before throwing him into the stars. The third is a great Fuck Yeah Superman Doin’ Superman Shit throwdown that gives Kubert a chance to shine. The fourth and most recent is haunting, inspired, moving, and tight as a drum. And the second begins as the worst-case scenario of Tom King doing a Superman comic, and ends as likely my favorite Superman story of the last 5 years. If it continues in its current direction, Superman: Up In The Sky is almost certainly going to be a perennial people are going to rank among the best Superman stories of all time for decades to come, and everything I’d want out of this team tackling my favorite character.

Detective Comics (by James Tynion IV and assorted artists): I’m honestly surprised at myself for putting this here, but I just have to hand it to this run - which had to go quite a ways to win me over, between its opening gambit with Batwoman’s status quo and centering the whole thing around my least-favorite Robin (even if it won me over to him over time) - as basically being the platonic form of Dang Good Superhero Comics. Not boundary-pushing, not the sort of thing you’ll remember in 20 years, but just really fun, exciting, good-looking, slick, character-driven adventures building on themselves into the logical culmination of 21st century popular Batman stories. This is Batman 101, but in a good way, and I honestly think that on reflection it’s gonna hold together better as a Batman run than its immediate predecessor in Snyder/Capullo.

You Are Deadpool: This is the smartest, funniest, most inventive big two comic of the year and even if you’re so tired of Deadpool that your skull bones are threatening to suddenly contract and spear your brain in an attempt at saving your weary soul from the prospect of seeing any more of him, you should get this.

Superman (by Brian Bendis and Ivan Reis): I noted Action Comics among the honorable mentions, as while it’s a dang good comic that I enjoy a great deal - and Ryan Sook may well have established himself as my ideal modern Superman artist - it’s very much the best possible version of *exactly* what you’d expect from Brian Bendis doing Superman. This, on the other hand, feels like Bendis stretching himself to do something truly different in a way he hasn’t in years, and the results are stunning. I won’t pretend Rogol Zaar has amounted to much of anything as of yet, but Bendis has acclimated to the realm of Cosmic Superman Punch-Ups in a way no one could have reasonably seen coming; he’s managed to sidestep his usual issues by anchoring each issue in a crazy setpiece and a single perfect Superman character moment, and Reis is doing work here than can unquestionably stand alongside his Sinestro Corps War heyday. Whether it’s #1 having Superman fight an astro-goilla in the middle of a questioning on his responsibilities to humanity, #4 going full Shonen in the best possible way with probably my favorite fight scene of the year, or #6′s storybook mythmaking building to the best, cruelest needle in the balloon possible, or the consistent delightful fucking with Adam Strange, every issue here has something I didn’t know I badly wanted to see, and damn if that isn’t exactly what I want in my Superman stuff.

Assorted one-offs: Along with the major arcs and runs, we’ve got stuff like the Thanos Annual and DC Nuclear Winter Special, as good as anthologies of this kind get. T-shirt Superman got one last ride under Morrison in the Sideways Annual, fighting his way out from under the wreckage of a weird DiDio book to get exactly the sendoff he deserved. The Injustice 2 Annual, of all things, was a perfect piece of bittersweet character work. Invincible #144 satisfyingly closed out The Best Superhero Comic In The Universe by essentially also doing Invincible #145-500 or so, putting this often tumultuous title to bed with the dignity it had earned. And finally, Slott and Marcos Martin’s The Amazing Spider-Man #801 was a perfect minor mediation not even on the title character so much as the basic moral appeal of the genre as a whole.

[onyx-archer]

The Flash Episode 20 Post-Episode Ramble

Alright, so this is kind of an impromptu post that will likely piss off SOME people (you know who you are) given how I’m going to tag this, and just be warned I’m not putting up with your bullshit tonight. I’m gonna be going into spoilers for this episode, given how it finally reveals the true identity of the big bad, and I want to talk about how I feel about it, and the show going forward. I’ll do it below the cut so them pesky WestAllen fans can fuck off for me talking about shit that they can willfully ignore because it’s not visible.

OH, and to the WestAllens who actually go to read the post and then proceed to act like you’re superior, this time you don’t actually have to see me calling Iris a badly written character... outside of this sentence of course. Oh, and yeah, that was me kicking at you with the intent to bother you. Just know if you decide to talk down to me like you know better that you will be blocked at the absolute worst. Keep it civil and mature, or don’t bother. I’m tagging it this way because I’m talking about the ship a little below the cut... though I’m being civil about it. It plays into my talking of the episode, so bite me, tags aren’t just to gush about ships and whatever.

Anyway, onto the bulk of the post:

So a number of things were done in this episode. Let’s talk about them.

First off, we meet the newest character of the show, Tracy Brand. By the sounds of her significance in defeating Savitar, she’ll probably stick around from here on out... adding to the roster of characters for next season. Assuming Caitlin is reformed (which I hope to the gods she is after this shitty “turn to the dark side” arc of hers) that’ll make the major cast will be at least 9 characters... which is a bit bloated.

It raises concern from me since part of the reason why Arrow fell into a pit of mediocrity was it’s cast became too large to support it’s writing properly. Not saying The Flash will suffer in the same way, but given how this season has been written, I think my concern is justified. We’ll have to wait and see either way. After all, we have 3 more episodes for stuff to happen to change this. And for all I know, Tracy will only be a recurring character after this Season. Again, time will tell.

Next we have the little Joe romance subplot. Given that I honestly can’t be fucked to remember her name right now (even with her major role as a plot device for the climax of the episode), I think it’s apparent that I don’t really find it interesting, though my mom (my grandmother, long story, not gonna bother with it here) thinks it cute (and according to her, better than the WestAllen stuff this season, which I can agree with), so I figured I could find something to say about it. It’s not that it’s a bad subplot for the season or anything; honestly, Joe deserves a lady like her in his life after all of the stuff he went through last season with his ex-wife.

My problem here is that after this episode, I only see her as a potential liability for Joe (which he himself knows is the case, hence why he tried to cut the ties prior to the climax), and by proxy, Barry and Wally (and potentially Cisco, assuming he embraces his Vibe identity more next season). Joe trying to cut the relationship off to “protect her” is honestly incredibly stupid in my mind, since he knows that Savitar could go after her, let alone Caitlin (we’ll get to that) if he distances himself from her, since the villain always aims for a potential weak spot to gain the high ground in a confrontation. Sadly, Joe was hit with a momentary dose of stupidity, and it nearly got her killed. It’s a tired trope, and it’s something I could do without, given all it does is reinforce the use of a “damsel-in-distress” type scenario, which is lazy writing.

Next, I’m briefly going to touch on the absence of Wally for most of this episode. I’m sure there might have been off camera reasons for it (life happens, and sometimes things need to be changed to fit that), but when my mom and I are asking each other “Where’s Wally?” and we don’t remember being told he was visiting Jesse on Earth-3, there’s a problem. I don’t recall them mentioning that in the episode, though that might have been during one of those moments when I couldn’t hear the TV, since I was in the next room over (as the kitchen and living room are divided by a wall, but no doors). If that’s the case, then whoops.

Now we get into the Caitlin stuff. You know, the stuff I have a problem with over all. I refer you to my last post talking about Caitlin’s shit writing this season, but just in case you don’t want to bother, lemme give you the short version: Caitlin’s transition into a villain was so pointlessly stupid, and poorly written, that it makes her look mentally deficient. Keep in mind that Caitlin is one of my favorite characters in the show, so me being ticked with the handling of her character is out of love for the character. I know that Killer Frost is a villain in the comics, and that Caitlin Snow is an incarnation of Killer Frost, but last I remember, the Caitlin Snow Killer Frost in the comics wasn’t really “evil,” and was now a member of the FUCKING JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA! Yeah, it took a little bit to get there, but it happened.

The Killer Frost that the show is CLEARLY trying to be more like is Louise Lincoln, aka the Killer Frost that is referred to as “Killer Frost” in most non-comic DC properties. I honestly think this is a waste of a character... and that it goes against the character’s “heart.” Caitlin Snow is a woman who wants to do right in the memory of her dead husband in this show, yet if Ronnie could see her now, he’d be disappointed in her... and that’s a BIG reason why I think her arc in this season is bullshit. That, and like, SHE HAS FRIENDS WHO HAVE POWERS! I’m still utterly confused as to the logic behind NOT TELLING YOUR FRIENDS WITH POWERS YOU HAVE POWERS AND THAT YOU ARE SCARED OF THEM! It makes no logical sense, but this show is a teen drama, where logic goes out the window as the plot demands it... so Caitlin is made into an idiot because “drama” which is really stupid. Again, Ronnie would be so disappointed in her. Hopefully Savitar’s defeat fixes this crappy character shift, but that’s up to the writers. Personally, I’d love it if they made her a good Killer Frost, and maybe introduce the Louise Lincoln one in some capacity? It’d be interesting. Again though, that’s up to the writers.

The only good this episode touched upon with Killer Frost is Cisco getting a shining moment of badass, in a scene that echoes the scene where he loses his hands, as we saw in the last episode during Future Cisco’s flashback to explain why he couldn’t use his Vibe powers (which, by the way, is kinda bullshit logic if you ask me, since it’s more of a psychic ability... not a physical one... but whatever, maybe he got psyched out by the loss of his hands). I like how Cisco struggles to hurt his best friend, even if she’s flown over the cuckoo's nest, though it was incredibly trite that he’s only NOW afraid his powers could kill someone... But hey, Cisco was able to save the day, and since Cisco is ALSO one of my favorite characters, I can push aside fringe logic BS long enough to enjoy that subplot for the episode. I continue to hope that next Season, Cisco will do more as Vibe... but we’ll have to wait and see.

Next, it’s time for me to talk about Savitar, and his true identity reveal. The fact that they strung us along for 20 fucking episodes over this shit really bothers me... given that the reveal, while being an interesting enough twist, is beyond stupid. They poorly foreshadowed Savitar being a future Barry, and that’s the thing that bothers me the most. You know, other than a few aspects of the reveal, and the fact that it’s Barry. First, the fact that it’s an alternate timeline version of Barry is fine (I guess), and that he’s a product of something of a bootstrap paradox is alright too... but why in the fuck is it BARRY? It wouldn’t bother me so much if it weren’t for the fact that this makes the WestAllen aspect of the show even more idiotic in it’s pacing.

Because Savitar is Barry, and Barry loves Iris... wouldn’t he NOT want to kill Iris, to prevent past Barry from becoming him? I get that he lost his mind at some point, be that prior to being trapped in the Speedforce prison, or afterwards, but how does his motivation make sense anymore? Like, what does killing Iris do other than ensure his descent into madness, which isn’t even guaranteed. We don’t know if the Savitar we know is what happens to Barry in the future we saw in the previous episode after enough time passes, or if he’s a version of Barry that happens BECAUSE Barry went to the future... or anything of the sort. I hope we get answers, because fuck dude, Savitar’s a dumb fuck. I’m incredibly perplexed about this aspect. He wants to make Barry lose hope by killing the woman he once loved and that this version of himself currently loves? Why? Because he got faster, and more powerful as a result?

Something tells me that they are going to explain the loss of Barry’s mind with a “he began using Caitlin’s Velocity formula out of desperation, only for it to affect his mind like it did with Trajectory.” Also, I wouldn’t be surprised that it’s because of said speed enhancing drug, he needs the Savitar armor to run, so he doesn’t burn up? I mean, Tracy did hypothesize that he needs the armor to run as fast as he does due to the amount of energy he gives off in this very episode... so it’d make sense? It’d be an interesting way to tie things in with the previous season... but at the same time, it would make the whole “Savitar gained his speed from the Philosopher’s Stone” thing not be accurate...

Also, what was with that use of the “Trigger Phrase” realisation? I mean, Barry just suddenly put the pieces together because of something Joe and Cisco says? When the audience couldn’t? Say what you will, but that is poor set up for a twist, at least compared to the last two seasons. With Season 1, it was more in your face about the whole “Wells is actually Thawne” thing, but with Season 2, they hid clues to “Jay’s” identity in plain sight, with the use of visual cues, and small hints that were obvious if you went looking for them. But with Savitar, it’s all dialogue stuff, which makes it harder to figure out unless you binge the show... or at least that’s how I see it. Overall, I think Savitar’s reveal only further’s my view on Iris being a plot device, seeing as her death is the direct cause of Savitar’s “ascension” into the villain that kills Iris in the first place... making Iris’s life itself the deciding factor of everything... which is beyond stupid.

Iris does so little in the show (which my mom pointed out several times this evening), that her death has no real weight to anyone who doesn’t like the romance (that was rushed in this season to play to the stakes of her death being the cause of Savitar’s “birth.”), which is bad from a writing standpoint. Every viewer should feel like her death matters, because they connected with the character, yet everyone I know personally who watches the show feels nothing about her impending demise, or is, at the very least, bothered by the concept of her being “refrigerator’d,” because of their socio-political leanings.  I don’t feel like she’s done anything of significant value for the story thus far, and I know plenty of people who share that sentiment. So with the writers shoving in every little thing to try and get the viewer to care about Iris’s life, even those that up until now didn’t really care for the character, is made more aggravating by the fact that she is now the key for the birth of the very villain that kills her in the first place.

If they had properly paced the romance, and made it believable enough to the average viewer, this would be an interesting development... but I’m sorry, the response to the character and her writing is so mixed that this feels like an awkward means to garner sympathy from the audience for a badly structured romance. I’m aware that people will say “the majority will say they like her!” and what not (I’m looking at you, WestAllens), but the fact that people like myself don’t care, that people like my mom, a casual fan of this kind of show doesn’t care, and my friend @ericthatguyyouknow, a die-hard fan of the comics doesn’t care, along with all of the SnowBarry’s I’ve interacted with that have expressed similar frustrations to the writing of the show’s romances, among other things, shows that the romance is not universally liked, canon be damned.

Sure, there will always be people who don’t like a relationship in the canon, you can’t really say there’s been an instance where that’s not the case... you can’t please everybody. But the fact of the matter is if people don’t care about the fate of a character, romance or otherwise, you’ve fucked up as a writer. A poorly written character is the kind of character that garners a feeling of apathy in regards to the fate of said character, whereas a good character is one you WANT to see happy if they are good guys, or punished if they are bad guys. Iris, to many people, is a bad character because they don’t care about her life, and this sudden revelation that her death causes Barry to go fucking mad, causing an endless loop of misery for Barry only makes them MAD, because it’s roping in the fate of a character they like with a character they don’t care about.

As hard as it is to believe, I don’t want to feel apathetic about Iris’s fate, or Iris in general. I want to be able to go “Iris is fantastic!” But I can’t ignore the faults that I see in the show’s writing and handling of her character when it’s directly in the way of her being seen as that great character that WestAllens and other Iris fans see. In Season 1, I knew this relationship was the likely direction... but after Season 2, I was left disappointed at best. I see problems you don’t, and that’s fine. Enjoy what you want.

I went a bit off topic there towards the end, but all in all, this episode was good in places, bad in other places, and is overall, pretty average I’d say. I don’t like the reveal much, and I continue to hate Caitlin’s badly written “heel turn arc.” Iris still feels useless, and this revelation doesn’t really change much for me. I’m mad that it took so long to get this reveal and how it was handled, but I’m glad we finally know so we can move forward. I’ll probably make a post like this next week too, so look forward to that if you want.

Oh, and before I forget, a reminder I’m putting this in the WestAllen tag AND the SnowBarry/FlashFrost tags because I tried to make a point involving those ships, or at least the character within those ships.

Side-note: There are people who want to say that SnowBarry/FlashFrost is abusive because of how Barry is trying to protect people from an unstable Caitlin, and has to use force to do so... well, uh, a version of Barry literally kills Iris... for no real reason other than wanting to keep a cycle going? I get that it’s an alternate future version of Barry, but still, I think that when it’s Barry killing Iris, vs Barry defending people from Caitlin with force... the former is the more “abusive” aspect of it. Although, that argument is bunk, since it’s only used to “validate” one’s hatred of a ship... even though the justification in itself is poorly thought out, and doesn’t understand the concept of “abusive actions” versus “the defence of one’s self and others from an aggressor.”

Also of note: The fact that Caitlin was so quick to help Savitar after learning his identity... makes you wonder why that was, doesn’t it? Eh, I’m sure it’s nothing.

[seedling-lotus]

today has been such a fucking shit show and i’m going to rant about it under the cut because i need to vent in a huge way

oh my gods... i just... i fucking can’t even. i barely know where to start, but i’m gonna start at the beginning. I work second shift for a multi-billion dollar shipping company in the heavy freight division. so this is pallets of things weighing, for the most part, over a hundred pounds. This is some big shit. but whatever so I work second shift. My shift starts at 2 in the afternoon. perfect hours for a night owl like myself. 

so i got up, had breakfast, went to therapy, came home and did the dishes, took my car through the car wash and went to work. all fine and dandy. a good start to the day. get to work. terminal manager has gone home. before i even got there. by, like, a while. I mean, no really big deal there. at least i don’t have to deal with the guy. (he’s a fucking moron. he doesn’t know how to do anything and he’s a condescending, sexist, racist, homophobic ass.) the supervisor covering the outbound shift is running late. also no big deal. can’t stand him either. 

so whatever, first hour or so goes pretty smoothly. i get settled in, start doing my work, run into my first snafu. but i was distracted, doing a couple things, didn’t realize how big of a snafu it was. in the mean time the supervisor comes in and gets himself settled and is generally annoying, which gets me peeved. i go out on the dock, come back, go out, whatever. I can barely remember exactly why, but work was being done. 

meanwhile dick ass supervisor somehow gets into a conversation about anti-depressants with one of the clerks so i walk into that. I take the clerk’s side that meds can be helpful. bible thumping jesus freak skin head asshole supe insists that medication is a scam and it can’t help you and blah blah blah. got me so steamed i’m litterally screaming at him. I storm out before i punch the ass in the face. get some more work done

and back to my snafu from earlier. except it’s less snafu and more total fubar. I shoot the driver related to said fubar a message and he calls up with some lame ass excuse for said fubar. so i’m fucking fuming. go out on the dock. i’m looking at this trailer, and the paperwork and i’m i’m so pissed i’m not even angry anymore. I’m resigned. and also fucking determined to get it sorted out. 

now mind you. there is only one dockworker present at the moment. trucks are starting to come back with the afternoon freight. i need to get this sorted, and i need to get it sorted NOW. But this dick doesn’t want to do it. he wants to leave it for one of the new guys. I insist. he still wants to leave it for a new guy. he asks for a different trailer. I tell him i’m not printing any paperwork until this shit gets sorted. he finally relents to stripping this trailer for me. (mind you, i had half a mind to strip the thing myself, but i had to go through the pallets as they were coming out and it would have taken longer if I stripped it.) But whatever, he strips the pallets out and I start going through them. I match the pallets up to the bills that I had and put new tracking numbers on absolutely everything. everything had to be re-done. none of it was right. great. it took me over half an hour to go through all 39 pallets and make sure everything was right. 

 so I get that sorted, entered into the system i’m still fuming about the whole thing with the supe from earlier and this so i’m just tense and angry and it’s barely 5:00 and i’m already done with the day. I’m just ready to fucking go home. 

only to find out that one of the driver’s handheld computer died. which now means that, when he gets back, i have to manually enter everything he does. great. another fun thing to worry about. 

work gets done. 7:00 rolls around. one of the night drivers comes in early to help on the dock. he’s an ass and he wants to murder me and at this point i’d love to see him try. i’ll feed him his own fucking dick i do not give a fuck. he starts pressing my buttons and bringing up the bitch that i replaced when i took this job. she was a horrible person and she was specifically a complete pan in my ass and interfered with my ability to do my job when i was working on the dock. she was evil and i hate her. but he loves her and wishes she would come back and is singing her praises and shitting on me and generally being an extremely loud nuisance. mind you, the phone starts ringing. it is someone who has called multiple times and they’re being really nice about how much we fucked up since we never sent their stuff out to deliver and they need it urgently so we were sending it out late and they were calling to check on it. dick driver wont shut the fuck up. he’s practically yelling. so i round on him and scream at him to shut the fuck up, and then very pleasantly answer the phone and assure the person on the other end that yes the freight is being loaded on a trailer now and will be leaving within twenty minutes. we hang up, some minor jokes are made about how pleasant i am on the phone as opposed to in person. it’s true so i don’t really care. whatever. the night goes on. 

now, at this point. it’s getting late. ish. it’s only bout half way through my shift, but it’s getting on 8 o’clock at night and I’m supposed to clock out for lunch. but the driver who i’m supposed to be fixing things for has only just gotten back to the terminal and i know that if i punch out now, i’m going to get stuck fixing his stuff while i’m off the clock and... i’m not fucking doing that. fuck the policy. write me up. i do not care. so i decide not to punch out. i wait until exactly eight and tell the supervisor that i’m taking lunch late. i do not ask. i do not check if that is okay. i just tell him. late lunch. whatever

meanwhile, a different and more annoying driver comes back and his paperwork is somehow even more fucked up than the guy with the dead computer, and the guy with the fubar from earlier in the day. combined. but he gets his paperwork to me first, s now i’m stuck sorting his shit out. fucking 11 bills i had to enter manually into the system. 11. and i mean, it’s not terribly hard, or even completely terribly time consuming, but... it’s annoying. 

so i’m fixing that, and the dead computer river comes back with his stuff, explains everything, leaves for the day. i wrap up the first driver’s fuck ups, set his paperwork aside. fix the dead computer guy’s paper work and enter his things into the system. set that aside. and then finally go on my lunch break. now mind you... it’s like... 8:40? my shift is supposed to be over at 10:30. i haven’t even really gotten through half of my regular job duties. 

but whatever. through all of this i’m texting my best friend who’s grounded in Washington DC because of thunderstorms trying to figure out when i’m picking her up from the airport provided the plane ever actually takes off. 

whatever. I eventually get through all the paperwork, and clear all the lists i have to clear in the system. but i stll have to scan everything in. by this point it is 11:00 I have just started scanning things. I’m in the middle of scanning things when that late delivery, and even later pick up that the driver ended up doing get back. at that point, i’m the only dock certified union worker in the building. so i have to strip it. thankfully only one skid, but still. 

so i put the freight aside, go back in, back to scanning. the dick supe wants the driver to stay and move trailers around. it’s past 11. the driver has been here all fucking day. and then some. i’m like, should we tel him before he gets parked? supe agrees so i run outside to tell him driver can’t do it. he’s out of hours. it’s against the law. whatever. supe can deal with it. he’s the dick who wants it done anyway. (supe gave in because, yeah, LAW). 

OH YEAH! i forgot. so while i was doing paperwork, back like 10:30 there abouts, i find out that the ass whit the 11 unentered bills didn’t give me his delivery receipts. mother fucker took them home with him. i checked his truck just to be sure. I had to call the guy 3 times before he answered his fucking phone (yeah, you can bet your ass that i called him. i’m sorry, if’ you’re going to fuck me over with 11 unentered bills and then forget to give me half your paperwork on top of that, i’m waking your ass up. especially if you don’t have voicemail set up)

but whatever. i’m going through, i’m scanning. dick supe accidentally loads that skid from the late pickup onto an outbound manifest. he tells me to break the seal on the trailer and put that skid in since the trailer hasn’t left yet. so i drop what im doing, go open the trailer. full to the tail. go get supe, show him, he groans and has me close it back up. i go back inside and the supe ask me if i had already sealed the trailer. uh, yeah. duh. did you think i was going to come back in without sealing it?

whatever. so I go back to my scanning and the fucking morning crew starts coming in. it is after midnight and i am still scanning. ugh. 

oh yes, and for the real kicker. the maintenance/service/repair people came to try to fix our AC unit that’ been on the fritz for like an entire month and said that it was overheating and shut it off early in the afternoon. so the building jumped from like 78 degrees to 88 degrees of hot, muggy bullshit. so that did not help me keep a cool head in any sense of the word. 

anyway, i’m done venting now. it was just overall a very frustrating day and i’m so glad that it’s over and i’m home and showered. still waiting to see when i have to pick my best friend up from the airport, but... it’ll all work out in the end

[bigskydreaming]

Question which do you rec more: Rebirth nightwing or new 52 nightwing?

Umm, neither really? Idk. Like, there have been good moments and stories here and there, but as a whole package, neither jumps out as the superior choice because like.....the problem isn’t the book itself in either case, so much as the constant interference because of DC’s obsession with big events and organizing what happens in Dick’s solo book as an afterthought to whatever they’re having Bruce doing.

Like....there was some good stuff or at least the potential for good stuff in the 2011 Nightwing new 52 book.....but for me its all kinda squandered because ultimately that series was cut short by Forever Evil and the bullshit of NW #30 and what Bruce did there, and transitioned into Grayson, which I have...issues with. Entitled ‘Tom King you suck so hard,’ ‘Why Does Tom King Suck, An Examination,’ ‘What if Tom King Wasn’t The Worst’ and ‘How Is Tom King Awful, Let Me Count the Ways.’ (I don’t like TK, can you tell? Sorry, I can be overly subtle sometimes, its a problem).

But like, New 52 Nightwing could have at least been a not terrible book, but it never really had a chance to find its legs because in its little more than two year run it was plagued by delays, interference and editorial mandates and having to steer Dick into situations that allowed for the ‘big picture’ stuff DC wanted to do, that was mostly at the expense of his character, IMO.

And then you have Rebirth Nightwing, and again, I’d say its just more of the same. Good stuff or the potential for good stuff here and there, but it mostly wasted due to shit writers, and the occasional decent writers who are stuck playing clean up duty with the shit left or caused by the shit writers...and again, editorial mandates. 

Like, it essentially began with Dick having to restart from scratch in a lot of ways, after returning to his old life after the events of Grayson....so a lot of the problem in the early issues is that it essentially was just recovering ground that longtime readers had all seen before (and done better), while new readers....eh, I’m honestly not sure how many new readers Rebirth brought in for Nightwing, specifically, because the Dick Grayson Apology Tour that they embarked on after Grayson, wherein they had Dick take the blame for everything and be considered by most everyone to basically be the worst for ‘what he did,’ like....what part of that was ever gonna appeal to new readers and make them be like oh yeah, this guy, I gotta go check out his stuff now. Y’know? 

So...it wasn’t off to a great start to begin with, and then ultimately you ended up with the Ric Grayson storyline, which I’ve talked a lot about my feelings about....that it had a ton of potential but that nobody really seemed interested in examining a lot of the more relevant aspects of the storyline....because again, it was kinda just a paint by numbers sort of thing, wherein Lobdell came up with this ‘super cool nifty idea’ but he sucks at execution so it was given to others to do, when it wasn’t even necessarily a story they would have written on their own....and like...tbh, my sense of it has always been that like I said at the start.....this was one of those times when Dick’s book is essentially shaped by what they’re doing with Bruce elsewhere. 

Like, my take is this storyline was mostly greenlit to keep Dick occupied and out of King’s magnum opus City of Bane story, like it was essentially manufactured to make it impossible for Dick to come running to Bruce’s rescue because if he were in his normal frame of mind, literally nothing would have kept him from trying to join Bruce in taking on Bane. And that of course would have interfered with King’s attempted deconstruction of Bruce and breaking him down to his lowest where he’s basically all alone and bereft of all his allies and blah blah blah *snore* sorry, I fell asleep just writing that synopsis of the ‘seminal’ Batman story arc we’ve seen done a dozen times and counting.

So when you’ve got Dick’s book essentially playing second fiddle to whatever other people are doing with Bruce elsewhere, with that factored in before people even get around to deciding what stories to write or greenlight for Dick himself.....that’s how you end up with the clusterfuck we’ve had with the Ric Grayson storyline, where it was building and building for months, and then voila, just when things reach the ignition point of the big plot that’s been slowburning for over a year and Ric becomes the Talon....well, now writers have to turn on a dime and throw out whatever that was all building towards anyway, and we end up with that year long plot being essentially over and done with in a single issue. 

Because elsewhere, King has been fired off Batman and his plans have been drastically shortened, and new writer Tynion wants to bring Dick back into the fold and back to Bruce’s side, which means he has to be available for when Tynion starts HIS plans....and over here in the Nightwing book, everything has to be quickly and unceremoniously wrapped up fast fast fast, so that he can be hurried up back to his status quo and Bruce and the Batman books don’t have to wait on him or take a detour in their stories to get Dick back to his normal self.

*Shrugs* LOL so, I mean I guess my recommendation would be wait to see what Tynion’s takeover of the Batman book shakes loose and what Dick’s book looks like in a few months, and then consider the current Nightwing title, and in the meanwhile...eh, I’d go back to the pre-Flashpoint Nightwing book, to be honest. LMAO. Sorry, I have no idea if that’s helpful or not. I just....have a lot of aggravation about DC’s lack of interest in letting one of their oldest and most popular characters be prioritized on his own terms in his own book, instead of being ping-ponged around based on the whims and edicts of other writers who aren’t even the ones writing him.