#but i will briefly live in the universe where the warriors books are good and gay cat characters are real

[clanborn]

pov myrtlebloom and finchlight steal ur girl

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Austin Grossman’s ‘Fight Me’

On July 14, I'm giving the closing keynote for the fifteenth HACKERS ON PLANET EARTH, in QUEENS, NY. Happy Bastille Day! On July 20, I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

In Fight Me, the novelist and game developer Austin Grossman uses aging ex-teen superheroes to weigh the legacy of Generation X, in a work that enrobes its savage critique with sweet melancholia, all under a coating of delicious snark:

http://www.austingrossman.com/fight-me

It is, in other words, a very Gen X kinda novel. Prodigy (AKA Alex Beekman) is a washed-up superhero. As a nerdy high-schooler, he was given super powers by a mysterious wizard (posing as a mediocre teacher), who gave him an amulet and a duty. Whenever Alex touches the amulet and speaks the word of power, reaclun (which he insists is not "nuclear" backwards) he transforms into Prodigy, a nigh-invulnerable, outrageously handsome living god who is impervious to bullets, runs a one-minute mile, and fights like a champ. Prodigy, he is told, has a destiny: to fight the ultimate evil when it emerges and save the world.

Now, Alex is 40, and it's been a decade since he retired both Prodigy and his Alex identity, moving into a kind of witness protection program the federal government set up for him. He poses as a mediocre university professor, living a lonely and unexceptional life.

But then, Alex is summoned back to the superhero lair he shared with his old squad, "The Newcomers," a long-vacant building that is one quarter Eero Saarinen, three quarters Mussolini. There, he is reunited with his estranged fellow ex-Newcomers, and sent on a new quest: to solve the riddle of the murder of the mysterious wizard who gave him his powers, so long ago.

The Newcomers – an amped-up ninja warrior, a supergenius whose future self keeps sending him encouragement and technical schematics backwards through time, and an exiled magical princess turned preppie supermodel – have spent more than a decade scattered to the winds. While some have fared better than Alex/Prodigy, none of them have lived up to their potential or realized the dreams that seemed so inevitable when they were world famous supers with an entourage of fellow powered teens who worshipped them as the planet's greatest heroes.

As they set out to solve the mystery, they are reunited and must take stock of who they are and how they got there (cue Talking Heads' "Once In a Lifetime"). With flashbacks, flashforwards, and often hilarious asides, Prodigy brings us up to speed on how supers fail, and what it's like to live as a failed super.

The publisher's strapline for this book is "The Avengers Meets the Breakfast Club," which is clever, but extremely wrong. The real comp for this book isn't "The Breakfast Club," it's "The Big Chill."

When I realized this, I got briefly mad, because I've only had two good movie high concept pitches in my life and one of them was "Gen X Big Chill." Rather than veterans of the Summer of 68 confronting the Reagan years, you could have veterans of the Battle of Seattle living through the Trump years. One would be on PeEP, one would be an insufferable Andrew Tate-quoting bitcoiner, one would be a redpilled reactionary with a genderqueer teen, one would be a squishy lib, one a firebreathing leftist, etc. The soundtrack would just be top 40 tracks from artists who have songs on "Schoolhouse Rock Rocks":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoolhouse_Rock!_Rocks

Every generation has some way in which they seek to overthrow the status quo and build a new, allegedly better one, after all. "Big Chill"'s impact comes from its postmortem on a generation where it was easy to feel like you were riding destiny's rails to greatness thanks to the sheer size of the Boomer cohort and the postwar prosperity they lived through. A Gen X Big Chill would be a stocktaking of a generation that defined itself as a lost generation reared in the Boomers' shadows, armored against the looming corpo-climate apocalypse with the sword of irony and the shield of sincerity.

Which is basically what Grossman is doing here. What's more, doing this as a superhero story is a genius move – what could be a better metaphor for a teen's unrealistic certainty of destined greatness than a superhero? Superhero fantasies are irreducibly grandiose and unrealistic, but all the more beautiful and brave and compelling for it.

You know, like teens.

At 52, I'm a middle-aged Gen Xer. I've got two artificial hips and I just scheduled a double cataract surgery. My hairline is receding. I'm an alta kaker. But I wasn't always: I was a bright and promising kid, usually the youngest person in the room where we were planning big protests, ambitious digital art projects, or the future of science fiction. I had amazing friends: creative and funny and sweet, loyal and talented and just fun.

We're mostly doing okay (the ones that lived; fuck cancer and fuck heroin and fuck fentanyl). Some of us are doing pretty good. On a good day, I think I'm doing pretty good. I had a night in 2018 where I got to hang out, as a peer, with my favorite musician and my favorite novelist, both in the same evening. These were artists I'd all but worshipped as a teen. I remember looking at the two selfies I took than night and thinking, Man, if 15 year old me could see these, he'd say that it all worked out.

But you don't get to be 52 without having a long list of regrets and failures that your stupid brain is only too eager to show you a highlight reel from. No one gets to middle age without a haunting loss that is always trying to push its way to the fore in order to incinerate every triumph great and small and leave ashes behind.

That's why there's a "Big Chill" for every generation. Each one has its own specific character and meaning situated in history, but each one has to grapple with the double-edged sword of nostalgia. Not for nothing, John Hodgman (a bona fide Gen X icon) calls nostalgia "a toxic impulse."

Grossman really makes Fight Me work as a Gen X Big Chill. He's a great Gen X writer; his first novel, Soon I Will Be Invincible, was a knockout debut about superheroes and supervillains that had a very "The Boys" vibe, you know, that neat little move where you contend with the banal parts of a super's life and show how super powers don't make you a good person, or even a competent one.

His followup to Invincible came six years later. YOU is a coming-of-age story about the games industry with a second-person narrator (think "Zork"). Grossman is an accomplished game dev (Tomb Raider Legend, Deus X, Dishonored, etc), and he uses YOU to really plumb the depths of what games mean, what fun is, and how working on games isn't just work, it's often really shitty work, the opposite of fun:

https://memex.craphound.com/2013/04/16/austin-grossmans-you-brilliant-novel-plumbs-the-heroic-and-mystical-depths-of-gaming-and-simulation/

Grossman's last novel was Crooked, a very daffy alternate history in which Richard Nixon is a Cthulhoid sorcerer locked in a Lovecraftian battle of good and evil. This is a purely hilarious romp, wildly imaginative and deliciously certain to offend reactionary jerks:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/08/26/austin-grossmans-crooked-the-awful-cthulhoid-truth-about-richard-nixon/

All those chops are on display in Fight Me: a book that covers its brooding with wisecracks, that spits out ten great gags per page even as it drives a knife into your heart. It's a great novel.

Fight Me doesn't come out in the US and Canada until tomorrow (it's been out in the UK, Australia, NZ, etc for more than a month). Normally, I would hold off on reviewing this until the on-sale date, but this is my last day on the blog for two weeks – I'm leaving on a family vacation early tomorrow morning. I'll see you on July 14!

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/01/the-big-genx-chill/#im-super-thanks-for-asking

[realroykoopa]

My Zelda Timeline

My Zelda timeline inspired by lorulean historian, Brian David Gilbert, and Bird Keeper Toby: Includes fan creations:

keep in mind not everyone may agree on this timeline. This isn’t to discredit anyone else’s personal timeline it is simply the way I see the games as fitting together:

Majora’s Mask prequel manga 

Minish cap and split:

Timeline 1: Minish cap bad ending: Zelda is turned to stone and Vaati briefly rampages but Link seals Vaati in the four sword leading to the rest of the four swords trilogy.

Four Swords

Four Swords Bonus Manga Stories 

Four Swords Adventures 

Timeline 1A: link to the past and other classic Zelda games: A branch off from the four swords trilogy in which Ganon tries to steal the triforce and gets sealed in the sacred realm. 

A link to the past 

Nintendo Land: Zelda Battle Quest 

Oracle of ages and seasons 

Ancient Stone Tablets and Link’s awakening 

The Time Break and BS The Legend Of Zelda: Link goes into the multiverse after being stranded in the Mario universe, whilst he is gone the events of BS The Legend Of Zelda happen in which a different set of protagonists battle Ganon since link is absent:

Super Mario RPG

Donkey Kong Country 3

Captain Rainbow 

Super Mario Maker

Super Mario Maker 2

Mario Kart 8

Soulcalibur II 

Sonic Lost World Legend Of Zelda Zone

Scribblenauts Unlimited 

End of time break: Link returns to his own universe:

Oath of Riruto

A link between worlds 

Tri force heroes 

Zelda’s Adventure 

End

Timeline 1B: CDI Shenanigans: Instead of going to the sacred realm Ganon goes directly for Hyrule leading to the original Zelda games and media. 

Zelda Game watch

The legend of Zelda and the moblin’s magic spear book presumably takes place at some point during the original Zelda game. 

The Faces of Evil 

Zelda Game and Watch 

The wand of Gamelon 

Crystal Trap and Shadow Prince

Zelda Tv Show and Valiant Comics  

Captain N 

Zelda 2: Adventure of Link

Battle of Mirage Castle

End 

Timeline 2: Minish Cap good ending: the regular ending of Minish Cap leading to the prospering of Hyrule and a different origin for Ganon. 

Cadence Of Hyrule 

The Skull Kid And The Mask manga story 

Ocarina Of time 

Rouru Of The Watarara Manga story 

Link and the Portal of Doom 

Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland

Tingle's balloon trip of love 

Majora’s Mask 

Link’s Crossbow Training

Twilight Princess

Wind Waker 

Phantom Hourglass

Tingle’s Balloon Fight DS 

Spirit Tracks

Timeline 2A: Terrako doesn’t go back in time resulting in the breaking of Demise’s curse and Hyrule prospering for eternity:

Breathe Of The Wild 

Tears Of The Kingdom

Timeline 2C: Champions succeed: Terrako Travels back in time allowing the champions to succeed. However Ganon was meant to be destroyed for good to break the curse so unbeknownst to them they have doomed The Hero, Hylia, and Demise to reincarnate for eternity meaning there will never be true peace in Hyrule:

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity 

Hyrule Warriors 

Hang ‘Em Hyrule a Zelda western fan Film 

Modern Zelda Fan Film 

Demise’s curse is never broken leading to Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf reincarnating for the rest of time. 

Timeline 2D: Cadence doesn’t come to Hyrule:

Octavo’s Ode 

Ganon’s Fury 

Symphony Of The Mask 

Ocarina Of Time 

Wind Waker Arc (Hyrule Warriors)

Leads back to Phantom Hourglass in Timeline 2 and continues as normal from there 

I haven’t been able to figure out where the hell Skyward Sword fits on the timeline though. It clearly can’t be first since the first timeline cannot logically include Skyward Sword as part of its backstory due to the fact that Zelda 2 gives a different origin story for the very first Princess Zelda. Unless the Zelda from Zelda 2 is the same as the one from Skyward Sword this would not work. It could go after Minish Cap but it would be hard to explain how the humans go from living on the ground to in the sky. The easy solution would be to say that the timeline was never unified in the first place.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 142

Another late chapter... I’m really batting a thousand lately, seems like.

So, work has been insane, but @baelpenrose reminds me to post when I forget, thankfully. And this is SUCH a fun chapter.  I hope you all enjoy!

I dropped into a seat in Mess Hall Seven with a groan, so exhausted that I barely managed to get soup and a grilled cheese from the console.  Tyche yawned and nodded in agreement before poking at her sushi bowl idly. It was six Von-days after the last drill, and between coordinating increased training schedules for Shelters Three and Seven and helping Charly plan kink-night at the Undine, we were wiped.

“People are ungrateful,” she muttered before managing to barely balance a piece of salmon into her mouth.

I muttered something that hopefully sounded like agreement before I scooped up a bite of my soup with one wedge of sandwich, too lazy to even bother with the spoon. “Remind me why we don’t have Vati and Hannah handling the practice schedules?”

“Because they are handling the extra evacuation drills with Jokul and Arthur.”

Personally, I thought they were getting the better end of this deal, but since the raging success of their first Food Festival, it really was only fair. “And the relocations for those who need it,” I admitted. “Except mine.”

“Conor may actually strangle one of them if any of your plants don’t make it,” she pointed out, gesturing with her chopsticks for emphasis after having given up and using her fingers to eat her lunch. “Not to mention I wouldn’t wish packing with Maverick on anyone.”

“He’s letting me pack the books and textiles.” I shrugged in acceptance after taking another bite of soup-dipped sandwich.

We picked at our food in silence after that, grateful for something resembling a reprieve, before we were interrupted by a flurry of grey hair and enthusiasm landing in one of the nearby chairs with a heavy thunk. “Good afternoon, Madams Reid.”

“Hey, Jokul,” I muttered as Tyche just waggled her fingers at him. I really think I liked it better when he was trying to kill me. Right now, I might even let him do it.

“I know you are both on your meal period, but I wanted to test the waters on potentially scheduling a community activity,” he rushed out.

Tyche guarded her lunch with an almost feral aggression, having heard what happened the last time Jokul had interrupted my lunch. “That should really be something you run by Al-”

“Worthington, yes, I know,” he interrupted. “However, I know you are both quite busy and I wanted to be respectful of your time. As such, I will make this as brief as - ow!” He snatched his hand back away from the other half of my sandwich, rubbing where I had slammed my spoon down onto it.

“I have no idea where the food stealing comes from, but don’t,” I warned him.

“Rude, got it,” he nodded in a terrifying impression of Charly’s normal demeanor. “As I was saying, I recently learned a new type of game from Terra, from the Before.  It involves teamwork, and encourages creativity and escapism, and I think it would be a very good community activity - “

I surrendered to my urge to groan. “We are not doing a redux of Settlers of Cattan. Arthur stabbed someone last time.”

“I didn’t press charges…” Jokul pouted, glancing at the scar on the back of his wrist briefly. “Besides, it was only a fork. Clearly he didn’t mean it, there were four knives in arms reach counting my own.”

Tyche cocked an eyebrow at me. Seriously?

I pursed my lips and wrinkled my nose in response. Yep.

“So what game is it this time?” I asked hesitantly.

I was reward-bombarded with a grin. “It’s called Dungeons and Dragons! Somewhat like a video game, but with more people, and using writing implements and paper. Oh, and different kinds of dice, very important. One person is something of the narrator, to give the game a kind of structure, while the other players act as characters in the game… Ivan introduced me to it, and it is quite challenging with the right people.  The dungeon master - that is the narrator - has to re-evaluate the story based on the actions of the other players, but the players themselves don’t know what the dungeon master is going to do. It is very much a social diversion, and there are many classes….”

As Jokul continued to gush, he was rather oblivious to the fact that Tyche and I were stuffing our faces as quickly as possible to avoid interrupting him or laughing. We had both played when we were younger - in fact, we had been introduced to the game by our mother.  There had even been a very overwhelming pop-culture movement in our youth around the game, which further emphasized just how far out in the boonies Jokul had grown up.  As shocking as it was that he was just now discovering the game, it came at exactly zero surprise that he enjoyed it so much - it was right up his alley of interests.

About fifteen minutes and two more grilled cheeses into his retelling of the campaign he was part of, Charly and Arthur squeezed in with us, their own lunches in tow.  As seemed to be a growing trend, Arthur reached over and snagged one of my sandwiches before I could react, shoving half of it in his face.

That was apparently enough to snap Jokul out of his story. “Hey! Why didn’t you hit him?”

“His deathwish, not my problem,” I shrugged.

Around the remains of my lunch, Arthur managed to enunciate. “Told you, Noah fissed the dairy allergy.”

“Bleargh,” I gagged comically. “It’s okay, think I’m done anyway.”

Jokul’s hand swatted Arthur’s out of the way to steal the rest of my food. “As I was saying, Ivan was quite clever with his resolution to deal subdural damage to the player who was very much ruining the storyline by insisting his character was immune to magical sleep…”

“Oooooo! I love tabletops!” Charly squealed, bouncing in her seat. “What setting are you playing in right now?  My favorite was always Exalted…”

“Miss Harper, I think we are discussing different activities.” Jokul sounded supremely confused, but my heart broke a bit.

Arthur shook his head. “Maybe not Exalted, but what about Ebberron? Swordhaven, maybe?  Just tell me it isn’t Ravenloft… I know you haven’t been fucking around in a Dark Sun, but I beg you to tell me you aren’t playing Ravenloft.”

��I’m not sure what those are… Ivan introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons. There is only one setting.”

“So… Greyhawk or homebrew,” Arthur nodded. “Best place to start, get the basics down.”

Jokul’s head pivoted toward me and Tyche, squinting in annoyance. “You knew, didn’t you? And you let me prattle on…”

“You were so… happy….” I explained plaintively. “We didn’t want to ruin that for you.”

Tyche nodded. “We both remember how fun that first campaign is. And honestly? We’ve been having a kind of crappy day.  It was nice to hear someone be excited about something that isn’t work related.”

“But I came to you to discuss making it a ship activity…”

“Originally, yeah,” I shrugged. “That was maybe the first thirty seconds.  After that, you were doing what literally every tabletop roleplaying person has done since the beginning of time… telling stories about the fun, dramatic, and frankly stupid shit the people in your party are doing.”

“Says the two-foot eight halfling rogue,” Arthur scowled.

“I rolled it at random, it was fifteen years ago, get over it!” I threw my hands up dramatically. “At least I wasn’t mated to a frickin’ deity.”

Charly giggled uncontrollably while Jokul goggled at us. “Exalted is broken in all the fun ways.”

“You literally sacrificed, and I quote ‘all of your fucks to give’, for necromancy.”

“That was your idea!”

Jokul turned toward Tyche, waiting for her to say something. She just held up her hands defensively. “I was a murder monk-bunny.”

Arthur snorted. “You were the Black Rabbit of Inle….”

“Well if my wife would have just stopped dying…!”

“At least none of us were the Platinum Knight who pissed his pants every time he confronted his favored enemy,” I laughed. “He never did live that one down. Every. Single. Dragon. He would crit fail his roles.”

“Oh, please,” Arthur intoned drily. “Did I ever tell you about the time one of my players managed to make ‘Notice me, Senpai’ into the most terrifying in-universe warcry imaginable?”

Charly choked before swatting his shoulder. “Not in front of my pasta. Please.”

Jokul, however, looked both horrified and intrigued, egging Arthur on. “Barbarian whose entire clan worshipped a god named The Senpai…. Just imagine, a barbarian in a rage, bellowing ‘NOTICE ME, SENPAI!!!’ before just scything down thirty men with a broadsword.”

At this point, I was laughing so hard that tears were rolling down my face. “Please, please tell me there was a kilt and pigtails involved….”

Jokul touched his own hair, before straightening as seriously as possible. “They are warrior’s braids, Councillor.”

That was it, I couldn’t take it anymore. I just put my head down on my folded arms and waiting to either pass out from laughing so hard or from exhaustion.  A few deep breaths and a spinning head later, I managed to wipe my face on my sleeve and realized the conversation was continuing without me.  Just as I was clearing my throat to let Jokul know he should be fine to start organizing something and to send me a rough outline, Arthur dealt the final blow.

Leaning over, he whispered over my shoulder. “By the way, the barbarian’s name was Drystan of the Doki-doki tribe.”

I was proud that I managed to get up and dash into the hallway before collapsing against the wall in maniacal laughter.  I barely registered Hannah’s voice behind me asking everyone at the table if I needed medical assistance, and that did not help.

<< Prev  Masterlist  Next >>

[dc-earth53]

#0002: Wonder Woman (Diana of Themyscira)

Age: 45

Occupation: Ambassador, author, adventurer

Marital status: Single

Known relatives: Hippolyta (mother, deceased), Gaea (mother),  Lyta Hall Trevor (half-sister. deceased), Daniel Hall (nephew), Ares (grandfather), Donna Troy (sister), Cassandra Sandsmark (great-aunt).

Group affiliation: Amazons of Themyscira, Justice League of America, formerly Star Sapphire Corps.

Base of operations: Themysciran Embassy, New York City.

Height: 6′0″

Weight: 165 lbs.

History:

45 years ago: Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, ashamed that she had to leave her first daughter behind in man’s world, petitions the gods of Olympus to give her another child. They take pity on her, and instruct her to mold the form of a baby girl from clay. Gaea, spirit of the earth itself, imbues this clay figure with a soul, and Hippolyta names the newborn child Diana.

29 years ago: Teenage Diana befriends Troia, another young Amazon who had been adopted by the tribe after washing ashore as a baby.

20 years ago: 

Sensing much trouble and discord in the world of men, the Olympian gods declared that Themyscira should send out an emissary of peace into the world. Hippolyta holds a contest to determine which Amazon would be sent, forbidding Diana to enter. Disguised, Diana enters the competition nonetheless, winning and claiming the uniform her mother had worn decades before her, as well as her Lasso of Truth.

Diana leaves Themyscira, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts, where she is detained by local authorities. The Olympians intervene on her behalf, appearing to her in animal form and granting her abilities beyond those of normal Amazons.

Diana is taken in by Harvard professor Julia Kapatelis, and her daughter Vanessa, and enrolls at the school to learn more about the world.

Diana is attacked by Decay, a minion of Ares, god of war, and the battle spills out onto the streets, garnering her attention from the media, who dub her “Wonder Woman.”

19 years ago: 

Diana foils a plan by Ares and his children, Phobos and Deimos, to cause a nuclear holocaust, using her lasso to convince the god of the error of his ways.

Diana becomes a founding member of the Justice League of America after teaming up with other heroes to repel an alien invasion of Earth.

18 years ago: 

Diana agrees to hire Myndi Mayer as her publicist.

Troia arrives in Boston, taking the moniker of “Wonder Girl.”

Diana gains the attention of Barbara Minerva, the feline femme fatale calling herself the Cheetah. Minerva attacks Diana, attempting to steal the Lasso of Truth. After subduing her, Diana decides to return home to Themyscira.

17 years ago: 

While on Themyscira, Diana is forced to partake in the Challenge of the Gods in order to sate Zeus’s anger for refusing to sleep with him. She fights monsters including the Hydra and Echidna on her way to freeing the imprisoned demigod Heracles.

Diana is first confronted by Valerie Beaudry, the Silver Swan, and Dr. Doris Zuel, alias Giganta.

15 years ago: 

While on a trip to Greece with Vanessa and Julia, Diana is captured by the sorceress Circe, defeating her with the aid of Hermes. 

When Diana returns to Boston, she finds Myndi Mayer dead, victim of a drug overdose.

14 years ago: Themyscira reveals its existence to the world, and the Amazons begin to take a greater part in world affairs.

13 years ago: Vanessa is kidnapped by the diminutive telepath Edgar Cizko, alias Doctor Psycho, beginning his long rivalry with Diana.

11 years ago: Diana, along with the rest of Earth’s superheroes, participates in the fight against the Anti-Monitor.

10 years ago: 

After the Dominator invasion, Cheetah attempts to steal the Lasso of Truth once more, leading Diana to find the lost city of the Bana-Mighdall tribe of Amazons, and their champion, Artemis.

Diana is caught up in a war between the various pantheons of gods on Earth, and is seemingly murdered by Circe during the fighting. With the aid of the Phantom Stranger, she returns to life and defeats Circe, ending the war.

9 years ago: Diana is briefly replaced by Artemis as Wonder Woman after Hippolyta has a vision of her daughter’s death. Artemis dies instead, and Diana reclaims her mantle

8 years ago: 

Diana joins the new incarnation of the Justice League, assembled to combat a team of rogue White Martians.

Vanessa Kapatelis is mutated into the new Silver Swan by Circe, who sets her loose against Diana.

7 years ago: 

Diana re-locates to Gateway City, befriending museum curator Helena Sandsmark and her daughter, Cassandra. Cassandra disguises herself, and using artifacts stolen from Diana’s belongings, helps defeat Morgaine le Fey as the new Wonder Girl.

Themyscira is destroyed by the forces of Imperiex and Brainiac, killing many of the Amazons, including Hippolyta. The survivors relocated to a new Themyscira - a floating island built in the Bermuda Triangle.

5 years ago: 

Diana takes a position as Themyscira’s ambassador to the United Nations, moving to New York City. She publishes a book, titled “Reflections: A Collection of Essays and Speeches,” which makes an enemy out of pharmaceutical tycoon Veronica Cale.

Diana confronts Maxwell Lord, who murdered the Blue Beetle and had Superman under his control, and snaps his neck. Afterwards, seeking internal peace, Diana makes a pilgrimage to Nanda Parbat, leaving her post to Troia.

4 years ago: 

Despite strained relationships with Superman and Batman, Diana joins the newly restructured Justice League.

Diana is placed on trial by the World Court for the murder of Maxwell Lord, with Kate Spencer as her attorney. She is cleared of all charges and returns to the embassy.

3 years ago: Granny Goodness, in the guise of Athena, and Circe, work together, leading an attack on the United States by Themyscira. Diana is forced to fight against her sisters.

2 years ago:

During the Blackest Night crisis, Diana temporarily becomes empowered by the Violet Light of Love, becoming a Star Sapphire.

The resurrected Maxwell Lord enacts a scheme to eliminate Diana from play, trapping her in a prison of her own mind with the aid of Doctor Psycho - all part of a scheme from Nemesis, goddess of revenge. Diana defeats Nemesis and returns to reality.

1 year ago: Diana is attacked by Grail, daughter of Darkseid, who wants the essence of the gods to restore her father to adulthood.

Present day: Diana continues working at the embassy, while also continuing to serve with the Justice League and aiding the Sentinels of Magic against the goddess Hecate.

Commentary:

If Superman embodies hope and Batman embodies justice, Diana embodies compassion. Her existence is almost paradoxical: she’s the most compassionate of the Trinity, but also the most willing to kill when it comes down to it. The New 52 took her character too far in the direction of being a warrior, emphasizing the sword as her main weapon rather than her lasso and bracelets - to the point where her lasso became part of a chainsaw in Death Metal (as badass as that was). This Diana largely rejects that part of her nature, leaning into her status as an ambassador of peace to the world and believing in an open hand rather than a closed fist whenever possible.

This version of Diana is largely based on George Perez and Greg Rucka’s interpretations of the character, although that raises a few issues with regards to the timeline. Since post-Crisis Diana was introduced without any of her prior history, her post-Crisis early career is spread out over several years in this timeline. Certain elements of the post-Flashpoint interpretation of the character are also included, namely her being detained as an illegal alien by immigration officials, and her battle against Grail after this universe’s equivalent of Final Crisis.

This Diana also adheres to her origin according to Perez, rather than Brian Azzarello’s revamped origin that was also used for the live-action film. Diana was originally envisioned as an inherently feminist character, and making her narrative a patriarchal one centered around her heritage as a descendant of Zeus detracts from that. Rather, she’s a daughter of Hippolyta and Gaea, empowered by the female members of the Olympian pantheon (as well as Hermes). Diana doesn’t need a man behind her to be powerful, she just is.

She also doesn’t need a love interest. I have no hatred in my heart for Steve Trevor, but the character works better in the setting of World War II. In this continuity, he’s Hippolyta’s lover who later settles down with Etta Candy after Hippolyta returns to Themyscira. Perhaps a lover is in the cards for her in the near future, however.

Diana’s costume in this canon is the one she currently sports in Rebirth canon. I am shocked that it took so long to give her a battle skirt, given how much sense it makes as a permutation of the classic culottes or leotard look. 

Got questions about Diana or anything else? My asks are open!

Upcoming:

#0003 - Hal Jordan

#0004 - Aquaman

#0005 - ?????

[aion-rsa]

How The Mandalorian Gave Fans a Different Kind of Star Wars Story

https://ift.tt/2Miy7FO

This Star Wars: The Mandalorian article contains spoilers.

Technically, Disney+’s The Mandalorian is part of the biggest franchise on earth. But it doesn’t always feel that way.

True, it’s a Star Wars property, and it rarely lets you forget that fact. The show is rife with references to the films and animated series that have come before it and it enjoys padding out existing lore in ways that only the most hardcore of fans will care about—or possibly even notice. (Did you remember there was a krayt dragon skeleton in A New Hope? Be honest.)

The Mandalorian isn’t a story that requires a tremendous amount of Star Wars knowledge to follow or enjoy. And that’s because its central tale is one that follows rules and patterns we’ve all seen before. A mix of tropes from classic spaghetti westerns and samurai adventures, the show offers a broad look at life on the edge of the galaxy that exists well beyond the world of Jedi Knights, Sith warriors, and space princesses. And its tale of a lone bounty hunter and the supercute Force-wielding toddler he is charged with protecting is proof positive that there is space for every kind of story in this franchise. (As well as every kind of fan.)

Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!

In a universe that has become increasingly dense and self-contained, The Mandalorian still manages to feel like a breath of fresh air. Sure, its second season finale includes a surprise appearance by Luke Skywalker, because no property in this universe can apparently escape that family and their seemingly never-ending daddy issues, but the Disney+ series doesn’t seem concerned with him as anything other than a vehicle to further the story of Din Djarin, a good man who is trying to do right – by his faith, by his people, by the tiny creature whose life has suddenly become intertwined with his own.

Though the eponymous Mandalorian has run across a bevy of characters that have made longtime fans shriek with delight (Boba Fett, Bo-Katan, Ahsoka Tano, Luke himself), and the series ties in rather neatly with other franchise properties like The Clone Wars and Rebels, it still understands that its greatest strengths stem from its smaller stakes, more realistic worldbuilding, and the emotional connection between two vastly different creatures.

The Mandalorian isn’t an epic adventure, a space opera about the future of the galaxy as we understand it, or a tragedy about a single family’s apparent inability to keep from making the same mistakes from one generation to the next. It’s a story that’s deliberately limited in its scope and modest in its ambitions and, at the end of the day, the show itself is all the stronger for these choices. 

In comparison to other Star Wars properties, The Mandalorian’s story is almost painfully straightforward, if perhaps a little bit darker in places than we’re maybe used to in this universe thus far. Set in the galaxy’s Outer Rim following the fall of the Galactic Empire, it generally deals with characters – including its own lead – who are not terribly complicated people. Their lives are simpler, rougher, and more focused on the everyday challenges of living than the Jedi and characters like them that populate the films. 

Even the Mandalorian himself is simultaneously an avatar and a real person, and we get to know him as much through his struggles as his successes. He is, after all, the most reluctant of saviors. Yet, as many lone warriors before him, he is also a man with a code, and he holds tight to it, even in the lawless outskirts of the galaxy. 

Occasionally Mando will have to rescue someone or must join forces with an uneasy partner in order to kill a monster or pull off a heist. But no matter how that particular adventure goes, by the end of the hour, he’s back on his path and moving toward his next goal. The show doesn’t really have “arcs” so much as stories that occasionally take place over an episode or two—see the transport of the Frog Lady back to her partner that begins in “The Passenger” and ends in the subsequent installment—and its most dramatic set pieces generally rely on Mando fighting something, ranging from a furious mudhorn to ravenous, gross ice spiders.

In the world of genre storytelling, serialized stories with twisty plots and puzzle-box mysteries are all the rage right now. Just look at shows like Westworld, a drama that—as much as I love it—spends much of its time tying itself into complex narrative knots it doesn’t really know how to get out of. So, a show like The Mandalorian, with its linear narrative, clear-eyed storytelling, and refreshingly basic plots suddenly feels like a revelation.

And maybe it is.

Read more

TV

The Mandalorian Season 3 Predictions: What to Expect

By John Saavedra

Books

What Star Wars: The High Republic Reveals About the Galaxy Before the Movies

By Megan Crouse

The fact is, there’s still real value in a simple story about a man doing his best, no matter what circumstances he finds himself in. Maybe we’ve forgotten that fact in a television landscape that’s conditioned us to always be looking for a trick or a surprise reveal, but The Mandalorian’s largely straightforward narrative proves that it doesn’t have to be that way. And the show is as satisfying as any series that requires complex fan theories to enjoy or in-depth explainers to fully understand. 

The explainers are nice, don’t get me wrong, but in all honesty, the show is doing just fine introducing existing canon characters like Ahsoka to new audiences on its own. You don’t need to have watched Rebels to enjoy her presence here, but if you have, the satisfaction is all the greater. Truly, we don’t give The Mandalorian enough credit for the delicate balance it strikes in the age old struggle between storytelling and fanservice. It’s a difficult thing, and the show walks a fine line both carefully and well.

Even the appearance of Luke, probably the ultimate moment in Star Wars pandering, exists not for its own sake so much as it does to advance the series’ main relationship – that between Din and young Grogu. (If you didn’t get a little emotional watching them say goodbye to one another, then you have no heart, I’m sorry.)  

There’s little of the narrative baggage that usually comes along with a Skywalker arriving on the scene here – it doesn’t appear that anyone else even knows who he is beyond the fact that he is a Jedi – and though he’s meant to teach Grogu the ways of the Force, there’s no real indication we’ll see Luke again. After all, he has to start off down the path that leads him to The Last Jedi, and Grogu will  undoubtedly return to his Mandalorian’s side at some point in the not too distant future. Disney knows where its money is, after all. And it’s not in Pedro Pascal merch, much as we all love him. 

The Mandalorian’s  first season occasionally drew criticism for what naysayers deemed a “flimsy” or “barely there” plot, but this underestimates the power inherent in the series’ simple framework. Not only is it an emotional balm for those of us who are, quite frankly, tired of hour-long installments that require a significant amount of work to understand, it actually serves an important narrative purpose. The slower pace and simpler story allow us to get to know Mando and his culture, and gives the Star Wars universe a chance to take a minute and breathe.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The Skywalker films are so full of big, potentially galaxy ending stakes and consequences that we as viewers get little time to simply take the universe in on its own terms – let alone get to know the people that inhabit it. We’re usually too busy worrying about how it all ties back to the family at the story’s center or the Jedi they serve. 

The Mandalorian has shown us what the Star Wars world outside of all the Skywalker drama looks like – even though it briefly includes one of them – and it lets us take our time to gawk at its sketchy bars, enjoy its colorful characters, and travel through run-down desolate towns at a slower pace. It’s allowed us to invest in the emotional connection between a lonely man and a lost creature who may be the last of its kind. And quaint though all that might seem, it’s certainly turned out to be a journey worth taking.

The post How The Mandalorian Gave Fans a Different Kind of Star Wars Story appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Mh7mS7

[pepperidgefarmremembers]

Chapter 6 here.

Intuition

The chattering of the people at the stalls filled the open marketplace. These were the kind of days that made Aang smile the most. People moving in the open air. A symphony of individuals from all walks of life coming together to get what they need. He loved to see life continuing after so many years of death and destruction. He walked leisurely with his wife and three children through Republic City's marketplace in the hope that they would all get what they desired. Katara kept the household kitchen organized, so she was interested in stocking up as a home of five quickly devoured any food in the home.

Bumi, much to his parents dismay, was very fond of warrior items and excitedly ran to the stall with tools and weapons. Kya sprinted towards the stall with hundreds of books with a quick "I'm going over there!" Tenzin was just happy to be sat upon his dad's shoulders. Aang echoed his youngest son's motivation for going to the marketplace. They both seemed to love new adventures and the freedom of outdoors. Katara smiled at the sight of her distinguished and older looking husband bouncing and singing their toddler on his shoulders. She gasped at the view of a fruit stall and motioned for her husband to follow.

The woman behind the fruit stand appeared to be in her 50's or 60's and smelled of lavender. Her kind eyes opened widely at the sight of the family approaching her stall. "Oh, Avatar Aang and Master Katara. I'm so honored," she said with a timid bow. Waving the formalities away, Aang replied, "Please, just 'Aang'. Also, we are honored as well. It looks like you have many different kinds of fruit here. Some are even pretty exotic." Tenzin reached out his hands to his mom, asking to be held by her. She then leaned over the rows of fruit as she walked with Tenzin on her hip, inspecting them to make sure they were up to her standard. Her eyes widened at the ripe apples, oranges, watermelon, and even blueberries, which were difficult to find in Republic City. A slight impulsiveness overtook the older woman as she blurted out to Aang, "So, you're not the last airbender I see. You must be proud!"

Katara stopped what she was doing and turned to look at her husband as if he knew something she didn't. Fortunately for him, he shared his wife's confused look and frowned at the older woman. "He's only two. We don't know if he's an airbender yet or even if he is a bender at all. Sometimes bending abilities don't show up until as late as 5. I am curious though, what makes you think he's an airbender?" The older woman continued to smile, still surprised by the Avatar's illusion surrounding his son, "Oh, I'm sorry if I overstepped, I just assumed you knew. I could feel the energy in your aura, it has specks of green, which is pretty uncommon for non-airbenders. I wasn't sure until your little one moved away. I sense the green auras on both of you right now, with your son's being very large" The couple remained dumbfounded with mouths wide open in surprise. Aang was the first to respond, "Well...that's certainly an interesting theory. No one really knows for sure how to predict bending but that is something to consider." Aang paid for the fruit in a heavy silence and began to walk around scanning the crowd for their other children.

Tenzin's squealing and laughter masked the tension between the couple as they walked over to where Bumi was playing with children in a park. Katara asked her husband a question that has been hanging in the air but unsaid. "Do...you think there was any truth to that? That-um-Tenzin could be an airbender?" She tried to get a good read on her husband's face but failed. Aang's face was scrunched but his eyes remained kind and soft. "I really don't know, Katara. I have never known any other way to tell about bending besides it just happening one day. I try not to overtly look for signs because that can lead to disappointment. All I care about is that our kids are healthy and loved. But..", Aang came to a thoughtful pause. He glanced away from Katara briefly before returning to her eyes. "I think I might be curious to find out. Maybe I can meditate and gain some knowledge from one of my past lives or something."

Aang had a knot in his stomach while waiting for his wife to respond. He didn't know why he thought she might be angry about this. "Aang, I think that's a great idea. Maybe you'll get answers and maybe not. But I think you have to try." With an encouraging smile from his wife, he beamed at her and gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. "Oogies!" laughed Bumi as he began to run to his parents. Tenzin, securely held by his mother, lifted up his arms in excitement "Oogies, mommy!" The couple rolled their eyes and laughed at how fast the word "oogie" spread amongst their family. The family pried Kya away from another book stall as they all began to walk home, with Aang carrying more than a handful of books.

In their home, Tenzin was successfully napping from the adventure at the marketplace. Kya and Katara practiced waterbending beginning stances in complete view of Bumi sharpening his tools. Aang nodded to Katara with a knowing look that he would be undisturbed for a while. After lighting incense and placing his spiritual beads around his neck, Aang folded his legs into lotus position. Feeling himself leave his physical body, he was soon standing next to Avatar Yangchen. "Hello, Avatar Aang, what can I help you with?", she questioned the young airbender. "Avatar Yangchen, thank you for answering. I was wondering if you have heard of a way of sensing if someone is a bender or not?" Avatar Yangchen smiled and answered, "I assume you are asking about your youngest son." Aang nodded and asked, "Yes, I was told today by a stranger that she could see his aura, and it was similar to mine. Have you heard of that before?" She replied, "Yes, it is a very old way to determine a bender. It is from when humans used to bend the energy in themselves. The air chakra is green, which permeates your aura and Tenzin's. Even Though you cannot see it, I believe you sensed it. Your son's name is a common Air Nomad name, after all."

Aang was silent for a few moments, processing what he had just heard. "I guess that makes sense. As soon as I met him, I knew. I knew his name was Tenzin. It just felt right, and I never questioned it," he said. Avatar Yangchen smiled and said, "You were listening to your instincts, Avatar Aang. The universe has a way of telling us the truth in nondirective ways. With Tenzin's help, in his lifetime he will see the Air Nomads repopulated greatly and the world will be balanced again." He remained deep in thought for a moment. He didn't know what to say, but he knew he needed to talk to Katara. Aang bowed respectfully before leaving, "Thank you for your wisdom, Avatar Yangchen."

Aang came out of his meditative state and walked out of his bedroom in search of Katara. He found her outside, sweaty but encouraging their daughter in her waterbending stances. "Good job, Kya. You're getting so good! How about we take a break and you play with Bumi?" As Kya screamed and rushed her older brother in a sneak attack, Katara walked over to Aang. She wrapped her arms tightly around Aang, resting her head on her shoulders. "That woman at the fruit stall was right, Katara. Avatar Yangchen told me reading auras is an old way to determine if someone is a bender. She confirmed that Tenzin will be an airbender and he will see the Air Nomads repopulated in his lifetime" he said softly, almost not wanting to get his hopes up.

Katara pulled away and kissed him on the lips, "Wow, that's great news! I'm so happy for you, Aang. How are you feeling about it?" He smiled with a hint of hesitation, "I am excited and happy. But, we haven't seen any bending yet. I'm just...worried. What if it's too good to be true?" "I would worry if it was just the older woman, but the revelation came from two people. One was a stranger so, yeah, kind of weird, but her story was confirmed by Avatar Yangchen! I think you told me once that spirits and energy transcend time so it's not impossible to see the future. Maybe trust your intuition? Not everything is logical. You should know that, simple monk." He laughed before stating, "You're right, Katara. My heart says it's true and I think I have known it since he was born, somehow. I guess we'll see what happens." Just as the couple began to hug, they're attention was turned towards the window of Tenzin's nursery. Tenzin was squealing in excitement as he was airbending his blanket above his crib.

Katara's heart fluttered as she squeezed her husband's hand. "Aang…", she whispered. He didn't say anything. Tears rolled down his face as he stared at the window. He leaned his weight into his wife's shoulder, hugging her close. Years of shame and sadness that have haunted him, now lifting from his mind. His heart leapt as he sighed into her shoulder. Although he had left the thoughts of shame for running away behind him so many years ago, it never felt truly gone. Sometimes, every once in a while, a pang of regret would appear in his thoughts. He always rationalized it and mindfully remembered to tell himself that it wasn't his fault. But the thoughts never stopped completely. He did not tell anyone this, not even Katara. He imagined the little piece of shame and regret he still carried leaving his body in a cloud of black smoke. Those thoughts never appeared again.

[fadingcoast]

Death Of The Lie  ||  Chapter 26: Uncovered

AUTHORS: @fandom-and-feminism​ & @fadingcoast​

Summary: Odin and his daughter Hela are the perfect conquerors of the universe. The nine realms fall one after the other into their clutch. After Odin takes a second wife and has a son with her, he doesn’t need Hela anymore. Hela abandons her father and ends up marrying Laufey, a sworn enemy of the Aesir people. Not long after, she becomes pregnant with Laufey’s child. Odin cannot let that son be born, but against all odds, the boy survives. Odin is forced to bring him back to Asgard to be raised as his own until he could make further use of him. The half-Jotun-half-Aesir boy grows up to look and act a lot like his mother, which disturbs Odin, and makes him treat the boy horribly. Odin’s lies are deep and complex, but one day the boy will find out the truth about everything he is.

PAIRING: Multi RATING: Teen

MASTERLIST

Feedback is always appreciated and reblogs are encouraged!!

.-

Chapter 26: Uncovered

The chill humid air of the Alfheim lake filled Loki with the warmth of familiarity, giving him a sense of comfort he hadn’t felt in a long time. He was only allowed to enjoy it for a second, however, before a pulse of magnetic energy emanated from where they had apparated.

“That was the alarm,” Loki warned Hela, his magic already weakened by the effect of the pulse. “The guards will be here in seconds.”

Hela nodded her understanding, and struggled to summon a long black cape to cover herself with, while Loki sent a small magical token Hela did not know where.

Several soldiers materialized in front of them, closing in like shadows coming from the trees. All escape routes were covered, their combined magic annulling any attempts of teleporting again. Instinctively Loki put himself between Hela and the soldiers, straightening his spine and taking a deep breath to draw the attention away from her.

“I am-”

“LOKI!?!”

The familiar voice brought a smile to Loki’s face. But he didn’t have time to speak before a plasma blast hit him full on the chest.

“I KNEW IT!!” Another blast knocked him backward. “I KNEW YOU WERE ALIVE!!” Loki tried to shield himself, but his seidr was barely recovering. “YOU MISERABLE LITTLE RAT!” Yet another blast. In all honesty, Loki didn’t mind much. He felt he deserved it. “HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME??!” Another blast that hit him right on his lower belly.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please stop!”

Loki was bent over himself, hand held up to make Sigyn stop. Between all the wincing and the burning, he still smiled at her. It only infuriated her more. She glared down at him, hands clenched in two tight fists. Loki straightened up slowly and walked closer, reaching for her hands.

“I am so terribly sorry, my queen-”

Sigyn kneed him right on the groin and he doubled down in pain again.

“I probably deserve that as well,” he admitted in a little voice.

“I hope, for your own sake, that you have an extremely good explanation for all this!”

“He does.”

Sigyn turned to face the cloaked figure that had stood behind Loki. Hela uncovered her head and held herself proudly. She hadn’t even opened her mouth when Sigyn bowed low to the ground.

“Your majesty,” she said with great reverence.

The Alfar guards, though clearly confused, lowered their weapons and took Sigyn’s lead. Each one knelt even lower than their Princess.

A glint of satisfaction sparkled in Hela’s eyes, though she still was perplexed. It had been centuries since anyone had treated her with the respect her position demanded. She eyed Sigyn, seeing familiar traits in her lovely features. 

“You are Iwaldis’ child, aren’t you?” Hela asked, eyeing Sigyn. “As bright as your mother, I see.” With a hand gesture, she allowed Sigyn, and the guards, to stand again.

Sigyn gasped with delight, taking a step closer to Hela. “You knew her?”

“Briefly. She taught me about Seidr, in secret.” Hela gave no more information about it, but Loki could tell there was much more to the story.

“I assume you found much more about me, about us, than whatever is left in Asgard.” Loki held Sigyn’s hands and squeezed.

“We must discuss this further at the palace.” She looked at Hela, and then at Loki, returning his gesture. “You are in for a very long history lesson.”

.-

Books piled up on every table in the small council room. Old tomes with ancient smells and yellow pages, kept from falling apart with magic. Loki wondered just how long Sigyn had been researching in his absence, and how much of it she had shared with her father. Sigyn searched for a particular volume and handed it to King Frèyr, pointing out a page to start reading. Loki and Hela listened.

It’s an ancient conflict between Asgard and Jotunheim, traced back to the times of Bor. The Frost Giants were one of the few who opposed Asgard’s rule, and sacrificed many lives to keep their freedom. Before his death, Bor had left instructions to assemble an army so powerful that the Jotunns would have no other option but surrender. When his son Odin ascended to the throne, the army was ready. The most skilled warriors of the Nine Realms came together as part of the Valkyrie Army. The conflict became even more savage and sanguinary.

When the time came for Odin to wed, there was only one woman he wanted: Rindr, General of the Valkyries and his most trusted war advisor.

“In Asgard,” Frèyr paused his reading and turned the book for Loki and Hela to see. “You will find many volumes written about the prowess and victories of the Valkyrie Armada. But there’s too little about how they came to an end.”

Loki looked at the book. On the page next to the one Frèyr was reading, there was a vivid drawing of the Valkyrie Army. It was very similar to the one Hela exposed in the throne room, but at the same time, different. There was nothing glorified about the blood dripping from the swords, or the bodies being trampled by horses. It was brutal in its honesty.

Hela traced her fingers over the drawing of her mother, and read the caption at the bottom.

The Jotnar king, Ymir, outsmarted King Odin’s strategy and led Queen Rindr and her army to a trap. The Valkyries were all slaughtered, and the Queen captured. It is said that King Ymir offered mercy.

“Mercy!” Hela scoffed. “She would not come home defeated and without her army. Asgard would not tolerate the indignity of defeat.”

“What happened then?” Loki asked, his mouth suddenly dry.

“Depends on who you ask.” Hela pursed her lips. “According to Odin, she was sacrificed in the middle of the plaza, her head on a spike for everyone to see.” She gulped and took a breath. “In truth, she commited suicide. Valkyries follow the King’s orders to either victory or death. There was no victory, so they died.”

“I have read of such a ritual, for fallen warriors to kill themselves honorably and still go to Valhalla,” Sigyn offered. Hela nodded.

“I was but a little girl, growing up listening to lies. Being fed nothing but rage and thirst for vengeance.” Hela flipped through the book, turning its pages to find images of Odin’s battle and the death of King Ymir. “Odin used to say that I would take my mother’s place by his side, and lay waste to those who oppose us.” Flicking through more pages, she stopped on a small drawing of Laufey ascending to the throne of Jotunheim. “For a while, I was exactly that. A weapon for him to use. I would come to regret it later.”

Loki’s mind wandered back to all the vandalized books, all the information that had been lost. 

“There is no way Odin could have gotten away with it. Someone must have known.”

“They were permanently silenced, I assure you,” Hela said, venom in her words.

Loki looked to Freyr. “And the other realms?”

“The war against Jotunheim was not our war. We were purposely left out, told to mind our own business.” Frèyr shrugged. “But the Alfar value one thing above all else, and that’s knowledge. They knew something was amiss. It took great effort to track down the truth, but they found it.”

Hela made a sound somewhere between a scoff and a growl. “And they had to keep Odin from knowing, or it would have ended up swept under the rug, with everything else, and everyone else.”

Loki knew this was true. If Odin had known Alfheim had that knowledge, he would have burned it to the ground. Hela stared at the drawing of Laufey, her breathing becoming more audible and rapid by the second.

Frèyr softened his voice when he spoke to Hela again. “There was no way we could have known about your marriage to Laufey, though, or your pregnancy.”

“The ceremony was done in secret, in Jotunheim,” Hela said with a small shake of her head. “Jotnar tradition is different. Their temple is their book, and holds their history. I had already been -” She paused to clear her throat. “Even after my banishment, I knew Odin was spying on me. It was only a matter of time before he would find out I was with child.”

Loki wished he could melt into the chair, but Sigyn held his hand. He was hanging desperately onto every word from Hela’s mouth and he had to remind himself to breathe. A lifetime of lies, finally leading to the truth, and he wasn’t sure he was ready for it.

“Do you…” Loki cleared his throat and forced himself to get the words out. “Do you know what happened the night I was taken to Asgard?”

Hela’s face paled, and she stared at her hands in her lap. A few moments passed before she could gather herself together.  When she looked back up at Loki her eyes were filled with unshed tears.

“That was the night you were born,” Hela managed to say. She took a deep breath and continued, her long fingers turning the pages of the book in front of her until she saw Laufey’s portrait again. “Odin had only just found out about you. You could say he was less than pleased. Less than two days later he came to Jotunheim with an army to drag me back to Asgard.” Finally she met Loki’s eyes. “I was in labor.

“Laufey ordered me to hide, so I did, for you. Once you were born Odin was close to discovering where I was, so I used what strength I had to teleport you to the temple. That’s all I know.” Shocked silence followed her last statement. It didn’t take much stretch of the imagination for Loki to figure out what happened after that.

The Casket wasn’t the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?

“One fact still remains, my queen.” Frèyr said very solemnly. “You are the rightful heir to the throne. Alfheim will pledge allegiance to you, and help you reclaim what is rightfully yours.”

“Why?” Hela said, her eyes narrow slits as she closed the book in her hand.

Frèyr said nothing, but looked at Loki and Sigyn holding hands, making it clear that Loki was the one they were helping. Hela nodded, her chest tightening at the sight of her son in such distress.

Frèyr gave a lighthearted smile, trying to lighten up the mood. He ordered his maids to arrange a room for Hela, and have dinner served, ignoring protests from both her and Loki. There was nothing either of them could do, he insisted. They needed to rest, gather their strength and plan for the next step. They all knew Asgard wasn’t going to bend so easily.

After supper, Loki walked Hela to his old room to find none other than Gwyn pulling fresh sheets onto the bed. The old maid smothered Loki with her powerful hugs and introduced herself to Hela. After some good-natured chastising, Loki let Gwyn take over and made his way to Sigyn’s chambers. He had a lot of explaining to do.

.-

Sigyn poured a glass of wine for herself and offered some to Loki, but he politely refused. The two of them had been catching up for over an hour, but they both knew they were getting to the most difficult part of their conversation. The part Loki was purposefully avoiding. So he directed the discussion to the exact point when all of Odin’s lies crumbled.

“…Odin is about to die, and he reveals you as heir to the throne of Asgard, rather than the golden boy.” Sigyn took a long sip of her wine and smiled over her glass at Loki. “How did Thor take it?”

“He didn’t have time to take it. He was flung from the Bifrost before we made it back.”

Sigyn coughed, spilling red liquid down the front of her dress. “How??”

“It’s a…” Loki didn’t want to get into details, but Sigyn’s stare made him continue. “I called for the Bifrost, we all got sucked into it, and Thor attacked her, so she retaliated. I’m not sure if he’s… well, let’s just say the odds are against him now.”

Placing her empty wine glass on her nightstand, Sigyn shook her head, reaching for Loki’s hand. “That had to have been hard for you, even after all you’d been through with him. I’m sure he’s out there somewhere, though, he’s a tough guy.”

“I suppose.” 

Sigyn gently ran her thumb over Loki’s palm in small circles. “You have yet to tell me what happened to you after you - after your fight with Thor, when you learned about Laufey. Before Thor brought you back to Asgard.”

A flash of cold shot down Loki’s spine, and he gulped hard against the lump in his throat. “I wish I could tell you, but-” 

“It’s okay.” Sigyn gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand. “I am an empath, Loki. It’s been clear to me for a long time, and with the growth of my powers I learned to control it. Master Indilwen said I would make a great healer, but alas, I’m a princess.” She scooted closer to him on the bed. “You don’t have to tell me. You can show me.”

Loki nearly sighed with relief. “What do I have to do?”

“Let me in.”

Loki turned to face Sigyn, legs crossed on her bed, and took both of her hands. He drew a deep breath and allowed his defenses to drop, letting Sigyn’s magic flow inside of him. Quickly he realized doing that meant he was also reliving everything he was showing her. His first instinct was to resist the memory, but Sigyn’s warm energy slowly began to soothe him.

Flashes of time appeared before his mind’s eye, and Loki felt Sigyn’s hands tremble more with each one. The cold metal floor of a prison cell, the fierce dry heat of the Sanctuary II’s engine reactor core shoving razor sharp tendrils of scorching pain down his throat and into his lungs. Days spent dangling by his throat so only the tips of his toes touched the red hot floor. Long, clammy fingers shoving needlelike spikes under his skin, the same creature laughing at his defiance and speaking in honeyed verses praising the Mad Titan. One voice ringing out over the rest, the voice of the one who wished to control him. 

How do you break a frost giant?

Loki could feel his skin turning cold. He wanted to pull away from Sigyn before he hurt her, but the harder he fought the more she held him. 

Endless days of training, fighting against the Titan’s children with no rest until he won. Words fed to him to condition his broken mind to Thanos’ cause. Glorious purpose… glad tidings… freedom is life’s great lie… you were made to be ruled…

No! Stop! That’s not me!

Sensing Loki’s distress Sigyn released his hands, wincing a bit from the frost that had formed between them. Loki’s arms faded back to his usual pale color, but his face was bright red, tears streaking down his face as he stared off at the wall behind Sigyn’s head.

“Loki…”

Loki shook his head, trying to compose himself. It had been too long since the last time he let himself show any emotions, and wanted to hide them back as soon as possible. Sigyn didn’t push, and gave him space, wiping her own tears in the meantime. It took them several minutes to calm down.

“I don’t know how or why I survived. But I did.” Loki spoke again, his voice still broken.

“The norns still have plans for you, it seems.”

“Can they be good plans? Or are they just toying with me to torture me ever further?”

Sigyn took his hand, and Loki saw the worn gold ring still on her finger. “I guess we’ll find out,” she assured him. “If your fears turn out to be true, we’ll fight back.”

“We?”

Loki was, to say the least, surprised to hear Sigyn say that. He was convinced that given the new information about his true parentage and what he really was, she would be disgusted, she would reject him, and obviously call off their engagement. Her assurance that her feelings had not waned was more than he could have ever expected from her.

“Don’t look at me like that! We are still going to be married!” She stated matter-of-factly, as if there had never been any question of it. “Just… after all this is over. Then you - we - can finally live in peace.”

Loki burst out laughing. “As you wish, my queen.”

.-

<< Chapter 25  –  Chapter 27 >>

.-

@nikkalia​ @xalgaliareptx​  @christy-winchester​ @silverhart93​ @honeybournehippy​ @unseelie1963​ @angryowlet​ @thelittlestlittlecutiepie​ @moonlightprime​ @velvetzybanshee​ @bengalaas​ @damalseer

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Crisis on Infinite Earths - a Primer

So, maybe you’ve never read Crisis, and wanna know what all the fuss is about...or maybe you have read Crisis, but it’s been a while, and you could use a refresher...or maybe you’re avoiding that thing you gotta do and you’re looking for a convenient distraction. Whatever the case may be, this post aims to provide a relatively quick* and painless breakdown of the crossover comic to end all crossover comics (literally), CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.

*It will not be quick.

Crisis on Infinite Earths is a twelve-issue crossover event comic that came out in 1985, written by Marv Wolfman, with pencils by George Perez (and inks and colors by a whole bunch of guys.) The thing most folks know about COIE is that it took the then-current DC multiverse, and merged it into a single earth/continuity. (That, and the deaths. OH, the deaths.)

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS--THE MAJOR PLAYERS:

THE MONITOR: The Monitor is a cosmic being comprised of positive energies, who starts gathering a bunch of heroes and villains together in order to save the multiverse. He also recruits... HARBINGER/LYLA MICHAELS: Lyla Michaels was orphaned at a young age and saved by the Monitor. He raised her, and gave her the powers that would make her HARBINGER. She helps the Monitor, but also kind of screws him over. PARIAH: Forced to watch worlds die as penance for three terrible sins--he’s drawn to earths just before they perish, but can’t really do anything about it. As such, he almost always looks like Munch’s The Scream. ALEXANDER LUTHOR JR. OF EARTH-3: Son of Lex Luthor and Lois Lane of Earth-3 (the earth where the bad guys are good, and the good guys are bad.) Lex sends his son away in a pod to escape the anti-matter wave destroying their universe, and as such, Alexander has both positive and negative energies within him, making him a kind of conduit, and vital component for the Monitor’s plan.

On the flip side, we have...

THE ANTI-MONITOR: The negative entity to the Monitor’s positive entity. He uses anti-matter to destroy universes and feed off their positive energies. He’s also got his own posse... PSYCHO PIRATE: Anti-Monitor steals him from Team Monitor and uses his emotion-manipulating powers to control people on various earths, forcing heroes to fight other heroes, as well as rush towards their doom in the anti-matter waves. HARBINGER: Yes! Harbinger is briefly controlled by the Anti-Monitor, and is used to betray the Monitor and kill him.

The Anti-Monitor also has RED TORNADO and THE FLASH imprisoned on his ship.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS--THE EARTHS: Earth-1: The main DC continuity earth. It’s got the Justice League, the Trinity, etc. etc. Earth-2: Justice Society of America earth, home to folks like Jay Garrick Flash, Alan Scott Green Lantern, Power Girl, and Old Superman (Kal-L). Earth-3: Crime Syndicate Earth. The Justice League, but evil. Earth-4: Home of the Charlton Comics heroes. (The Question, Blue Beetle, etc.) Earth-6: Technologically advanced earth ruled by superheroes, home of Lady Quark. Earth-X: Earth where WWII has lasted for 40 years; home of the Freedom Fighters. (Uncle Sam, The Ray, Dollman, etc.) Earth-S: Home of the Fawcett Comics characters, AKA, the Marvel Family. Earth Prime: Home of Superboy.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS--THE PLOT: (oh boy, here we go)

- So, earths are being destroyed by a mysterious anti-matter wave. One of the first earths to perish is Earth-3, home of the Crime Syndicate (evil Justice League.) Lex Luthor, hero of Earth-3, sends his son to a different universe so as not to be killed. His pod is found by the Monitor, and Alex is taken aboard the Monitor’s satellite. - The Monitor starts to summon various heroes and villains; he sends Harbinger to get them. Harbinger splits into multiple versions of herself to go to the various time periods/universes. One of the Harbingers comes under the control of the Anti-Monitor, unbeknownst to the other characters! - Various heroes are brought to the Monitor’s spaceship, but before the Monitor can explain anything, they are all attacked by stranger creatures known as Shadow Demons. This makes all of the heroes and villains a bit mistrustful of the Monitor. - Still, the Monitor tells them that the multiverse is in peril, and that he’s set up some machines (‘vibrational forks’, I believe is the technical term) to stop the destruction. He’s going to dispatch teams of heroes and villains to protect the machines (which are placed in different universes and time periods) and activate them when ready. - There’s a whole portion here of the various heroes going to each machine, and really, it’s just an excuse to get These Characters to hang out with These Other Characters, and visit all of the various earths/time periods DC has going on. (i.e. Old West, WWII, Kamandi future, etc.) Shadow Demons arrive and attack the machines. - Meanwhile! Evil Harbinger brings Psycho Pirate to the Anti-Monitor! Alexander Jr. rapidly ages from infant to adult! And the Monitor creates a new Dr. Light! - And thus it seems like all of the pieces are in place for the Monitor’s plan to save the multiverse...BUT! Evil Harbinger KILLS the Monitor! GASP. - It’s okay, though, because the Monitor totally saw this coming, and prepared accordingly; he brought Earths 1 and 2 into a kind of pocket dimension to save them from the anti-matter wave, but now there’s a NEW problem--the vibrational frequencies separating the earths are slowing down. Soon, the Earths will occupy the same space, and when that happens, they’ll be DESTROYED! - This slowing of vibrations manifests as not only the earths merging in certain spots, but also all of time collapsing on itself--dinosaurs and cavemen run into WWII pilots and Batman. - And it only gets crazier--Harbinger, no longer under the Anti-Monitor’s control, uses the last of her powers to bring Earth-4, Earth-X, and Earth-S into the pocket dimension. So now FIVE Earths are gonna potentially merge together. - Six representatives are called before Pariah, Alexander, and Lyla. Five of them are from the remaining five earths, and one from the now-dead Earth-6. A lot of exposition follows! - In short: Long ago, the multiverse was formed, and along with it, the ANTI-MATTER UNIVERSE. That dark universe in turn gave birth to the ANTI-MONITOR, who sought to conquer all! He was kept in check by the MONITOR, his positive-universe counterpart! And then, one day, Pariah opened a portal to the anti-matter universe which allowed the Anti-Monitor to grow strong enough to attempt to conquer the positive-matter universe. This also gave Pariah his powers--being drawn to the Anti-Monitor’s destruction--which the Monitor used as a way to kind of track him. - STILL WITH ME????? - So the plan is to take the fight to the Anti-Monitor, by using Pariah to lead the way to his ship, and using Alexander as a way to transport all the heroes there. (Because, you know, comic book science.) - So the heroes arrive on the Anti-Monitor’s ship! They fight creatures which appear to be made of living stone, while Superman and Dr. Light discover a machine that the Anti-Monitor is using to speed up the merging of the Earths. Anti-Monitor finds Superman and Dr. Light, and attacks them both. Supergirl hears the fight, and intervenes. She very nearly destroys the Anti-Monitor’s outer shell/armor, but is ultimately killed. The Anti-Monitor escapes, the heroes return from the anti-matter universe, and Earth-1 mourns Supergirl. - While the Anti-Monitor is healing, Psycho Pirate contemplates killing The Flash, who is still imprisoned in the anti-matter universe. The Flash escapes, and uses Psycho Pirate to turn the Anti-Monitor’s forces against him, inciting an uprising. As the Anti-Monitor’s warriors riot, Flash finds an anti-matter cannon. He destroys it, and is killed in the process. - The earths seem safe for the moment, however, Brainiac has been collecting all of the villains previously recruited by the Monitor. They attack and conquer Earths 4, X, and S, issuing an ultimatum to Earths 1 & 2 to surrender, or they’ll destroy the other three earths. -The heroes travel to the other three earths via the Flash’s cosmic treadmill-- operated by Wally West and Jay Garrick--and fight the villains stationed there. Both sides sustain losses, and only cease fighting when the Spectre intervenes! He tells them they all have to join forces in order to stop the greater threat of the Anti-Monitor, who plans to travel to the beginning of time and destroy all life. - The heroes and villains agree to work together; the heroes travel to the dawn of time to distract the Anti-Monitor, while the villains travel to the birth of the anti-matter universe and multiverse, which occurred billions of years after the dawn of time but billions of years before the present, when a proud Oan named Krona opened a gateway to the dawn of time. - (Yeah.) - The heroes are succeeding in distracting and weakening the Anti-Monitor, however the villains fail to stop Krona from opening the gateway. Just when all seems lost, the Spectre appears once more. Using the combined powers of the various earths’ mightiest magicians and sorcerers, he fights the Anti-Monitor, and seems to win, BUT IN SO DOING, prevents the formation of the multiverse! - (Two more issues to go, y’all.) - Kal-L of Earth-2 awakes the next morning, thinking the whole ordeal has been a dream. He goes to the Daily Star, only to discover that it’s not the Daily Star, but the Daily Planet! He’s not on Earth-2--He’s on Earth-1!!!! - Except, not quite. Earth-1 has been changed, and only those heroes present at the dawn of time for the fight with the Anti-Monitor seem to remember the Crisis, and know that something is amiss! - Kal-L is anxious to return home; he, along with Clark of Earth-1, go to Jay and Wally to use the cosmic treadmill to get back to Earth-2. When they do, however...they discover that Earth-2...IS NO MORE! - All the heroes gather together again, THIS time to try and determine what’s going on. They all realize that there’s only one earth, meaning that the residents of the other earths have had their lives erased! Harbinger appears, her powers returned to her in the rebirth of the universe, and explains further. The various histories of the different earths have merged; some heroes are remembered, like Power Girl, but others are forgotten, like Helena Wayne, and Kal-L. - If that’s not bad enough...THE ANTI-MONITOR RETURNS! The skies over the new singular earth go dark, and not just any dark! A complete and total darkness that causes a panic, and turns out to be...SHADOW DEMONS! - Harbinger gathers the heroes (again) to stop the Crisis and the Anti-Monitor (again) while the Shadow Demons run rampant around the globe. Those who are caught by the Shadow Demons are erased from existence! - Meanwhile, another group of heroes, separate from the ones fighting Shadow Demons and the ones with Harbinger, stumble upon Brainiac, who agrees to take them to someone who will be able to help with this Crisis business. - Namely, Darkseid. - Harbinger takes some heroes back to the anti-matter universe to face the Anti-Monitor, while the mystic-powered heroes concentrate on the Shadow Demon problem. Those heroes in the anti-matter universe discover Psycho Pirate--and the Flash’s costume and ring, finally learning of his heroic sacrifice. - They attack the Anti-Monitor (again) who appears to be defeated (again) and Alexander serves as a portal back to the positive matter universe (again). - BUT THEN...the Shadow Demons--which had been imprisoned by the mystical superheroes--are absorbed into the Anti-Monitor’s corpse! And he lives! AGAIN AGAIN. - Alexander can’t hold the portal open much longer, though; all the heroes need to get through, or be FOREVER TRAPPED IN THE ANTI-MATTER UNIVERSE! - (We’re getting close to the end, thank goodness) - Kal-L and Superboy (the sole survivor of Earth Prime) stay behind to fight the monitor, as they no longer have earths and loved ones to return to. They’re losing, but Darkseid has science on Apokolips that allows him to not only observe the battle via Alexander’s eyes, but also launch a (seemingly) fatal blow against the Anti-Monitor! - Darkseid sends the heroes away, their tenuous truce done for now. - And then it’s over! YAAAAY!!!! - Except it’s NOT. Because GUESS WHO’S BACK, NOT EVEN A PAGE AFTER HIS APPARENT DEATH? THAT’S RIGHT. ANTI. MONITOR. - Kal-L’s had enough of this, though. He punches the Anti-Monitor so hard that the guy explodes. - And then it’s over. - Kal-L, Superboy, Alexander, and Lois Lane of Earth-2 (who was saved from destruction by Alexander, kept in a kind of pocket realm) retreat to said pocket realm, happy to live out the rest of their existence in a kind of nebulous afterlife. - Harbinger records the entire account for posterity, and conveniently ties up some lose ends while dictating the story; heroes mourned the fallen, Wally West became the Flash, etc. etc. - Lyla, Pariah, and Lady Quark decide to explore the new, singular Earth, looking to the future, rather than dwelling on the past. - EPILOGUE: Psycho Pirate is in Arkham Asylum, ranting about Infinite Earths...Worlds that lived, and Worlds that died...

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS--THE DEATH TOLL (PARTIAL): -Dove -Flash (Earth-1) -Kole -The Losers -Solovar -Nighthawk -Supergirl -Loir Lemaris -Aquagirl -Green Arrow -Huntress (Earth-2) -Robin (Earth-2) -Hawkman (Earth-2) -Rising Son -Wonder Woman (Earth-1)*

END NOTES: - In the interest of brevity, I’ve forgone mentioning which specific heroes go where, who fights who, and so on and so forth. If you’re really curious as to what, for instance, Halo’s up to during the Shadow Demon attack in issue #12, I recommend just reading the comic. It will probably be quicker. - I’ve done my best to specifically name the ‘main’ characters; characters that play a significant role within the story, or characters that have an ‘arc’. - Also in the interest of brevity! I’ve tried to simplify various concepts where possible; for instance, I refer to the Anti-Monitor’s base of operations ‘his ship’ when in actuality, it is three separate locations within the anti-matter universe; a fortress, a ship, and the planet Qward. (Qward is the anti-matter universe equivalent of Oa, which the Anti-Monitor conquered shortly after his creation.) As the specific location within the anti-matter universe is not terribly significant to the main plot, a generic term was used. - Like any comic crossover worth its salt, Crisis had lead-ups and tie-ins. There are characters and plots introduced in Crisis that show up briefly, and then are never mentioned again, presumably to be picked up or referenced in other titles. As this post is primarily concerned with the main crossover event, they’ve not been included. - The cosmic origins of various characters, universes, and anti-universes are perhaps only slightly less confusing and vague as the summaries in this post. - Lastly: I’d treat this a bit like a translation--it’s one person’s view of the important bits of a written work, and as such, the source is always going to be the best place to look if you want to accurately judge the plot, characters, etc. If you have the time and the means, I recommend checking it out. (If only for those INSANE George Perez group shots...my god, so many characters on any given page.)

[freedomartspress]

Three Poems — Tongo Eisen Martin

Kick Drum Only

All street life to a certain extent starts fair

Sometimes with a spiritual memory even

Predawn soul-clap/ your father dying even

Maybe I’ve pushed the city too far

My sensitivities to landfill districting and minstrel whistles/

White supremacist graffiti on westbound rail guards 

-all overcome and reauthored

The garbage is growing voices

Condensed Marxism 

modal gangsterism for a warrior-depressive

Underpass in my pocket

because I am a deity

or decent bid on the Panther name 

revolutionary violence that chose its own protagonists 

or muted stage of genius

A merciful Marxism        

Disquieted home life 

Or metaphor for relaxing next to a person 

Who is relaxing next to a gun

I stare at my father for a few seconds 

Then return to my upbringing

Return to the souls of Ohio Black folks

Revolution is damn near pagan at this point

You know what the clown wants? The respect of the ant. 

Wants a pen cap full of bullets

Wants to see their ancestors in broad daylight

I am not tired of these rooms; just tired of the world that give them a relativity 

My only change of clothes prosecuted

The government has finally learned how to write poems

shoot-outs that briefly align…

that make up a parable

white bodies are paid well, I posit

do white men actually even have leaders?

all white people are white men

white men will only ever be metaphors

all I do is practice, Lord

A rat pictures a river

Can almost taste the racial divide

Can almost roll a family member’s head into a city hall legislative chamber

Knows who in this good book will fly

I have decided not to talk out of anger ever again, Lord

Met my wife at the same time I met new audience members for our pain

We passed each other cigarettes and watched cops win

A city gone uniquely linear

Harlem of the West due a true universe 

 “I will always remember you in fancy clothes,” my wife said 

so here I sit… twisting in silk ideation

  My rifle made of tar

My targets made of an honest language

This San Francisco poetry is how God knows that it is me whining 

Writing among the lesser-respected wolves

Lesser-observed militarization

Dixie-less prison bookkeeping/I mean the California gray-coats are coming 

lynch mob gossip and bourgeois debt collection

I mean, it’s tempting to change professions mid-poem

in a Chicago briefing, a white sergeant saying, “blank slate for all of us after this Black organizer is dead.”

standard academics toasting two-buck wine at the tank parade

bay of nothing, Lord

  nuclear cobblestones, gunline athleticism  

and the last of the inherited asthma

children given white dolls to play with and fear

facial expressions borrowed from rich people’s shoe strings

I can hear hate

And teach hate

And call tools by people names

And name people dead to themselves

no one getting naturalized except federal agents soon 

carving the equator into throats soon

I’m sorry to make you relive all of this, Lord

pre-dawn monarchy 

friends putting up politician posters then snorting the remainder of the paste

minstrel scripts shoveled into the walls by their elders

my children sharpening quarters on the city’s edge

For these audiences

I project myself into a ghost like state

For these gangsters, I do the same

every now and then, we take a nervous look east

Sleep becomes Christ

Sleep starts growing a racial identity

do you ever spiral, Lord?

has the gang-age betrayed us?

be patient with my poems, Lord

So much pain

there is a point to crime… 

There has to be if race traitors come with it

 Lord, is that my revolver in your hand?

Better presidents than these have yawned at cages

Have called us holy slaves

Filled the school libraries with cop documentaries

Baby, I don’t have money for food

I have no present moment at all

/

I Do Not Know the Spelling of Money

I go to the railroad tracks

And follow them to the station of my enemies

A cobalt-toothed man pitches pennies at my mugshot negative

All over the united states, there are

Toddlers in the rock

I see why everyone out here got in the big cosmic basket

And why blood agreements mean a lot

And why I get shot back at

I understand the psycho-spiritual refusal to write white history or take the glass freeway

White skin tattooed on my right forearm 

Ricochet sewage near where I collapsed 

into a rat-infested manhood

My new existence as living graffiti 

In the kitchen with

a lot of gun cylinders to hack up

House of God in part

No cops in part

My body brings down the Christmas 

The new bullets pray over blankets made from old bullets

Pray over the 28th hour’s next beauty mark

Extrajudicial confederate statue restoration 

the waist band before the next protest poster 

By the way,

Time is not an illusion, your honor

I will return in a few whirlwinds

I will save your desk for last

You are witty, your honor

You’re moving money again, your honor

It is only raining one thing: non-white cops

And prison guard shadows 

Reminding me of

Spoiled milk floating on an oil spill

A neighborhood making a lot of fuss over its demise

A new lake for a Black Panther Party

Malcom X’s ballroom jacket slung over my son’s shoulders

Pharmacy doors mid-slide

         The figment of village

                     a noon noose to a new white preacher

Wiretaps in the discount kitchen tile

-All in an abstract painting of a president

Bought slavers some time, didn’t it?

The tantric screeches of military bolts and Election-Tuesday cars

A cold-blooded study in leg irons

Leg irons in tornado shelters

Leg irons inside your body

  Proof that some white people have actually fondled nooses

That sundown couples 

made their vows of love over   

opaque peach plastic

and bolt action audiences     

Man, the Medgar Evers-second is definitely my favorite law of science

Fondled news clippings and primitive Methodists 

My arm changes imperialisms 

Simple policing vs. Structural frenzies

Elementary school script vs. Even whiter white spectrums

Artless bleeding and

the challenge of watching civilians think

     “terrible rituals they have around the corner. They let their elders beg for public mercy…beg for settler polity”

“I am going to go ahead and sharpen these kids’ heads into arrows myself and see how much gravy spills out of family crests.”

Modern fans of war

    What with their t-shirt poems

    And t-shirt guilt

And me, having on the cheapest pair of shoes on the bus, 

I have no choice but to read the city walls for signs of my life

                                                                                     /

The Chicago Prairie Fire

First, I must apologize to the souls of the house

I am wearing the cheek bones of the mask only

Pill bottle, my name is yours

Name tagged on the side of a factory of wrists

Teeth of the mask now

Back of the head of the mask now 

        New phase of anti-anthropomorphism fending for real faces

Stuck with one of those cultures that believes I chose this family

I am not creative

Just the silliest of the revolutionaries

My blood drying on 

   my only jacket

just as God got playful

the police state’s psychic middlemen

Evangelizing for the creation of an un-masses 

An un-Medgar

Blood of a lamb less racialized

or awesome prison sentence

Good God

Elder-abuse hired for the low

dog eat genius

Right angle made between a point

On a Louisiana plantation

And 5-year old’s rubber ball 

3 feet high and falling

like a deportee plane 

to complete my interpretation 

(of garden variety genocide) 

I am small talk

about loving your enemies

A little more realistically

About paper tigers 

And also gold…

I need my left hand back 

I broke my neck on the piano keys

Found paradise in a fistfight

Maybe I should check into the Cuba line

Watching the universe’s last metronomes

some call Black Jacobins

Just wait…

These religions will start resigning in a decade or two

Some colorfully 

Some transactional-ly

In a cotton gothic society

Class betrayal gone glassless/ I mean ironically/ my window started fogging over too 

Wondering which Haiti will get me through this winter

Which poem houses souls

Which socialist breakthroughs

Breakthroughs like ten steps back

Then finally stillness

Stillness

Then stillness among families

a John Brown biography takes a bow

I’m up next to introduce Prosser to Monk

I remember childhood

Remember the word “Childhood” being a beginning 

Scribbling on an amazing grace 

I rented this body from some circumference of slavery

Remember being kicked out of the Midwest

Strange fruit theater

Lithium and circuses

Likeminded stomachs 

The ruling class blessing their blank checks with levy foam…

                            with opioid tea 

Sentient dollar bills yelling to each other pocket to pocket

Cello stands in the precinct for accompanying counterrevolutionaries 

My mother raised me with a simple pain

A poet loses his mind, you know, like the room has weather

Or first-girlfriend gravity

Police-knock gravity 

Mind-game gravity

Or revolution languishing behind 

The sugar in my good friend’s mind

“The difference between me and you

Is that the madness

Wants me forever”

A pair of apartments

Defining both my family

And political composure

Books behind my back

Bail money paved into the streets

Playing:

Euphoria

Euphoria

Cliché

Bracing for the medicine’s recoil

Sharing a dirty deli sandwich with my friends

Black Jacobins

Underground topography

Or grandmother’s hands

Psychology of the mask now

Teeth of the mask again

—

Originally from San Francisco, Tongo Eisen-Martin is a movement worker and educator who has organized against mass incarceration and extra-judicial killing of Black people throughout the United States. His latest curriculum on extrajudicial killing of Black people, We Charge Genocide Again, has been used as an educational and organizing tool throughout the country. His book of poems, Someone’s Dead Already was nominated for a California Book Award.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 230

Last time, Vegeta blasted big chunks out of the tournament stadium, killing hundreds in the process.    Goku agreed to fight him, provided Babidi would teleport them to some place where no one would be in harm’s way.   

Which leaves everyone at the stadium to wonder what the hell just happened.   The World Tournament Announcer discusses the post-tournament ceremony with the winner, Mr. Satan.    Under the circumstances, handing out the prize money doesn’t seem like a good idea, so it’s probably best if everyone just goes home.    This scene seems very weird to me.   I’m pretty sure it’s filler, but either way, this conversation seems a little too “funny-awkward” when it needs to be “hundreds-of-people-just-died-awkward.”   

For example, if you look closely, you can see Android 18 and Marron standing in the background, between Satan and WTA.   She’s been there since the last episode, before Vegeta showed up and killed all those people.   The gag is that Mr. Satan can’t celebrate his victory too much because he keeps noticing 18 glaring at him, waiting for him to pay her the 20 million zeni he promised to her so she would throw the fight.   

I think what’s happening here is that Toei decided to recycle the gag from the last episode, which is a common filler tactic on this show.    Think of all the times we’ve seen Goku running down Snake Way, or training on his way to Namek, or suffering from the heart virus.   But it really doesn’t work here because the atmosphere in the stadium has drastically shifted, or at least it should have.  I know it’s a popular joke that death has no meaning in Dragon Ball because everyone can just be wished back to life, but most of the people here don’t know that.   18 does, but you’d think she’d be more disturbed by what Vegeta just did.   She’s a cool customer, sure, but you’d think she’d want to get her daughter to safety at the very least.

At least Bulma seems to be on track with the story.     “Vegeta... What’s Wrong With You?” could be the title of her autobiography though.

The answer, of course, is that he’s allowed himself to be mind-controlled by a space wizard so that he can finally fight Goku.   No more teases, no more buildup, no more false starts.    This fight is happening, and it’s going to keep happening for a few more episodes.  

So this fight.    What do I say about it?   When I was a kid, I grew up with the lore established after Return of the Jedi came out.    One way or another, I heard that the reason Darth Vader wears his life-supporting armor is because he once challenged Obi-Wan Kenobi to a duel, and suffered severe injuries from it.    I don’t remember where I heard this, but the story was that it was right after he turned evil, and they fought over a live volcano, and he fell in some lava.  

Of course, for younger readers, it’s all a matter of record.    You can just watch “Revenge of the Sith” and see exactly what happened.   But between 1983 and 2005, we only had this one-sentence legend.    I might have come up with the volcano part myself, since I heard “molten lava” and figured there had to be a volcano involved.    For my generation, “Revenge of the Sith” was the payoff to that decades-long speculation.  

The problem with moments like that is that you have to compete with fans’ imagination.   I remember after the movie came out, and I was at a comic book store and heard some guy complain that there should have been more lost-limbs in that battle.    Anakin lost an arm and both legs at the end, but I guess this guy’s bloodlust wasn’t sated.   Maybe he wanted Kenobi to lose limbs too?    Except he won, so I guess his dream scenario was for both of them to chop each other’s hands off and continue fighting one-handed.  

For my part, I was satisfied with what I got, although when you get down to it, it’s never going to hold up quite as well as I pictured it, because I had 22 years to picture it, and I could imagine it from every possible angle, with every possible scenario.   And when you imagine something, you can mix your emotions into the visuals.     Watching Darth Vader fighting Obi-Wan Kenobi on the screen, well, it looks a lot like all the other lightsaber battles in Star Wars, only it’s longer and more intense.    The movie is depending on you to fill in the emotional gaps.   The actors can act in between the swordfighting, but it’s up to you to remember those performances when the blades start swinging.  

What I’m driving at here is that a lot of Goku-Vegeta II is a dead heat.   In particular, you see scenes like this one where neither guy can overpower the other, and they’re stuck holding each other’s hands and blocking knee strikes with their thighs.    It reminds me a lot of the gifs of the Anakin/Obi-Wan fight, which just show them swinging their sabers around.    Stripped of context, it looks downright silly.   DBZ is counting on you to remember this:

This is why they’re fighting.    I don’t just mean the original Goku/Vegeta fight as a whole, or even the outcome of that battle.    I’m talking about this specific part of the fight, Episode 31 of DBZ, where Goku reluctantly used the Kaio-ken X3 and overpowered Vegeta, however briefly.   This was really where Vegeta started taking Goku personally.    After this, he tried to destroy the entire Earth just to kill Goku, and Goku used Kaio-ken X4 to overpower him yet again.   From that point on, Goku spent the rest of the battle on the defensive, relying on Gohan, Krillin, and Yajirobe to finish what he’d started.  

I’m not going to sit here and tell you the rematch is better than the original.   Goku-Vegeta I is one of the crown jewels of this whole franchise.   I still think I like this one better, though, because of the anticipation I had for it.  It fufills a long deferred dream that Goku, Vegeta, and the audience have shared since Episode 36.   One day, they’ll fight again, and settle this. 

So maybe this battle doesn’t have the same underdog factor going for it, and the psychology and choreography isn’t as intuitive.    It’s not as self-contained as the original battle, becaue this one depends so heavily on the viewer being familiar with Goku and Vegeta’s history.   But dammit, I am familiar with all of that, and that’s why I like it.   

There’s not a lot of stalling or desperate tactics here.   Both guys powered up to their maximum at the start.   This is just two guys trying to beat the hell out of each other, but they’re so evenly matched that it’s easy to lose sight of how hard they’re hitting, or how much of themselves they’re putting into every blow.   Like here, Vegeta just got slammed into a cliffside, and he’s disintegrating the rock instead of just moving slightly away from it.    Remember, it’s all about this:

Each of these guys want to pulverize the other this way.    Goku wants to do it to prove that he can sustain this level of offense instead of barely holding out for a minute.   Vegeta wants to do it because he’s still sore that any Saiyan managed to do this to him and live to tell about it.   

There’s also something deeply tragic about this fight, which appeals to me in a way the original can’t tough.    Before, they were two Saiyans.    The last two, perhaps, but Saiyans nonetheless.    Now, they’re Super Saiyans.    The legend said there was only one every thousand years, but now, in spite of everything, there’s two.    They’ve even managed to surpass the Super Saiyan and become something greater, but instead of saving the universe like they might have done before, they’re just beating the shit out of each other while the world burns.   Z stands for the end.

Because every time Goku takes a hit...

The energy lost from the damage he sustains is magically transferred to Majin Buu’s ball.    When enough has been aborbed, the seal can be broken, and Majin Buu will be resurrected.   

Meanwhile, Dabura and Gohan have moved deeper in to Babidi’s ship to try and stop him while the Goku/Vegeta fight is in progress.    This is Stage 4 of his spaceship, and in theory it’s no different from Stages 1-3.    Babidi would normally send a warrior to fight the intruders, and any damgage they take would feed Buu.    Only Babidi’s fresh out of good fighters, so he just sends ten of his low-tier henchmen to hold the line instead. 

For some reason, everyone on board Babidi’s ship looks like these guys, except for Puipui, Yakon, and Dabura.    I never paid much attention to it before, but when you think about it, it’s kind of weird how Babidi only “recruits” the best evil warriors he can find, but his crew all look like they came from the same planet.    I’m guessing these guys were some sort of pirate band or something, and Babidi forced them all to come work for him and run his ship for him, or maybe this ship used to be theirs before Babidi hijacked it.  

Anyway, Gohan takes them all out with a simple ki attack, and they can proceed.    Not sure why these guys had Roman numberals on their uniforms.     It implied that they were somewhat important, but I guess not.  

Anyway, back to this fight.    So yeah, like I said, these two are just going all out.   

They’re using big flashy moves that might be climactic finishers in past battles, but here it’s just standard issue.   

Take this beam struggle, for example.    This was the height of the first Goku/Vegeta battle, but it’s just an appetizer here. 

Like, they can’t even just have a beam struggle, they have to charge towards each other while they do it.   Are they going to punch each other with their free hands while they do this?   

Meanwhile, Trunks and Goten take a piss break on their way to the action.    Some pervy dinosaur peeks on them while they go.   

Okay, so this is my favorite part.   Right here.  Somehow, Vegeta managed to get the better of Goku, so he hauls him up, and it looks like he’s got Goku at his mercy.

Then he slams him into a rock and fires ki blasts that basically at like big staples, to hold Goku in place by his wrists, ankles and neck.   

Then he reminds Goku that he claimed that he would finish this “quickly”.  I think Goku knows better now, but let’s face it, he took Vegeta too lightly.    He was sure that he could turn Super Saiyan 2 and blow him out of the water without a whole lot of trouble, because he’s spent most of their rivalry in the lead.   

Then he slaps him in the face, and Goku can’t do shit.  This part right here is the receipt for all the times Goku looked past Vegeta or failed to take him seriously.    You can argue that he spared Vegeta all those years ago as an act of compassion or sportsmanship, but another way to interpret it is as an insult.  To put it another way, Goku let Vegeta live because he didn’t think he was dangerous enough to kill.    I think that’s how Vegeta’s always seen it, and now he’s out to prove otherwise.   

So he’s just teeing off on the guy now.    The message here is: If Goku doesn’t like this sort of thing, he should have killed Vegeta when he had the chance, because he’ll never get it again.

Then Vegeta has an extended flashback.  The dub has him narrate this, which is one of my favorite monologues in this series, but the Japanese version just plays the footage, letting it speak for itself.    I guess there’s a case to be made for either approach, but Chris Sabat killed this scene.  

The bottom line is that Goku humilitated him in their first encounter by standing up to him and beating him up, and then he saved his life.    Vegeta plans to avenge himself by tearing him to pieces.    He means to kill Goku, which I don’t really understand, seeing as he’s already dead.   

And this is where I think Babidi’s mind control may be somewhat underrated in this battle.    I think it’s pretty easy to assume that this is how Vegeta would normally behave, but is it, though?    Was he planning to face Goku in the world tournament and chop off his arms while their families looked on in horror?   I’m pretty sure he wasn’t this hardcore about it going in.    Before, he had resigned himself to never seeing Goku again, and then he was coming back for the tournament, and Vegeta was excited to face him under any terms, even while governed by the tournament rules, and Gohan’s “no-transforming” request.    He wanted to beat Goku clean, sure, but he wasn’t nearly this bitter about it. 

Now, this fucker wants to vivisect Goku.    I’m pretty sure that’s Babidi’s handiwork, amplifying old grievances that Vegeta had probably moved past a long time ago.   

Except...

Goku’s not done yet.

Every time Majin Vegeta gets surprised, I get a little more excited.    This was what you wanted, wasn’t it?   You self-important prick.    You killed all those people just to get this guy mad enough to fight you.   

WELL GUESS WHAT, JACKASS?

YOU GOT HIM.

ALL OF HIM.

I get chills every time I watch this part.   Majin Vegeta is played up to be this horrible thing.    The awesome power of Vegeta with none of the restraint, and if Goku even tries to stop him, he’ll just be playng into Babidi’s hands.    Critics can say that this is a no-win scenario, or that Goku’s holding back during this fight, or that he’s not as into this as Vegeta is.  

But this sequence here tells the story.    Goku doesn’t have a long flashback to explain his motivation here.   We’ve already seen it.    This blue-pajamas-wearing idiot came to his planet to start shit.  Goku was fighting to protect his home and everything he holds dear, and he barely managed to save the day, and that makes him the bad guy here?   Vegeta broke Goku’s legs in that battle, but for some reason Vegeta wants revenge for that day.    Vegeta beat the shit out of Goku’s son.   Several times.    Then he let Cell become perfect, and Goku and Gohan had to clean up his mess.     Goku’s dead because of Vegeta’s arrogance, but Vegeta wants revenge?

There’s a part here where Vegeta tries to full-nelson Goku and impale him on a stalactite, and Goku just powers out of it.   Goku’s not saying a lot in this fight, but he’s pissed, make no mistake.    He’s just focused enough and gentle enough not to say anything.  

He’s not shooting a Kamehameha inside a cave because he’s detached.    

Vegeta fires back and the whole thing explodes.

So let’s be clear about this.   There’s a relentless, wild animal in this battle, who won’t stop fighting no matter what.   Also, Vegeta is here, and he has a goofy tattoo on his forehead.

Meanwhile, Gohan and the Supreme Kai have arrived at the chamber where Buu’s ball is kept, and Babidi and Dabura are there to greet them.   Babidi isn’t worried at all, since he figures Dabura will be enough to hold them off until Majin Buu is ready.   On the other hand, the Kai thinks he can kill Babidi wile Gohan holds off Dabura, and that should put an end to all of this.  

But he’d better act fast, because Buu’s ball is glowing hot pink, and getting hotter and pinker by the second.   

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Girls #2 Thoughts

Mixed feelings but don’t get it twisted they’re mostly good mixed feelings.

When I say I have mixed feelings it’s a case of me trying to decide what this series is.

Now I went into Spider-Girls expecting it to essentially be Spider-Geddon’s equivalent of Scarlet Spiders in that every issue would focus upon one of the 3 main spider characters (wow I’ve never used the word spider so many times in a sentence before).

What I wanted from Spider-Girls was a lot of Mayday focus and/or her interacting with Annie and addressing the fact they are pseudo sisters.

However my expectations were in fairness not based upon what was advertised, the series wasn’t stated to follow that narrative structure. As for what I wanted this series has delivered on that to a certain extent.

But more importantly than what I expected or wanted is what the series actually is, what it’s trying to be and whether it lives up to that.

And that’s where I’m debating with myself how to evaluate this.

Because it’s clear to me to a large extent Spider-Girls #1-3 is effectively....Renew Your Vows #24-26 (or #29-31 technically).

Put aside how the book is written by Houser for the moment. These past two issues have seen Annie as the focus character, the action wholly take place in her world, involve her supporting characters, centre upon her powers and utilize major plot elements from her book. So like I said this doesn’t just continue Annie’s story from RYV it is to a large extent the next 3 issues of the title.

Key phrase there though, ‘to a large extent’.

Because the series also pays attention to Mayday. She’s not the POV character, we don’t see her internal thoughts, but her emotional journey in this story is given panel time and played as important. Anya’s isn’t.

If this series is supposed to be about all of them as the main characters then this is bad, because Annie is stealing the limelight. But if this is a continuation of RYV it is also bad because Mayday and Anya have basically replaced Peter and MJ’s roles as second/third fiddle to Annie and that series was supposed to be about the whole family.

Buuuuuuuut...the series isn’t titled RYV, it’s it’s own off to the side mini-series.

So in that sense we’re sort of in a unique situation wherein it has to adhere to established continuity of all these characters (in Anya’s case I know next to nothing so let me know about that) but it doesn’t have to be consistent with RYV’s central premise.

Houser is free essentially to do as she wishes so long as she’s consistent within the context of this book.

So evidently the series is about Annie amidst an adventure where she is joined by Anya and Mayday. I guess then a more appropriate title would be Annie and the Spider-Girls but that makes for a lame title.

The fact that this is an off to the side thing also helps or mitigates the fact that there is a mystical aspect to this series which normally shouldn’t be in a Spider-Man book nor RYV.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, within what this book is trying to be, is it any good?

The answer is in fact yes, it is very, very good.

From my personal POV I want so much more Mayday/Mayday and Annie interactions but I can’t hold that against the comic. Especially when what we do get of Mayday is done well and is respectful to her character; unlike the cover which saw fit to omit her apparently.

We get direct references and flashbacks to Mayday’s past, with the writing and art clearly demonstrating they did their research.* Normie was a huge part of Spider-Girl and having Mayday think about him and for the comic to briefly play compare and contrast with RYV Normie is both natural and very appreciated. It also helps to explore Mayday’s character, something worthwhile given how long ago her series was. You can tell from the art and dialogue her romantic feelings for Normie still sting a bit.

Houser doesn’t rely just upon going over old ground with Mayday, she continues to showcase Mayday’s feelings of unease in Annie’s universe, which is perfectly natural. She also uses Anya quite effectively in this way.

Were I an Anya fan (as opposed to someone who resents her for getting Mayday cancelled and stealing her name) I might be more upset about that and her over all treatment in this book. Because this is Mayday and (even moreso) Annie’s story, Anya is kind of just there as a vehicle to propel the plot and to get help explore Mayday’s feelings. As she says herself she’s not a Parker which I choose to take as Houser throwing shade at Anya and I love it. The only thing I dislike regarding her use really is

a)      Her tension with Normie. She claims Normie having six arms should convince him to believe in her magical mumbo jumbo but really that doesn’t stack up. Science and sorcery are different things to the man on the street. A genetic experiment giving you six arms is frankly easier to buy than magic scrolls

b)      Her inclusion at all. Beyond helping Mayday to open up I see little creative rationale for her inclusion if anything the story would be stronger if it really was just Mayday and Annie. I’m sure you could find some reason for Mayday to go after Annie alone even with the same central premise. Like I dunno say Anya and Mayday got attacked and separated, with Mayday getting a hold of the scrolls or something.

Going back to Mayday briefly, one thing that is a double edged sword is how she’s changed since Spider-Verse.

By this I don’t mean her costume (I kind of miss her Spider Island suit but oh well).

I mean that she’s become a bit more cynical. Not overly so but it’s there. She refers to her adventures as Spider-Girl as a very distant past, going so far as to say ‘back in High School’. I’m choosing to take that as not meaning Mayday has graduated because that wouldn’t make sense. But the fact she refers to high school like that and treating her high school worries back then as meaningless is a clear sign of how she’s changed.

This is as I said a double edged sword.

It’s bad for two key reasons. The first is that it gives new readers a warped impression of Mayday and wouldn’t encourage them to check out her old stories (which Marvel wants you to do hence her recent epic books and this series happening around her 20th anniversary) let alone helping get her any new stories. Secondly it’s simply for older fans not the Mayday we knew and loved. Don’t get me wrong it’s a drastic improvement of how not  like Mayday she was in Spider-Verse but it still undermines including her when surely the point of that is to entice back older fans.

On the flipside though it is entirely realistic for Mayday to feel this way in the wake of what happened in Spider-Verse and Web Warriors, especially as some stories have implied (illogical as this is) that she’s spent most of her time with the latter group. Losing your Dad violently, then being embroiled in a war for survival, then acting as a police officer of countless worlds, then being stranded in one of them, losing your newly found ‘Grandpa’ and then finding yourself in another violent war with the same people will believably make your old high school worries seem trivial.

In a sense I feel for Houser as she is in a lose-lose situation.

Spider-Girl fans want the Mayday we know and love but we also want her to be treated believably and to develop as a character (albeit preferably under the pens of her creators). In the context of this situation those a mutually exclusive goals.

Houser has opted for the latter which I guess if nothing else helps maintain Mayday’s verisimilitude so that hopefully in the future writers may pick up on her and course correct her organically. It’s also in line with the direction her creators chose to adopt for her in the wake of her Dad’s death so Houser is continuing to be respectful. In fact between the respect she’s shown and how much her run echoed Spider-Girl’s I think she might be a fan.

In a lot of ways the situation brings my mind back to Howard Mackie’s Hulk issue of PPSM. It saw Spider-Man picking a fight with the Hulk in the immediate wake of losing Mary Jane. Losing MJ was a horrible situation that should never have happened (much like everything involving Mayday in Spider-Verse and beyond) but the story was good within that bad context.

Moving on to Annie, as much as I complained about the over focus upon her in RYV, her exploration here ain’t bad. We acknowledge that she’ll feel a little adrift with her parents gone and her sense of reality opening up. It’s also right and proper she feel guilty about what goes down. I think much more could’ve been done with her though. I know we have a fair amount of plot to get through but you had space for more thought captions.

As for the elements of her series that have come back they kind of make me feel better and worse about the final RYV arc.

Looking back the final arc of RYV was probably it’s worst, at least of the second volume. There were major problems with Slott’s first volume when you look at it.

But a lot of elements from that arc clearly were written in as set up for Spider-Girls. Normie’s mutation. The spider creatures created from Annie’s blood. Her hyped up Spider Sense. Peter and MJ’s first child.

That’s all to this series’ benefit because we need not waste any of the 3 issues we have setting that stuff up. In that sense I can see now why that final arc was the way it was to some extent. The X-Men connection is still unforgivable though. On the other hand though it means that the grand finale of that whole series was in service of this which taints the arc as a whole. Not only was it problematic unto itself but it existed for something else, that isn’t even technically the actual finale arc of the series. It’s a spin-off continuation for one particular character from that book.

Anyway let’s wrap up with a few smaller points.

·         We have the Inheritors show. Up obviously I hate seeing them but I guess it’s mandatory. I will say that the choice to use the twin Inheritors is a neat one given the story revolving around two pseudo sisters in this series.

·         I didn’t think of this at the time but Normie’s six arms are reminiscent of his black costume form in Spider-Girl. That works well in this series but it retroactively makes it’s inclusion in RYV yet more derivative of MC2.

·         I liked the brief interaction between Annie’s parents and the Spider-Girls. It was believable for parents to behave that way.

·         I liked how the series went as far as to point out some of the spider creatures were deemed fit for trial so they didn’t all get jailed nor let off the hook.

·         There is a spelling error in the comic when Normie says ‘immortal  spider powers people’ it should be spider powered . A nitpick and rich coming from me I know but my blog isn’t a professionally written comic you pay for.

·         The art is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaantastic! I makes me made these 3 issues have better art than basically all of Houser’s RYV run.  Special kudos for that cool splash page.

Much as I can pick problems with this issue it was still really lovely to read.

*Except on Normie’s black costume design but that’s an artistic licence thing I guess. They balance it out by recreating a Spider-Girl cover, from ASG IIRC. Also they fixed her legs unlike last issue so kudos.

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of August 14th, 2019

Best of DC: Week of August 14th, 2019

Best of this Week: Justice League Odyssey #12 - Dan Abnett, Will Conrad, Rain Beredo and Andworld Design

Darkseid is.

The former ruler of Apokalips’ plans have finally come to fruition after the small team of heroes brings together the final few relics to complete Sepulkore, the planet that will release a wave of cosmic energy all over the Ghost Sector and make it immune to the destruction of the Multiverse. Narrated by Darkseid, this issue expands on how far back he’s had these ideas and plans in place, even anticipating the betrayal from Cyborg, Starfire and Azrael from the beginning. He hasn’t been lying to them at all, but rather, omitting a few things so that his plans would proceed as they naturally would.

In the last issue we see Darkseid take control of Cyborg, turning him into a dangerous, Motherbox like being with all of the knowledge of the universe and more at his disposal. Darkseid orders Cyborg to keep Azrael and Jessica Cruz distracted while he fights an enraged Starfire. He sees the spark in her eyes and flings her into the core of Sepulkore, where she was destined to be the flame that lit the fire pits of this new hell. As Sepulkore awakens, Darkseid becomes even more powerful. Azrael is left with no other choice than to call his warriors into the fight as well.Unfortunately for him, as soon as the Azraelites enter Darkseid’s presence, they are turned into a new fodder-force: Para-Angels. Azrael succumbs to Darkseid’s control soon after as well. 

With all of the pieces falling into place, Darkseid smiles. His new Apokalips is lit and it connects with all of the other remaining relics in the Ghost Sector, becoming a reality unto itself. Darkseid monologues to himself that he has always known that the Source Wall would fall and the Multiverse would be destroyed eventually. Since his early years, Darkseid has been lying in wait, creating myths of heroes that would be Gods and those Gods would serve him. The Eternal One - Darkseid.

His new acolytes look upon him, chanting “Darkseid is,” as he returns to his full power. Jessica Cruz stands tall against him, however. I want to take a moment to say how much I love her journey as a character. She started out as this young girl that could barely leave her apartment and she could barely control her fears which allowed Power Ring from Earth 3 take control of her. Since then she has fought to get past her fears, anxieties and PTSD to become one of the most courageous Lanterns in all of the Green Lantern Corps. 

With only about two percent power left in her ring, she tells Darkseid that she will not let him win. His plans will fail if she has anything to do about it and Darkseid is mildly impressed. Darkseid could crush her, without question. She’s barely a fly on his rader, but he’s super into her tenacity. He offers her a place at the table, he cold become as powerful as Cyborg, Starfire or Azrael, a New God of Indomitable Will as Darkseid puts it.

Jessica says “Screw You,” and plants Darkseid with a mean right cross, firmly planting her in the same club as Guy Gardner and Hal Jordan, the “Are You Absolutely Insane? You Really Thought It Was A Good Idea to Punch HIM?” Club

Summarily, he swats her away, crushes her ring hand and Omega Beams her to hell.

*HEAVY SPOILERS ARE HEAVY*

Summarily, he slaps her, crushes her ring hand and Omega Beams her to hell.

*HEAVY SPOILER HOURS ARE OVER*

Will Conrad does the art for this issue and every single page is a wonder to look at. Darkseid is made to look unreasonably imposing as his power increases over time. Cyborg with his advanced mech body looks like a thing of terror as he has a faceguard only over his mouth and his human eye is a milky white. I also appreciate how his metal parts are shaded to give them a sheen. Sepulkore itself is drawn with an immense sense of scale and the architecture of it complex and effective, looking like a huge dodecahedron. Darkseid himself even has a new design that mimics some of his Superman: TAS look with tights added.

Justice League Odyssey might be one of the best ongoing Justice League stories right now because of how different it is to the rest of them. With a team almost as strange as the mid-2000s R.E.B.E.L.S. team and it being centered around an even stranger area of space, everything is so cool. Though there have been a few artists, each have taken different approaches to make all of the different locations and character designs cool.

What should really be applauded is the work when it comes to Beredo’s colors. For the most part, this book is awash in an oppressive red hue as Darkseid become stronger as the book goes on. This color blends well with Starfire’s fiery starbolts and Azrael’s flaming sword. It also worked best with Jessics Cruz being the only contrasting color in the bunch as her green made her the hopeful hero. Beredo makes everything feel dire as hell and it really sells the mood of the book.

I can’t wait for the next issue of the series because Darkseid has effectively won. He has a new Apokalips that he can rule from away from the dangers of the Multiverse and Perpetua. With his new New Gods, the Dark Sector will be another oppressive entity that Darkseid can hatch his schemes from with he regained power. The best question of all, however… who will stop him?

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

Barry Allen is back and better than before.

Runner Up: The Flash #76 - Joshua Williamson, Rafael Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, Tomeu Morey and Steve Wands

After re-living one of his first adventures as The Flash, Barry sees just how out of touch with things that he has been lately. He realizes that he hasn’t taken the time to slow down since Wally returned and he’s just been throwing himself into adventure after adventure without any regard for his friends and family and it has caused their lives to suffer because of it.

Iris has practically left him. Wallace West distanced himself from Barry as much as possible, even going so far as to briefly join a team with Deathstroke. Avery, the Flash of China, isn’t even that close to Barry, but he also left her and Wallace in the middle of an argument just before he went off on his Force Quest. In an effort to put a stop to the Rogues that have now branched out of Central City, he’s been going through the escapees left and right.

We begin with Kid Flash and Avery fighting with Girder and Tarpit in the middle of Central City. The two young Speedsters are quick, but not all is right as they have a hard time putting any serious damage on either. Just as Tarpit is about to burn them alive, Barry zips in and saves the teens.

Rafa Sandoval is absolutely one of my favorites of DC’s current crop of artists and my favorite Flash artist. His slick lines and shading combined with Morey’s coloring and Tarragona’s inks makes everything look smooth. Costumes look good, bright and vibrant. Flash’s deep red stands out and compliments Wally’s yellow and surprisingly Avery’s dark pink and purples. Shadows are appropriately dark and every blast of lightning and every blur is stunning to see.

Barry gives his young proteges some advice in dealing with Tarpit and Girder, allowing the young speedsters to defeat the villains. After the win, Wallace is less than enthused to see Barry again and begins to walk away before Barry asks them both to run with him, to see how he's trying to make up for his mistakes.

Begrudgingly they agree and we get another amazing shot of Barry running while flanked by Avery and Wallace. I really loved this because it reminded me of the old Flash Family days and because Barry is really trying his best.

He shows them the rebuilt Flash Museum and they're amazed that he managed to rebuild it all by himself. Barry reveals that there's something more and they use their vibration abilities to enter their new headquarters, which I don't have a pun for yet. They're greeted by Commander Cold(?) And Steadfast, the new avatar of the Still Force, and Barry explains what's been going on with their powers.

Wallace had been noticing small things, but he thought it was all in his head. Apparently with the release of all of these new forces, the Speed Force is collapsing under the weight of these new forces that aren't supposed to exist alongside it. This is further backed up as The Black Flash returns for a cliffhanger ending.

As all of this is going on, in another city altogether, Heatwave is causing havoc, seemingly with his own heat powers having returned. The cops show up to confront him, but are suddenly incapacitated by blasts of ice. Captain Cold, Leonard Snart, has begun to gather his Rogues. With updated Cold Gear, to mirror his own New 52 ice powers, he hands Heatwave a Heat Gun and he two OG Rogues reunite to gather the rest of the troops and finally take down The Flash.

With this first part being so affectionately referred to as "The Death of the Speed Force part 1" I can't imagine that any of this will end well. The Speed Force has been in existence for the better part of almost 30+ years now and there's a good chance that we've seen all that we possibly can from it. It's been used to trap people, reset universes and even bring back past Speedsters for big events.

With the Speed Force dying, now's a great opportunity for new stories to be told with the Flashes exploring new ways for their powers to work if the Speed Force does indeed get destroyed in the future. But what will this mean for other speedsters still trapped like Jai and Iris West II, and Jay Garrick? Will they be immediately freed or will Doomsday Clock somehow tie into things? Only time will tell! High recommend!

[realityhelixcreates]

Lasabrjotr Chapter 30: The Winding Road

Chapters: 30/? Fandom: Thor (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: Teen And Up Warnings: None Relationships: Loki x Reader (Someday) Characters: Loki (Marvel), Reader, Brunnhilde, Thor Additional Tags: Post-Endgame: Best Possible Ending (Canon-Divergent), On The Road, Horse With A Side Of Extra Horse, Bills Bills Bills, Let’s See If You Can Guess Based On Descriptions Exactly Where New Asgard Is, Summary:  Who’s ready for a road trip?

This was only the second time you'd gotten out of the city, and the countryside was just as beautiful as the first time. So very different from the tall, orderly cornfields of home, that went on and on for untold miles of green, or even from the wild roadside margins, with their riot of luscious weeds. The plants here formed a dense carpet, confettied with colorful wildflowers, which climbed up the nearby mountainsides. Here and there, patches of tall lupines towered over their shorter brethren like miniature forests.

Endless ranges of mountains rose on either side, the river running sluggishly through the wide valley they created. Heading north from the city, you quickly came into contact with evidence of human habitation in the form of small farms, and a paved road that followed the river off into the distance.

The party had been forced to ford the river in order to reach that road, as it did not cross the water, but Loki had spared you with what you considered a tremendous feat of magic, teleporting both you, and sweet Acorn across the slow river, safe and dry. He didn't even break a sweat, and if you had wondered before about the upper reaches of his strength and speed, you were now in deep wonder about the limits of his magic.

You wondered briefly if any of those mountains were volcanic before Thor began to sing.

“When the sun shines through the summer

I find my thoughts turn to another

To a shining city

Writ in poetry witty

Whom I miss like an absent lover.”

You stared at him. Where had that all come from?

Loki seemed to be contemplating something.

“Is it the ocean?” Saldis asked. Thor shook his head.

“A reflection?” Borgliot ventured.

Oh, it was a guessing game! This was another thing right out of the fantasy stories; the proud and poetic warrior king.

“It's the moon.” Loki said.

“Yes! That makes it your turn.”

Loki thought a moment.

“O' sing of the Sapphire Brand

Living as Loki's right hand

Our two links we clasp

Like Jormagand grasps

it's tail, to encircle the land.”

Heat crept up your neck to wash across your face. That was really obvious.

“So...I'm guessing that's me?” You asked.

“Very good, my dear. You know what that means, don't you?”

“M-me? My turn?” Oh heck, you hadn't signed up for this. What did you say? How did you rhyme? What subject did you pick?

This was Loki's revenge for your teasing about the cinnamon rolls, you just knew it. Wracking your brain for a rhyme, you were only able to blurt out the first idea that came to your mind.

“Stories told before bed

It's supposed to be all in my head

But myth became real

Now I'm left to deal

With the path my saviors have tread.”

You lost the tune partway through, but got some applause anyway. Loki looked especially pleased, and you felt a spark of pride in yourself for having kept up.

“Could it be me?” He asked.

“Well, not exactly...”

“She said 'saviors' plural, you smarmy boy.” Brunnhilde interrupted. “She means us. The gods, the myths and stories we represent.”

You nodded. “Yeah, that's where I was going.”

“Oh.” Loki said with some indignation. “Well then, I suppose it must be the General's turn now.”

“Sure is! So, let's see...

Viewed with envy, but never with scorn

Shining long before I was born

But something eternal

Can still be burned all

to dust; even gods have to mourn.”

Nobody ventured a guess, but even you knew what she was talking about.

Asgard.

How did they stay alive and sane through all this? Even though you'd lost your home, you were still on the same planet, at least. There were still other humans all over the place. You'd been taken in, and given what you needed, accommodated, and even fawned over a little bit.

They had nothing. If things didn't work out, there was no old country to go back to. There was no other nation of Asgardians to emigrate to. They had to do whatever it was they did to survive.

What did they do? You hadn't asked how they afforded the materials for the city they were building, or for the food, or the electricity. Just how were they making their money? Loki had said they had enough for day to day affairs, but how?

That familiar feeling of money-anxiety weaseled it's way back into your mind. How much was this costing? How much were you costing? These dresses? This serpent brooch? Loki's promise to take you around and get you some toiletries and things for yourself; whose sacrifice was paying for that?

How did you pay it back?

Eventually, the riddle song game started up again, but you didn't venture any more guesses. Just listening to their voices was enough; their rhymes and subjects giving some greater insight into the things they liked and valued. For Saldis it was mostly objects, for Bogliot, places. For Thor, nature and traveling, and for Brunnhilde, the comforts of home and civilization. For Loki, most surprisingly, it was people. The people closest to him, the people he had known in his life, friends and family. He went through every member of the party, in more or less impertinent rhymes. You couldn't help but focus on how he had started with you.

It was very sweet of him to make sure you were involved.

                                                                           ******

Hours down the road, Thor turned Sleipnir down a short detour. All of the other horses followed him without the slightest command, reinforcing your guess that Sleipnir might be a god among horses. You'd have to ask later.

The group clattered up to a small complex, away from the road. You could just barely make out the sound of braying sheep before a few excited people rushed out of the nearest building, and began making a great fuss.

They seemed to know Thor, who dismounted, and greeted them, letting one take Sleipnir's reigns. The great horse graciously allowed himself to be led away, and the rest of the party began to dismount.

“-avail themselves of some of your feed, we would greatly appreciate it.” Thor said. “We have many hours to go, and mountains to cross, and we will need every bit of their strength. We also would eat, at your lovely cafe.”

The people agreed readily, though they viewed Loki with some concern. All of his earlier playfulness bled out of him, leaving him a pale, grim presence among the grinning and grateful Asgardians.

You stepped forward, legs wobbling from the hours spent riding, and allowed yourself to fall against him. He glanced down at you in mild concern.

“I'm not used to being on horseback for such a long time.” You said. “'Fraid my legs are a bit weak.”

He offered his arm without further explanation, and you took it with appreciation. As you had hoped, the chivalrous display of tender helpfulness towards another human being seemed to change the way the owners of this place looked at him.

It was a petting zoo, about the last thing you expected to find nestled into the lofty mountains. But Iceland, though a land full of tourist-attracting beauty, didn't necessarily have too many stops that would appeal to children. Looking out the window of the little cafe, watching the little lambs and goat kids frolicking together, you could imagine that this was a welcome respite for excitable children from the waterfalls and valleys that so captured their parents imaginations.

You found the animals compelling as well, envying their innocence and boundless energy. You were handed a menu, finding the offerings to have been helpfully translated into several languages, English among them.

You ordered a mocha and a hot lamb sandwich in a slightly hushed voice, trying hard not to side-eye the animals outside. It wasn't as if they could hear you, and it was very unlikely that any of their animals ended up on the menu, but it still seemed a little insensitive.

Loki also opted for a coffee, while Thor and Brunnhilde naturally ordered whatever alcohol was strongest. If the 'weak' crystal mead was any indication, the most powerful libations of man wouldn't so much as give the Asgardians a buzz, but maybe they'd like the taste.

Saldis and Borljot however, dared to try something new to them; Soda pop. They simply couldn't stop giggling about the bubbly sensation of the carbonation, though Borgliot declared it “Too sweet by far!”

Watching the others eat, it occurred to you that Asgardians all seemed to have huge appetites. Perhaps it had something to do with their different physical attributes. The denseness of their skin and muscle, the heaviness of their bones, it all probably required a great deal of nutrition. But if they were going to be eating like this the whole week...

“Where does the money come from?” You wondered aloud.

Thor paused in eating, never quite expecting your questions.

“Well...” He began. “Multiple avenues, actually. First of all, though the less than adoring crowds outside the city today might attest otherwise, there are a great many people in this world who look upon us charitably. We receive many donations of useful things; clothes and cloth, dishes, kitchen utensils, books, pencils and paper, and a great many other things, which lessen our daily costs. Otherwise, some of our scholars have been offering Asgardian language and history courses at the local schools, and our weavers, clothiers, and artists are facing a growing demand for their works. When the city is closer to being finished, we will open for tours. And, of course, I am a member of Earth's primary defense force, which pays well on it's own, not even taking into account the merchandise.”

“Oh, you mean the calendars?” You asked.

“What do you know about the calendars?” Loki asked, mildly scandalized. “Oh, you own one, don't you?”

“Uh...well...I did.” You admitted. “I doubt Dad would have saved it, even if he did manage to get some of my stuff.”

“What calendars are you talking about?” Saldis asked.

“Uh, well...They're sorta like...Do you know what a pin-up is?”

She shook her head.

“Well, they're...pictures that are kinda risque, but not outright...you know...pornographic.”

“Oh my.” Saldis said, and you ducked your head in embarrassment. “And you owned one of these?”

“I, uh, I owned the whole set. What?” You griped defensively. “I like the Avengers, and the calendars are kind of a hot commodity.”

Thor snorted with laughter.

“Well, I don't own them anymore! I hope they didn't just get thrown away.” It would be a shame if no one else was enjoying shirtless Iron Man, with his mysterious glowing heart, working on his suit. Or Shirtless Captain America, grease smeared artfully on his hands and face, fixing an airplane. Or any of the other shirtless pictures of various heroes, in teasing poses. Even the king...

Should you be bashful about that? Having seen the king like that?

“What picture did you leave on?” Loki asked suspiciously.

“It was May...Yeah, that Was Captain America, and some puppies.”

“Of course...” He said sourly.

“Why do you care? Were you in it?”

“Of course not! Do you really think I would debase myself so, as to participate in such a..a burlesque?”

“He's in next years.” Thor said conspiratorially. “We put him in a jail cell and handcuffed him to the bars.”

Loki went bright red in the face at Saldis' gasp, and Brunnhilde's bray of laughter.

“I-it's for Asgard...” He stammered. “All the proceeds come to us...I only did it for the sake of the people. It's not like I enjoyed it.”

“It's true.” Thor teased. “He complained the whole time.”

“I've got to get one of these calendars!” You declared.

“You'll do no such thing!”

“You can't stop me.”

“I very well can!”

“I'm going to get two.” Brunnhilde said. “And if you won't allow her to get her own, I'll give her one of mine.”

“Why must you torment me so?” Loki adopted a put-upon pout.

The rest of the meal passed in companionable jokes and conversation, though Loki continued to pout a little. No doubt he disliked being embarrassed in front of the likes of Saldis and Borgliot, but you figured nobody could be purely dignified all the time.

Never mind that this all could be considered your fault for bringing up the calendars, or even asking about finances in the first place.

                                                     *****

Soon enough, you were on the road again, all stomachs pleasantly filled.

“How many illicit photos do you think they took?” Brunnhilde asked. “You gonna charge them?”

“No, we ate most of their food, after all.” Thor said. “And besides, how would we even prove it? Confiscate and search their phones? Asgard is not a police state, and neither is Iceland.”

“Did they take pictures of us?” You wondered. “I didn't notice.”

“Not us, though they might have.” Brunnhilde answered back. “Sleipnir.”

“We tried to take him to a few horse shows, to drum up some quick cash.” Thor explained. “Of course, he was disqualified immediately. However, many people were eager to pay for pictures, so we didn't go away empty handed. There were even a few offers to put him to stud. If those offspring are found viable, we may have a very lucrative source of income indeed.”

“Oh wow, I'll bet!” A whole new breed of multilegged horses running around...The horse world would be turned upside down and shaken about!

Then again, hadn't Loki said that his Leynarodd was related to Sleipnir? She did look like a paragon of horse-kind, large and beautiful, but she had the normal number of legs. Perhaps functional polymelia was not a dominant trait.

A few hours later found you deep within a terrain that was unusual to both Iceland and Iowa: Forest. A lovely forest of pale, slender birches and furry-looking spruces, the understory a magical blanket of flowers. It was straight out of a fairytale; you half-expected to spot an elf peeking out from a particularly lush patch of blossoms.

But that was silly. Elves didn't exist.

Just gods. And aliens. And killer robots. And green rage giants. And century old, cryogenically preserved super soldiers. And wizards. And ghosts. And magic stones that could reshape the universe.

You continued looking for elves.

Leaving the forest behind, the road took a rather sharp turn, as a series of lazy switchbacks took you suddenly up the mountainside. As the air grew thinner and colder, you drew your cloak closer and leaned over Acorns neck. Even in summertime, you found the air a bit chilly. Back home, you would be sweltering, seeking the refuge of an air-conditioned indoor environment. Here, there hadn't been a single day where the sun had caused you to sweat, even though it graced the sky day in, day out.

The higher you rose, the more pronounced the chill became, wind cutting through all your layers of clothing, burning your ears. At your first tooth-rattling shivers, a thick, velvety, leaf-green cape was dumped over your head. You wrapped it tight around you, peeking out from the makeshift hood, to give Loki a grateful smile.

He remained as regal as ever, though now bared to the wind, which teased his sable hair.

“If you begin to feel faint, say so immediately.” He urged. “The air is thinner up here, and it may affect you. We will need to see to you as soon as possible, if you begin to grow weak.”

You agreed without any argument. You and Tara had once gone on a hiking vacation in the Rockies once, and you knew exactly what altitude sickness felt like.

These mountains didn't rise quite high enough to truly take your breath away, but the altitude did cause a painful pressure in your ears, Loki noticed you gritting your teeth and tried to stop the whole expedition to fuss over you, but you flatly refused.

“It'll go away once we get lower.” You said, deflecting his insistence that you stop. Maybe the discomfort was making you irritable, but you found his fretting to be annoying. You were already well aware that you were the weak link here, but you would not be responsible for slowing the group down over something as simple as temporary, manageable pain.

But on the other hand, maybe he was as worried about putting you back in that murderer's presence as you were. This man wanted to kill you! If any of a number of things had gone differently, he might have succeeded.

How many times might he have replayed the scenario in his mind? If you had died in his arms that day, what would he have done? Would he have returned your body home, or buried you here? Would he have hunted your killer down? Did he care enough back then? Would he have mourned? And what would the magical bond between you have done to him if you had died? He didn't even seem to know.

But you were going to die long before Loki did, so there was no way to avoid it: He would find out eventually.

You shook your head, trying to clear the morbid thoughts as well as the painful pressure. This was no time! That was the future, and you couldn't know what would happen. Besides, you were nearly at the top.

As you crested the mountaintops, and began down the other side, you were overtaken by the glorious view of the glittering fjord, sprinkled with ships and bordered by a thick band of green farmlands. In the distance you could barely make out the city. It seemed so small from here. It didn't even fully cover the inward edge of the fjord, lying clustered all on an outcrop on one side, surrounded by even more verdant farms.

A killer lay in its midst. You were headed right for him.

[thenightling]

My thoughts on Marvel’s War of The Vampires

Recently Marvel comics did a storyline called War of the Vampires.

In this story Dracula’s castle is destroyed and several vampires are vying for power.  There are warring factions apparently trying to gain dominion over all the vampires of the the Earth.   

The supernatural members of The Avengers and their allies are forced to get involved.  Blade: The Vampire Hunter gets recruited into The Avengers main roster.   

Dracula turns up in his old man form, looking frail and weak, and deliberately surrenders himself to the Russian government and he is taken prisoner.  (Avengers issue 014, 2019.)

And yes, Dracula conjures an electrical storm for dramatic effect during his entrance because Dracula is a freakin’ primadona!  I love him. :-P   

The Avengers want to take him back to America where they can better watch and keep him.  They consider him a proverbial living weapon and don’t want the Russian government to have him and potentially use him as a weapon.  Dracula claims he just wants some peace and quiet and is tired of the constant fighting and death.

While captive Dracula deliberately goads Tony Stark by telling him that his father came to him begging and offered anything (including Tony, in childhood) if he could be made immortal.

It briefly looks like Dracula is trying to provoke Tony into taking him from the Russians to drag him back to the America to be held by The Avengers in Avengers Tower.  However this is misdirection from the writers and not his actual plan and he does not want to leave Russia at all.   His deliberately creates a distraction. 

He creates a prison riot by psychically influencing the prisoners but does not try to escape even though he had the perfect opportunity.  He merely does this to prove to Stark that he can and that he is right where he wants to be, affirming his claim that he has surrendered himself and is tired of fighting.   

Further note:   They have all these elaborate restraints on him. An anti-bite face mask (that still allows for speech), a chest plate that’ll stake him if he gets too frisky (First time I saw that was in Boom Comics’ Dracula: Company of Monsters.  Someone’s stealing from someone else), heavy chains, covers on both his hands to keep him from using his claws, devices that somehow prevent him from taking bat, wolf, and mist form, and some sort of IV system to keep him semi-starved and weak / possibly drugged.  But no one thought to dampen his psychic powers?  The Raft (Superhuman prison) can do that but the Russian equivalent (currently being visited by Tony stark) can’t?    

Red Widow has the cruel task of interrogating him even after he has told them many of his secrets.  She rounds up all of Dracula’s vampiric previous lovers (and there are quite a lot).   

She tells him she’ll torture and kill them slowly unless he shares everything with them.  If he does share all the knowledge he has, she’ll kill them quickly.  Either way they die.  

 The scene also reveals that Dracula has male and female lovers.

Marvel’s Dracula has now been confirmed as having had male and female lovers.  This is not the only bisexual or panasexual Dracula in pop culture.  The German production of the Frank Wildhorn Dracula the Musical (Dracula das Musical) gives him brides and grooms in his castle and Dario Argento has said his version of Dracula is bisexual, and Marvel has now confirmed that their version of Dracula has had male and female lovers.    

  The first victim in the torture-interrogation is this pretty, androgynous creature.

I don’t know much about this pretty elfish, semi-androgynous character.   I’m not even entirely sure the character is male (but others have Identified him as male).  In any event Dracula wept blood tears when this unnamed character was killed.  And he (the lover) was clearly willing to die for Dracula. 

I don’t know his name so I am going to call him Samuel.  And in my mind he was the pretty castle librarian whom Dracula became infatuated with.  There.  Headcanon achieved.  

Further note: Usually if you make Dracula cry, it means he’ll take brutal and violent revenge. This is a universal truth with all versions of Dacula.  Never make him cry.  

Seriously, I want to know this guy’s story.  Dracula cries for him!  In front of his enemies, he weeps for him!   Did Dracula make him a vampire or was he already a vampire when they met?  Give us this story, Marvel!   Who is he???

Later it’s revealed that Dracula’s capture was part of an elaborate scheme so that he would get dumped in Chernobyl.

But this is precisely what Dracula wanted all along.

It is in this vast, isolated, irradiated wasteland that Dracula has decided to re-establish his kingdom of the vampires.   Everything was part of his elaborate plan just to re-establish his vampiric kingdom.   

But based on his reaction to the lovers being slaughtered, I don’t think that part was quite in his plans. So again, I ask, who was that pretty male lover whose death brought Dracula to tears?

By the way, I freakin’ love this story. I just hope Marvel doesn’t screw it up by doing something cliche like letting the radiation from Chernobyl mutate the vampires living there.   

Further note: Many of the vampires in this storyline were semi-innocent and sympathetic and some of the heroes were just douches, such as seeing “heroes” killing a coven of vampires who plead that they were peaceful and never fed on the innocent and literally said “Please don’t hurt us.” and begged for their lives.  “The good guys” ladies and gentlemen.   

It’s a good story but I’m tired of deconstruction.  I like my heroes actually having compassion and mercy.  You shouldn’t have to make good characters asses to make the antagonists sympathetic.  Marvel’s Dracula was already likable since Tomb of Dracula.  

A few other things I didn’t like.  

1.  Captain Marvel is shoehorned into the story even though it could very easily have been told without her.  It’s blatantly obvious that she was only in there to promote her new movie And it was shameless.   She’s crammed onto each cover so heavily that if I was just judging by the cover I wouldn’t even know Dracula was in this story!

Also, for some reason Captain Marvel is now immune to Ghost Rider’s Penance Stare because of course she is!  At this point I feel like asking who is left who is NOT immune to The Penance Stare?!?  Morbius is immune, The Punisher is immune, and now Captain Marvel is immune.  

This is getting as bad as Mjolnir.  A few years ago Loki (who was acting as protagonist in his own solo comic, Loki: Agent of Asgard) ended up under the "inversion spell" during the Axis event / storyline. The spell inverted his personality. Since he had been on a redemption arc this made him betray his friends, act selfishly and self-righteously.   And somehow "because he no longer felt guilt" was able to lift Mjolnir.   Now let's look at Ghost Rider's Penance Stare.   Morbius is immune to the Penance Stare because he feels constant guilt for the lives he's taken.  Frank Castle is immune to the Penance Stare because he feels no remorse for anything he's done. It would seem they are using the "Morbius reasoning" that Captain Marvel feels constant guilt. But constant guilt for what?  She (the comic book version) doesn't have as many sins as her cinematic counterpart and even then she was being manipulated by aliens who played with her mind.   Marvel keeps making too many excuses to allow the current "Flavor of the month" or "Cool kid" to do things to make them super special.   Currently by their logic if you feel no guilt you are immune to Ghost Rider's Penance Stare AND can lift Mjolnir.  That pretty much means all you need to be the best of the best in Marvel is to be a sociopath. Too many people are being allowed to lift Mjolnir and too many characters are immune to Ghost Rider's Penance Stare.  

2.   She-Hulk now looks ridiculous.  She looks like Lobo from DC comics but painted green.  And she no longer answers to She-Hulk (because acknowledging she’s female and being proud of it is somehow anti-feminist... somehow?  HOW does this make sense!?!?)  Going by “Hulk” just puts her in her cousin’s shadow, something that was the complete antithesis of the character and probably the opposite of what they intended with that stupid name change.

3.   Less than a year ago Marvel promised it would stop doing so many events and now while one event was going on (War of the Vampires) the banner across each cover and on the splash page promoted the upcoming War of the Realms.  It’s literally just one “big” event after another.  The events have lost all means.   Now mere story arc titles are called “events.”   

4.   The cover art is very... boring.  Too many comics are heroes and villains lunging at each other in mid-battle.  It’s stale and uncreative. And I, a fan of Marvel’s horror properties, can barely tell there are vampires in the story. Hell, Dracula’s a key player and he’s not on any of these covers.    

But for all my complaining I did love this storyline.  It was fun.  Dracula was cunning and manipulative.  His bi / pan sexuality isn’t treated like a big deal and felt natural for the character.  And most of it was very well illustrated.  I also like the new costume for Dracula, it looks less like a warrior drow (something I hated since 2010).  and I’m glad to see Dracula in use in Marvel comics now for something other than a mere Halloween event.  And I love the ending with Dracula forming his new kingdom at the end of Avengers, issue 017 (2019).  Just don’t screw it up by mutating them from Chernobyl radiation. That’s stupid and cliche.   In general this was good though, refreshing compared to what Marvel Comics has been these last few years.  

[aion-rsa]

The Watch Episode 4 Review: Twilight Canyons

https://ift.tt/3q4thtV

This The Watch review contains spoilers.

The Watch Episode 4

“Twilight Canyons” embraces The Watch’s theme of being “inspired by,” but not adapting, Pratchett’s Discworld novels through its blink-or-you’ll-miss-it references to several of the books less closely related to the adventures of Vimes and company. In that, it progresses its own plot much further, and only delves into the over-the-top silliness of the previous episode briefly, making it feel as though this series may come into its own in the next few episodes.

At the end of the last episode, Carcer, his union-forming goblin entourage, and female wizard companion Wonce, had realized that the key to controlling the dragon was a sword in the hands of a former member of the Assassins’ Guild. Vimes and company, having not yet connected the dots, are a step behind. Lady Sybil, used to vigilante work, has gone on her own to track down Wonce and managed to snag some of the woman’s hair, but not much else. Knowing Angua’s keen sense of smell could lead them to Wonce, Sybil joins up again with the Watch, who follow the lead. Unfortunately for them, Wonce has laid a trap, and several “drag goblins” (which seems to be a reference to the makeup worn on top of the underfunded prosthetics donned by the actors) nearly do them in. They’re only rescued by a smaller goblin to whom Cheery was kind earlier in the episode.

Meanwhile, Carcer and Wonce have traveled to Twilight Canyons—a place of grave danger and rage, according to Wonce’s contact. But when they enter, Carcer and Wonce are surprised to find that it’s a retirement home, full of elderly people with various states of memory loss. They find Jocasta Wiggs, the former-assassin who stole the dragon-controlling sword from the Assassins’ Guild. Now aged, her memory faded, she can tell them nothing—but they discover a mural the woman once painted on her wall, telling the story of how she and another woman stole the sword and traveled the world with it, finally reaching the very edge. 

“What magic is so powerful that it can drive two women to the edge of the world?” Wonce asks. She and Carcer interpret from the mural that Jocasta was betrayed and the other woman took the sword for herself. When Jocasta says a single word—Perpetua—the villains realize that it’s the name of the woman, who was buried above Jocasta’s empty tomb in the cemetery for traitorous assassins. They retrieve the blade and head to the area where children are “thrown away” to a life on the streets, intending to summon the dragon—but nothing happens. The sword’s hilt has been swapped out.

The Watch are out of leads, until retired Sergeant Swires (no relation to the novel watchman of the same name), sends them a lead from Twilight Canyons, where he now lives. Through Carrot’s continued use of real detective work (mainly looking at actual files for information), he realizes that Perpetua is the one who put Jocasta in Twilight Canyons, leaving her with a cane. When the Watch interprets the mural, they see it differently: they see two women traveling the world, seeing all its wonders, even as they run from the assassins pursuing them. The missing hilt, they realize, is the handle of Jocasta’s cane, which she entrusted to Swires once she stopped walking. Sure that Carcer and Wonce will realize their mistake, Vimes makes a plan to trap the two, battling over the sword. When Swires begins to raise an objection, Vimes interrupts, standing his ground, insisting that the others follow HIS plan for once instead of going off on their own.

But of course, things don’t go as planned. When Vimes and Carcer begin to battle (at the same time that Wonce and Sybil face off), the magical security system traps the two pairs of combatants, locking them in a dance number (to the disconcerting accompaniment of Wham’s “Wake Me up Before You Go-Go”) the ends with Carcer being teleported elsewhere and Wonce losing the sword to Sybil and retreating. With the sword and hilt now in the possession of the Watch, Vimes has Jocasta place her hands on the hilt as they put it back together, only for the sword—Wayne, stage name Gawain—to inform them that it doesn’t remember how to control the dragon. It does, however, reveal that only lovers can hear its voice (to the resounding protests of all the Watch members who aren’t Cheery, who seems to view herself as a lover).

The Watch brings Jocasta to Unseen University in an attempt to restore her memory of the sword’s abilities. Meanwhile, Carcer is in the interdimensional space of the auditors, a group of seemingly omniscient and extremely powerful beings who support order and science—and none of that dream or hope nonsense—who view Carcer’s dimension’s Watch, who are beginning to believe in themselves, as a cosmic threat. They send him back, saying it’s his last chance—and he and Wonce enlist the disgraced head of the Thieves’ Guild to steal the sword.

Read more

TV

The Watch: Why Did the Discworld Adaptation Do THAT to a Major Character?

By Juliette Harrisson

TV

The Watch Controversy Explained: How Different is the Show From Discworld?

By Juliette Harrisson

The episode features a number of nuggets for Pratchett fans. Early on, Vimes, irritated that Sybil has taken matters into her own hands instead of letting him do his job, gives her a rousing rendition of the “Captain Sam Vimes Boots Theory on Socioeconomic Unfairness,” including this gem:

VIMES: Eyes closed, I know just where I am in this city just by the feel of the stone beneath my toes.

This direct reference to the novels is one of the few in this episode, though there are smaller nods throughout. Cheery admits that when all the Watch lost their eyebrows, it wasn’t the “little blue men” at fault (a reference to the Nac Mac Feegle introduced in the “Tiffany Aching” books). The villainous (though not imaginative enough to be evil) Auditors of Reality play a role in several Discworld novels. The loudspeaker in Twilight Canyons mentions the name of resident Cohen the Barbarian, Discworld’s greatest warrior hero. And the name “Twilight Canyons” is a reference to an unfinished Pratchett project, in which the aging community of a retirement home, many in states of memory loss (a subject close to Pratchett’s heart; Pratchett had early onset Alzheimers and was vocal in raising community awareness). 

The episode also nicely refers to “The Wat,” featuring Vimes playing guitar to Good Boy, Sybil’s small dragon, during the episode’s opening. Should the musical skill of the members of the Watch continue to be relevant in future episodes, some of my previous complaints about “The Wat” may diminish.

While “Twilight Canyons” does a lot to move forward the season plot, with Vimes in possession of an artifact, a reveal about other artifacts that Vetinari wants under her control, and with the big reveal about the powers behind Carcer’s reappearance, the episode also has a strong internal theme about love. Opening with Carrot trying to ask Angua if she’d be interested in doing something social (and abjectly failing), the episode moves to Vimes almost recalling to Cheery his vision from “The Wat,” in which he was married to and happy with Sybil. Gawain—Wayne—the talking sword can only be heard by lovers. 

The secret behind unlocking Jocasta’s memories is in helping her remember the love she shared with Perpeuta. And Cheery, revealed as fully a romantic, encourages Carrot’s feelings for Angua, referencing her own lost love as a reason not to delay. (Jo Eaton-Kent’s Cheery is really the star of this episode all together; their fantastic comedic delivery throughout reduces the overburdened earnestness of the previous episode and allows some of the humor to come from the characters themselves, not rely on the world’s delve into sheer absurdity.) Even Death is revealed to be someone lonely who’d love a friend to have drinks with—much to Carrot’s surprise when the offer is made.

While the silliness of the dance number in “Twilight Canyons” works less well than it was clearly intended, the interplay between the characters and the forward momentum of the story raises this one above its predecessor. The makeup work remains atrocious (possibly even worse than in previous episodes), and despite references to Koom Valley reenactors, we’ve still seen none of Pratchett’s numerous dwarf-sized dwarves in Ankh-Morpork. (The Librarian curiously looks slightly more like an orangutan in this episode.) Though the characters remain departures from their book forms, the clear reference to other versions of the Watch by the very strange and ominous auditors pulling Carcer’s strings seems to be a justification for this very different version of Discworld.

If it can find its stride in the next couple of episodes, the series will be worth bingeing once it’s complete. But the key word here is still “if.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post The Watch Episode 4 Review: Twilight Canyons appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3stR5tf