#c:brad

[olliexheywood]

"I can understand that totally, I bet they ask a lot of questions about why he is not like the one on the TV. Perfect time to explain the difference between real life and cartoons," he spoke nodding his head. Ollie often never really worked with kids but he was good with them. "Ya, I feel like you were born to be a pediatrician."

Smiling he nodded, "yeah they get pretty excited. But mostly they look confused since he doesn't look like the cartoon." Brad shrugged knowing the ones who could understand get a kick out of it. But mostly they just liked being able to pet and play with a dog. "Thanks. I'm just glad my old man did it first you know?"

[renee-iglesias]

@bradley-jordan​

“These party games are stupid. Who wants to make out with someone just because the rules say you have to do it?”

[completemessx]

@lostxinstereo​ basado en roaring 20s

 “¿Quieres hablarle?" señaló con la barbilla a un muchacho no muy lejos de donde se encontraban, recordaba haberlo visto en mas de una ocasión en sus redes sociales. Uno de esos influencers que él no comprendía como llegaban a tener tanto poder.  “Te digo, mientras menos te lo pienses mejor. No le des vueltas al asunto” Tal vez ese era el peor consejo del mundo en ese momento. Ser una figura pública implicaba tener miles de ojos sobre ti, y había que tener cuidado con lo que uno decía o hacía. Pero a personas como Brad, esas cosas le importaban poco y nada. Así que ahí estaba, intentando darle un empujoncito a la castaña.

[unsteadyxmuses]

tag drop for brad steele

[mama-bree]

No fighting babe. Just messing with them. Plus i cant leave you. Invested too many years on you. Parents love you. Siblings love you. Grandma keeps asking for a ring.

bringonthebrad:

mama-bree:

Seriously. Im buying you a dictionary for christmas instead of videogames. To guilt bradley is to make someone feel bad for something they did or say in our case. Play on emotions. Ja feel?

uh jokes on you. gigi bot me a dictionary already. i dunno where it is but my mom says im not allowanced to give it away.

Can we end this now guys?  Seriously, seeing my best friend and best girl fight is… unpleasant.  Brad, she would never leave me… Aubree… I know you’re loyal to us and can be loyal to your other group as well.

[aj-rpsss]

tag drop for brad steele

[youngonescast]

New Year, New War: Who Dis?

Have you ever read a comic that seems like it was written just for you? Where all the character beats were satisfying, where all the reveals delighted, where it all just clicked? That’s what it was like back in 2008 with me and the Top Cow Pilot Season offering Genius. When 17 year old Destiny Ajaye unified the gangs of Los Angeles and waged war against the LAPD it was as if I had been electrified, every hair stood on end. Here was a queer, brown, female lead talking transgressive and revolutionary things I’d only whispered to myself, it was glorious. Everyone in my shop was hype about it too, we all voted on MySpace(hoo) and waited with baited breath.We ended up waiting six years.

And when Genius came to us, in August of 2014, it was 5 months after Trayvon Martin had been shot, and 3 days before Mike Brown was killed. The world had changed. We had changed. No more was Destiny fighting some hypothetical corruption, profiling, or harassment to the average reader. The fight was real, pertinent, and completely in all of our faces. Whichever side you were on Genius sliced monowire into the discourse and, for me, it was an incredibly personal cut. Unlike your average reader I already had my mind made up about which side I was rooting for years ago.

I watched my cousin get shot in the back twelve times with his arms up, way before 2008.

So it was with unrestrained glee that I read as super-tactician Destiny Ajaye dismantled the LAPD and lost, intentionally, gloriously, to a fight she could never win, a fight that was about more than just the streets themselves, but value of people who grew up with a small army pointing guns at their backs. People like my family. With an incredibly timely weekly release the story was told in five issues and then it was done. I honestly didn’t think anything of it at the time. Just another stellar comic. I certainly couldn’t imagine what would happen just three years later.

Destiny returned.

Genius: Cartel returned with writers Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman, putting Destiny through the shadowy government institute she was lured into at the end of Genius and slaughtered her way through Mexico. It is interesting to see the Action Hero genre being bent in this fashion. Destiny was brought to life by Rosi Kampe and what a wild trip it was. It felt in many ways like 12 issues of content distilled down into 5, demanding a lot more per panel than many comics, even if it didn’t reach the giddy froth of Prez V2. I loved it. It wasn’t a comic written just for me. It was written for this moment in time.

To me Genius has always been about the power fantasy. Destiny Ajaye is that furtive desire of being able to wage war against the structures that countermand our freedom, our ability to live in peace, and that if we were to take up arms against those structures our community could be convinced to take up arms with us. We have this fantasy because our freedom is actively being taken from us, because our lives are being unjustly taken from us. There is no option but to resist, just as Destiny has no option but to fight and to make war upon her enemies. We are but people, and the stones we cast against oppression are in our work. But Destiny can take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. Something I, as the reader, cannot.

That’s why a queer, brown, teenaged girl somewhere between The Punisher and Batman in their most warlike miens wound up being so illuminating to me. We are faced, today, in America with a renewed fight for decency, for equality. We are faced with turmoil and uncertainty, disaster and recovery. We must endeavor to work to end oppression wherever it raises its head. We must combat the forces of tyranny that seek to take away our voices. Destiny was able to embody that fight in Genius directly but in Genius: Cartel another tack is taken. Forced into a conflict not of her own design she instead changes the battlefield and the rules so that she may war upon the group that sought to contain and control her. These are the same forces, the same oppression, just expressed differently.

I see a lesson in this. 2017 was a very different year from 2014 and more different still from 2008. The challenges and conflicts of each year bring new goals and new perspectives. While the ultimate goal is the same, opposition the forces of bigotry, tyranny, and oppression, the battlefield is prone to change. Similarly 2018 will not be the same as 2017, we face a new year with its own set of challenges. We must adapt to the demands placed upon us and call upon the wisdom and inspiration of Destiny to take the fight we are given in 2018 and triumph over the slings and arrows of the outrageous fortune we have found ourselves in. To that end I dedicate myself to the new war and raise my glass.

To a Happy New Year!

Find out more about teen superheroes in our podcast Here.

Or at any of the places you may already listen to podcasts: Apple Podcasts Google Play Stitcher

Written by Everett Christensen, Young One’s Lead Editor

Cover by 

Images: Genius Pilot Season W:Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman, A: Afua Richardson

Genius W:Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman, A:Afua Richardson, L:Troy Peteri

Genius: Cartel W:Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman, A:Rosi Kampe, C:Brad Simpson, L:Troy Peteri

[aj-writess-blog]

tag drop for brad steele

[renee-iglesias]

"Considering I really, really don't feel like going out either? That sounds like a perfect night to me. What's going on? Have you been hitting the books too hard again?" She slouched down on the couch beside him.

@renee-iglesias

“Would it be cool if we stayed in tonight and I just order food? I’m beat this week.”

[gospel-of-lily-blog]

[text]: Thank you, thank you.

[text]: Okay cool 👌 let me know when you’re here! Gotta make sure big Bitch isn’t here to embarrass me. Or well, us.

From Brad [text] Hey, you busy tonight?

[text]: Nope! Why what’s up??

[completemessx]

[ @rperindie​ ]

Brad había decidido malgastar sus pocos billetes en salir a tomar unos tragos con amigos. Sabía que probablemente debería estar guardando el dinero y haciendo lo que muchos llamaban ‘ahorrar’, pero realmente aquello no cruzo su mente cuando le propusieron ir a su bar favorito. Quedaba en el limite de la ciudad, y usualmente por allí caminaban los personajes más extraños. Entre vaso y vaso, terminó perdiendo la cuenta de bebidas en cuanto el efecto empezó a causar gran alegría en él. Una carcajada fue interrumpida cuando su móvil empezó a vibrar dentro de su bolsillo y se tomó un momento para contestar. Que tonto de su parte, apenas podía escuchar al otro lado de la linea. “¿Hola? ¿Hola?” llamó una, dos, tres veces incluso mientras que con el ceño apenitas fruncido se alejaba de sus amigos para intentar encontrar un sitio más tranquilo. Llegó a colocarse cerca de la puerta para intentar escuchar, pero no funcionó. Finalmente decidió terminar la llamada y emprender camino a la barra otra vez. Fue en cuanto empezó a caminar que divisó, ahí entre algunas personas estaba...¿estaba Sky? Su ceño se arrugó sobre sus claros, el alcohol no era el culpable de esto. ¡Era real! Sky estaba ahí y el solamente pudo empezar a caminar en su dirección, ¿que hacía una chica como ella en ese lado de la ciudad?

[sshesnotafraidd-blog]

-- Me agradaría saber qué es lo que te molesta tanto. -- Comentó el chico, frustrado. Llevaba un tiempo discutiendo con la persona que estaba frente a sí, y no lograban llegar a un acuerdo.

[gospel-of-lily-blog]

[text] suckup lol

[text]: really? Yeah, I would love that! I’ll let her know

From Brad [text] Hey... do you have plans tonight? Because my brother is going all out for Thanksgiving, and there will be too much food.

[text]: hey! Honestly I would love that. I need something a break from thinking. Should I dress up?

[tinathesmilingmermaid-blog]

If you’re dancing in September is there never a cloudy day?

Those two things don’t have any correlation?! 

[missshelbycorcoran-blog]

What’s it like to hold hands with your heart?

My heart is in my body, so, I don’t hold hands with them. Neither do I hold hearts with my hands. 

[renee-iglesias]

@bradley-jordan​

“Do you think we can have a redo of the Valentine’s ball? Maybe this time we can actually have a dance where I’m not on the verge of crying all over your shoulder.”