#evil norm comic

[koszmarnybudyn]

I am honestly kinda glad i havent finished the evil norm comic today cause the new episode is coming out and i dont want something i spent 17 hours on so far to get flooded. I have dont all the inking and some coloring for the last page but idk when i will have time to actually fully finish.

[ufonaut]

I flew high, I flew well. It’s just that, when I finally failed... I had such a long way to fall.

The Spectre (2001) #27

(J.M. DeMatteis, Norm Breyfogle)

[casscainmainly]

Duke Thomas and the Robin Mantle

There's been some minor discussion about whether Duke counts as an 'official' Robin or not. While that discussion is interesting, I actually don't think it's the crux of the Duke and Robin issue. To me, the question is whether or not he should be Robin. And, to me, the answer is definitively yes.

This is purely my opinion, and I haven't read every single Duke comic so it's possible I've misread/missed things. Any Duke fans, absolutely feel free to add or disprove anything here!

The Changing Robin

The first thing to understand is that Robin, as a mantle, has shifted with each person it's been passed to. Tim's Robin doesn't mean the same thing as Jason's Robin, which doesn't mean the same thing as Damian's. A mark of a true Robin is the ability to shift the meaning of Robin by wearing the colours.

Duke absolutely fulfils this criteria. In fact, him and his We Are Robin crew are the biggest shift in the meaning of Robin since its creation.

Cover from We Are Robin #1. The phrase "We're not sidekicks. We're an army!" signals the shift from Robin as individual to Robin as collective; from Robin as tied to the singular Batman to Robin as a wider movement, a socio-political force. The last question, "are you ready?", is vitally important as well. Duke as Robin is meant to be different. He's meant to be non-normative, a groundbreaking turn in what Robin looks and feels like.

At the end of the first issue, a disguised Alfred (who started We Are Robin) thinks the following:

Alfred infuses the phrase "of color" with two meanings: the Robin colours, and People of Colour. By explicitly linking Robin to POC, the comic is suggesting that not only can kids of colour be Robin, but that they should be Robin. Robins of Colour are the "future of this city," and Duke is the vanguard of this future. It's no coincidence that the Robin before (Damian) and the one after (Maps) are both POC. Duke, however, is the Robin that gives the mantle an explicit direction towards diversity: him and WAR use Robin as a social movement, and in doing so transform the colours of Robin into a symbol for the diversity in Gotham and the world.

Robin as Collective

Duke doesn't change Robin alone. The point of We Are Robin is that Robin is a collective, and it's important that Duke doesn't start WAR (as much as people like to say he did). By joining late, the comic demonstrates that Duke is part of a bigger movement.

The Robin community represents POC solidarity, the necessity and ability of the oppressed to band together. Lee Bermejo ends We Are Robin's final issue with "stress on the word "we"" - Duke's arc, in one sense, is learning to rely and work with others (he initially mistrusts basically everyone). The WAR community is essential to both Duke's character development and his tenure as Robin.

So to have this page, affirming his loyalty and love for them, to be followed immediately by them being written out is... something.

Duke appears next in Batman: Rebirth, where Bruce gives him the yellow suit and tells him he's not looking for a Robin. As soon as he stops being Robin, the community around him quite literally falls apart. Izzy sticks around for a bit but fades into obscurity, Riko and Dax turn evil, Dre ends up in Arkham - all of these fates are antithetical to these characters and genuinely tragic.

Batman: The Secret Files: The Signal is possibly the worst Duke story in existence, but it's important to understanding why Robin!Duke mattered. Riko calls Signal 'Bat-Signal', highlighting his sudden reduction to a Batman acolyte. His friends turning on him shows how, by losing Robin, he also lost the community formed by WAR. In every way, his transition into the Signal was saturated by loss.

Robin Doesn't Need A Batman

Bruce giving Duke the Signal suit is borderline insulting. He already had an identity predicated on the fact that he didn't need Batman.

From Batman (2011) #45, Batman: Rebirth, and Night of the Monster Men. "Robin doesn't need a Batman" is an inversion of Tim's 'Batman needs a Robin' - in many ways, Duke is the opposite of Tim, who's rich, White, and whose Robin is the most focused on helping Batman. If Tim is the ideal Robin-as-partner, Duke is the ideal Robin-as-individual. His idea of Robin is not, and has never been, associated with Batman.

People who say Duke isn't an official Robin since he was never Batman's partner miss the point. He is Robin because he was never Batman's partner. That's what Robin means to him - a mantle free from Bruce and all authority.

"Batman is on the gargoyle. Robin... Robin is on the street." Robin is the person on the ground, who lives and belongs to the people. When Duke becomes Signal, this ground aspect - as well as his separation from Batman - is gone.

In this cover from Batman & The Signal, they gave him a Bat symbol and put him on a gargoyle. They erased every single part of his Robin philosophy.

The Original Robin

Post-We Are Robin, Bruce becomes the Batfam member Duke interacts with the most. Besides the insult of Bruce withholding Robin, this fact also strips away one of my favourite aspects about early Duke - he was tied to the Batfamily through the Robins (especially Damian and Dick), not by Batman.

It's Dick, the original Robin, who chooses him.

Dick recognises that him and Duke have a lot in common. He tells Duke in Robin War that he's "got it," and that he's a natural leader - Dick knows Duke has what it takes to be Robin, and explicitly endorses him.

Not only that, but when Dick sends Duke to jail (along with the other Robins, official and unofficial), he tells Duke that he "take[s] care of [his] family". He basically inducts Duke into the family then and there!

Dick's endorsement of Duke makes it more interesting that Bruce doesn't make him Robin. Despite Duke's disillusionment at the end of Robin War (dispelled soon after in WAR), the events in RW confirm that Duke can and should be Robin. Bruce not making Duke Robin is defying both Duke's potential and Dick's right to choose Robins.

Robin as Family

On the rooftop in Robin War, Dick tells Duke that Robin is about family. This is the fundamental connection between them both: Robin acts as the link to the families they've lost and gained.

For Dick, Robin keeps John and Mary Grayson alive, while also symbolising his connection to Bruce. For Duke, Robin is the intersection of three families: the heroic legacy of his parents, the tight-knit community of We Are Robin, and the newfound friendship of the Batfamily.

In Batman (2011) #45, Duke tries to give his friend Daryl a Robin badge. He says, "you and me, we came up together. We're fam[ily]." Even before Dick, Duke associated Robin with family, and Daryl implies in the next issue that Duke became Robin because of his parents' inclination to help. Signal, of course, also comes from his mom; but unlike Robin, Signal isn't a legacy mantle. As Robin, he constantly inducted people like Daryl, Riko, Damian, etc. into his family. As Signal, his circle shrinks immeasurably, until it's really only the Batfamily and the Outsiders if we're being generous. (Daryl also turns evil - a really unfortunate pattern for Duke side characters).

Lark and Conclusion

I'm going to end with this panel from Batman & The Signal #1, which is emblematic of the way DC has treated Duke and Robin as a whole. Bruce tells Duke that Lark is "too soft" a name. DC was probably debating between Lark and Signal, but it's telling what they went with. How is Lark too soft, exactly? How is it any softer than Robin?

By overtly dismissing the bird-like name, Bruce - and DC editorial, or whoever decided this - is definitively moving Duke away from Robin. And it's a shame. In Duke's transition from Robin to Signal, he has next to no agency. Bruce tells him he's not Robin, Bruce gives him the suit, Bruce tells him not to be Lark, Bruce gives him another suit. It's a stark contrast from his induction into Robin - though Alfred arranged it, he gave Duke a choice. Duke chooses Robin.

Duke being disallowed the Robin mantle is, to me, on par with DC stripping Cass of the Bat symbol during the New 52. The racism behind both these decisions cannot be overstated - both Cass and Duke redefined their mantles, and their mantles defined them. At least Cass' mistake has been corrected, and lots of writers and fans acknowledge how horrible that period was. For Duke, he was never given a real chance. And it's unlikely he ever will be.

This is not a knock against the Signal identity or any writers. However, it genuinely saddens me to think that all of this story potential - Duke's redefinition of Robin, his relationship to Dick, his connection to We Are Robin, and above all his ability to choose who he wants to be - has been neglected and cast aside. Even if they never acknowledge his role as Robin, I hope future stories centre him once again, because it's what he deserves.

[zan0tix]

I yap so much about the comic and the importance i find in its contents but i hope when i write dirk or jake or rlly any of them it doesnt come off as me dumbing them down😭

I know the core internal mechanisms at which they all operate from otherwise i wouldnt understand why they even do what they do and why they speak how they do since that is so crucial to analysis of their behaviour and Why they were written.

But i mostly write silly scenarios so the deeper messier parts dont get to show much😭 working on deeper things tho rest assured i am locking in🫡🫡🫡

I try to match the tones of how i believe the characters would act continuing off the ending of homestuck. With dirk and jake specifically i try to write them to where they still both kinda dont say everything they need to but they dont have the weight of narrative destiny on their shoulders anymore so they can admit they like spending time together and have actually confessed like normal people and got out those apologies they kept yammering on about in the last half of act 6

I try to reinvoke the ridiculous nature of the one time we really see the real dirk and jake talk (which was actually a dreambubble memory. jake is so gay.) but i try to make it feel how that did, they really do love spending time together and just being weird and cringe and bantering about stupid shit ❤️(the most we see dirk type laugh in the comic)

(Always Highly recommend reading this log if you havent in a while. Its just such good writing theyre so funny) https://www.homestuck.com/story/4844

I feel like the Best Bros part of dirkjake kinda gets lost alot of the time considering THEY NEVER SPEAK DIRECTLY (which is insane that hussie could craft this universe bending gender norm shattering yaoi with no fucking interactions wtf anyway) but there is alot you can gleam from jakes interactions with hal and this one log to tell us how they usually speak

Dirk always veers into making homoerotic comments because.. i dunno he might have feelings for jake or something whos to say. and when jake presses him dirk immediately diverts. I think from being around dave and everything daves realised thats bullshit about masculine standards and heroism that let him have a healthier relationship to masculinity, hearing abt that would loosen dirk up about Actually being affectionate to jake

But hes still somehow trying to no homo his way out of things that are incredibly homo just in a subtler way, not immediately going “Haha, what? I never said that. Anyway.” (Its both out of his fear for what his true identity means about him as a man but also because he doesnt think he deserves to get such affections cough thinks himself an evil)

And jake was always going with the flow. If his friends socially decreed something as okay to talk about then the fucking damn burst open and he couldnt keep it in anymore but they had to Very Clearly Clarify with him about it. So i think dirk going down a more positive road would lead jake there too seeing that if its okay for dirk to be less restrictive with his feelings jake can be too.

The Epilogues has a highly specific premise and was being manned by caliborn and calliope 2.0 cranked to the max in the deranged fanfic behaviour so. Of course it would not be a healthy environment for characters to grow💀 anyone who takes it as full confirmation about how theyd act or become as adults and ignores the fact of its premise Being “Homestuck but Sick and Twisted; The Fanfiction” is kind of stupid its like saying homosuck was in character. Ofc everybodys lives goes to shit because the two running the show dont know how the hell to be good puppeteers 😭

Said it on twitter but you can tell how much a dirk hates himself based on his relationship to a jake. Because tho ult dirk wouldnt ever admit it jake is dirks anchor of self worth just as dirk is jakes. When they show compassion and kindness to one another its a step closer to self acceptance because Jake is quite frankly a living embodiment of EVERYTHING that is “wrong” (queer, cringe, sincere, feminine) about Dirk to himself in his saviour complex surrounding manhood. (See Everything caliborn says about jake) jakes always waiting for dirk. If dirk were to step down and admit his own humanity itd mean hed have to accept he is capable of growing and isnt inherently evil, and jake would be ready to embrace that about himself too

Anyway all that to say. Even in my simple silly writing i at least do try to retain dirk and jakes strange emotional dodging olympics but also its just on a smaller level since theyve inching their way to fully internalising that Its Okay to be Cringe and Gay Together❤️ because the World isnt Ending anymore. Its in the little things they dont say because haha im the one who makes them say words.

Dirk and jake hate themselves because theyre not men in the right way but their love is because of them not being men in the right way so.. nerm.. Whos flying the plane?

[bloomshroomz]

Some people can't seem to decide whether it's more stigmatized to get bottom surgery as a trans person or not get bottom surgery as a trans person. I'm here to say that both are incredibly stigmatized, because being trans is stigmatized, and there is no "right" way to do it. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Transphobes think that bottom surgery is mutilation. They think that it poses a threat to society. They think that it's horrific and disgusting. They think that it couldn't possibly be consensual, because trans people consenting to these surgeries apparently isn't enough, no matter how insistent or persistent we are. They think that it's medical malpractice. They think that post-op genitals "don't count" as real genitals. They think that post-op genitals are inherently inferior to natal genitals in both visual appeal and function.

Transphobes think that pre/non-op trans people are predatory, especially trans women and transfems. They think that trans people are trying to "force" people to touch their natal genitals. They weaponize other queer identities: "You're not a woman; what lesbian would want to touch a penis?" / "You're not a man; what gay man would want to touch a vagina?"

But above all, transphobes think that no matter what you do with your genitals, you're a freak. A monster. A predator. A danger to society. A sign of the end times. A subhuman thing which forfeited its right to respect when it decided to deviate from the norm.

A transphobic comic comes to mind, which demonstrates this pretty well. The comic featured a caricature of a gay transgender man, "invading" a space for gay men.

It was visually apparent that his arm had been used as a graft for phalloplasty; this was a clear dig at bottom surgery. Transphobes love pointing at trans men's post-op arms and going "Eww! Look at how mutilated that arm is! This is what the trans agenda is doing to our precious, innocent, confused young girls! And also trans men are evil and are grooming little girls into being like them! But let's call it the 'trans agenda' instead, so we can remove their humanity and pretend this is a feminist statement. I swear I loooove trans men they're my sisters, take pity on them xoxo they just need help :3"

But despite the caricature's phalloplasty, he still referred to himself as having a vagina, and insisted that the gay men in the room had to enjoy touching it. Clearly casting pre/non-op trans people as predators who just want to pressure people into touching their natal genitals. And, if we interpret the caricature being a Salmacian, that's just another added layer of stigma.

The caricature both had bottom surgery and didn't have bottom surgery, because they needed to demonstrate that both options are horrific. Because, it's not about the surgery. It's about being trans.

We need to destigmatize bottom surgery. We need to destigmatize pre/non-op trans bodies as well. We need to normalize bodily autonomy. We need trans rights and acceptance for all trans people.

[chaifootsteps]

I think the other HB Take I've grown to dislike the most is

'When Via realizes what her father sacrificed for her, she'll be so thankful / sorry for doubting him!!'

and like, no?? no she shouldn't be?

it was never her decision for her parents to stay together all that time, they made that choice themselves. The kid is not responsible for what the adults are doing. The show pulling a "Stolas got hurt for her sake so she needs to be grateful for that when Stolas is the one who made the choice to do it" is lousy logic, imo. It's blaming Via for being too young to know what was going on and expecting her to answer for her parents' choices & actions

not to mention It's made very clear that all the fighting after Stolas cheated is making her home life miserable. Anyone who's been between two warring parents will tell you how much it sucks

and also like - maybe the show wants to frame it that Stolas gave her a 'normal life' but the show is wrong about that, gonna be blunt

nothing about the Goetia's home life was ever 'normal'. Stella & Stolas never wanted to marry. they never wanted a child together. Everything about their life was artificial from the get-go and doomed to failure, especially since Stella presumably never even put in the effort to playact 'happy families' once Via was born

and like, the show has written Stella to be so comically evil that she threw Still Not Divorced parties in their house, where Via was living, that she advertised in the newspaper. Via would have to be pretty checked out to not notice that Stella and Stolas can't stand one another. Kids aren't dumb about that kind of thing, they will notice. And given Stella does nothing but screech/insult Stolas every time she's onscreen (and it's implied she's physically abused him before), if Stolas actually cared about Via's wellbeing he'd want her far away from Stella. This self-martyring routine of his makes no sense.

On some level a lot of people judge parents irl for staying with abusive partners if they're subjecting a child to that environment, too, and that's with the understanding the parent loved/still loves the abuser on some level. Stolas never loved Stella. Why is he subjecting Via to her, especially when he's the one who's a prince and could easily have her thrown out of the palace?

it makes the shows' determination to never show what the dynamic between Stella and Via is even more frustrating, because if they did get one it would at least lend some credence to Stolas' 'I thought there was some benefit to us staying together for Via's sake' routine. if she has a relationship with her mother then it makes some sense, even if that relationship is strained at times. but the writers are terrified of giving Stella any dimension at all so I'd bet good money we won't even see them exchange a single line of dialogue by the end of s2 (unless it's for Via to be manipulated by her, since she needs to be the world's biggest dummy so Stolas can cry some more)

(also like, sidenote that's just been annoying me personally - why would a Hell noble be so hung up on the notion of having a nuclear family? he's royalty. he can easily afford to raise Via alone. what are the normative values of Hell, exactly?? why would anyone care if Stolas gets a divorce? why can't the show clearly indicate what is and isn't expected of royalty in terms of upkeep of behavior and reputation?)

(also also, if Stolas was written to be deluding himself about what he did being good for Via then this could be interesting. but I doubt they're gonna go there with the creator's pet he's turned into in s2)

She probably will end up running back to Stolas, apologizing and expressing her gratitude for anything. Because that's the kind of show this is and that's the kind of writer Viv is.

[baebeyza]

In order to not write my final paper, imma list the differences between Sukuna&Yuuji twin AUs from the western (ao3) and eastern (pixiv) fandom.

Note: Nothing about this is absolute and exceptions exist. I just don't wanna waste space by always using "mostly" or "almost always". And remember, this is my own impression after reading through a hella lot of SukuIta twin stuff and going through a hella lot of SukuIta content on pixiv.

Say GO!

Ao3 has Sukuna be the older one, pixiv has Yuuji be older

Ao3 has Sukuna be more of an asshole and possessive in an aggressive way, on pixiv he's a quiet tsundere and possessive in a clingy way

Yuuji is a ray of sunshine, but on Ao3 its him being a sweet cinnamon roll, on pixiv its him being a caring and supporting brother

On Ao3, the AUs are just that - AUs. On pixiv, the twin AUs are connected to the canon by making them reincarnations of Yuuji and Sukuna, and making a big point out of which of them remembers their past life and which doesn't

On pixiv, Gojo is usually around to hit on Yuuji and for Sukuna to hate the guts out of him for it

After a lot of thinking, I came to the conclusion that Sukuna is the younger one on pixiv because people love to write with that tsundere streak, since he doesn't like Yuuji in canon but they also want brotherly love. So he loves Yuuji, but doesn't show it. And Yuuji is the open-hearted loveball who has lots of emotional intelligence, so to make this brotherhood work, he needs to be the one to take action, and that makes him more fit for the role of oldest.

On Ao3, Sukuna is the older one because his possessiveness and evil behaviour get more focus, so having Yuuji be the sweet little brother makes more sense.

The whole "they reincarnated as twins" thing is something I can't remember ever having read on Ao3, but its the norm on pixiv. I assume its a good way to make a plot happen that has both angst and sweetness.

Honestly, the Gojo thing also happens on Ao3, I just see it more often on pixiv.

To finish my thoughts, I wanna tell yall about one twin AU comic I read on pixiv that lives rent-free in my head:

Sukuna seeing a girl being cornered by guy

Sukuna leaving

Yuuji showing up to punch the guy

Next day, the girl going up to Yuuji to give him a present for his help

Yuuji being like "Huh? What are you talking about?"

Yuuji understanding that Sukuna was the one to help the girl while pretending to be Yuuji by pushing his hair down

That comic is so damn adorable and I love it forever and ever-

[skylie-spiderlillis]

I think the Cat King is at least part Fey?

The fey canonically exists in the Sandman Universe.

Their lore wasn't deeply explored in "The Dreaming: Waking Hours" where a major part of the plot took place in their realm, but they did seem to follow the traditional versions and go by the same rules.

Let's examine this:

Magical tricksters.

Blur the lines between good and evil, morally grey beings.

Time passes differently on realms of the fey.

Luck of understanding of boundaries. They'll get involved in your drama, they'll push you and invade your privacy.

Able to shift their appearance, wear disguise. The fey were shown to do that in the comics.

Known to be very liberated about sexualities. Fruity as fuck.

Don't obey the usual gender norms (CK wears a skirt and is very feminine).

Truth related powers in some versions???

Weakness to iron. (CK was beaten to death with an iron bar).

Extremely long life but they can die.

(Also go by title name/nicknames rather than more usual names? Because real names holds different weight).

(Also it would made hella sense for Desire to sleep with a Fey in my eyes but that's just me and my hc).

Just think about it.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Jason Todd and Percy Jackson parallels but by someone who actually reads comics and was technically never a Harry P*tter kid so it's accurate

Black hair,green eyes and supernatural white streak combo

Poor and hate rich people even though they ended up gaining a rich dad and refuse to actively associate with him on principal

Said dad's inflicted brutal trauma on them(though to Bruce's credit it was an accident and he genuinely loves Jason while Poseidon's just a deadbeat who refuse to parent Percy to keep us his 'image' because that's 'women's aka Sally's work',grown ass god)so they claim their mom as their only parent and are just huge mama's people in general,which is perfectly understandable even on it's own considering their mom's are fucking TALIA AL-GHUL AND SALLY JACKSON.Who wouldn't?

Respect women,disrespect men

The EXACT SAME sardonic and little shit attitude and created their own type of sense's of humor that can only be described by using their names to be truly accurate

Physical inability to not run their mouths dating way back to when they were little kids,closed off not out of fragile masculinity(I mean Jason's goth and Percy's a transfem egg so?)but as defense mechanisms,have anger issues and merciless tendencies and complex feelings on morality because of heavy life experiences due to being screwed over by the system as minorities(poor,neurodivergent and Percy's transfemininity she won't even let herself admit)and can be scary as shit when they do and don't want to

Punks with the ideals,behavior,lifestyles and interests you'd expect but also super dorky ones on all fronts too

Don't actively pursue romance and the thought of doing so is VERY unppealing to them and they dunk on romance norms like the true punks they are and they DO have good canon ships but sadly none endgame(Jayrose,Jaytemis and Jaydana are banger after banger after BANGER but DC hates Jason so they won't let him enter his malewife era and Perachel was the best ship for Percy but got shafted for the sake of ruining Annabeth)

They refuse to be normal in general because conformity disgusts them but also they just kinda.Can't turn the weirdness off,ever(It's their bptistic swag)

Ethan=Rose.Wasians with an eyepatch because their abusive god(ish)parent took their eye out,gloomy and moody,swords users,were groomed into the villain life as little kids and never considered real love interests for Percy and Jason despite tons of chemistry via bickering flirtatious banter and 'I really do care about you' undertones.Their heritage and unpalpability as victims undoubtedly plays a role in this as Luke and Slade are the easy and accepatable villains to stan as opposed to the oh so horrific and unlovable realistic survivors

Super chaotic and unrestrained

Team Parents because of childhood trauma and they did fumble a bit at first out of lack of experience but now they've got it downpat

Huge love for food that's not good for you(i.e fast/junk/desserts)

Make a big show when they're feeling particularly cocky or want to intimidate and it's real easy for them to thanks to experience and being able to walk the walk for the shit they talk

Claimed by afro-caribbeans and we're right and should say it(Those are monoracial dominican third gen iminigrants ma'am)

Get horndog allegations,are actually demisexual and don't care about white boys or white girls when it comes to attraction(Percy's canon namesake was married to the Princess of Ethopia and Jason hates Roy and barely cares about Tim,please be serious)

Or when it comes to platonic relathionships!!If they're to be a trinity the perfect 3rd is Miles Morales like how Hazel is Nico and Percy's and Jason's Robin and Batgirl are Duke and Stephanie and he wouldn't have it any other way

There's a significant difference that makes them all the more interesting together though-Jason's story is a selfmade tragedy where he choose hurt and darkness and even evil again and again for a long ass time until his redemption arc that he actually worked for and Percy's is that she's NEVER done anything wrong in her entire fucking life,she DIDN'T mean to hurt anyone,she WAS a good,good kid and she grew up to be an even better adult who's good at so many good things and good to so many people.Jason is Percy's legit foil and deserves that title more than any fascistic misogynist character does

They're the son of no one and the daughter of Poseidon and Sally Jackson.Them(and the 1610 Spiderman)are my characters ever

[idkaguyorsomething]

Is it weird that I am perfectly fine with Araki giving Jodio a severe mental illness but still wish he had given Jodio a different one?

sorry it took so long to answer this one, i was trying to figure out how exactly to answer it, and it turns out there's a lot of different ways:

from a perspective of representation: mental illness is an incredibly stigmatized subject, and in mediums like manga and comic books even more so, as it is incredibly common for a lot of popular plots in those mediums to go "well, x character went crazy, that's why they're evil", as well as stories in general to associate a lack of empathy with a lack of ability to act in traditionally heroic ways. jjba itself has shown that, as part of dio's initial villainous characterization involves him showing a lack of empathy towards various figures such as dario or george (although this isn't the only way his villainy is characterized, as we're also shown right off the bat that he's very deliberately cruel). with jodio being set up as more of an anti-hero, giving him more traits that could be considered unheroic as well as a commonly stigmatized mental disorder, it makes sense to not have that sit quite right. but taking the history of the series into mind, jojo's is no stranger to exploring more shades of gray in its protagonists in its past. johnny and gappy have certainly committed far greater acts of brutality in their parts, while giorno, who jodio is set up as a parallel to, outright aspires to be a head of organized crime. even josuke, who is portrayed as one of the kindest and most pure-of-heart jojos, basically condemns a guy to a fate worse than death in his first arc. this isn't necessarily anything new the series is giving us, and the fact that the jojolands is largely portrayed from the perspective of jodio himself is a massive plus, as it gives us insight into his thought processes and helps us sympathize with a character we might not have done so otherwise (telling a story from the perspective of someone doesn't necessarily ask us to sympathize with them, but things like the goofy jokes he makes with dragona, his own insight on his diagnosis, and his clear love for his family go a long way towards making jodio likeable). one could view this as the natural progression of jojos tending towards the anti-heroic while araki explores more marginalized communities he's interested in portraying, or a poorly thought out decision that furthers stigma towards said marginalized communities. personally, i think it's still too early in the story to make any real judgements, but the way i see it it's kind of similar to the situation with jolyne. she's the only female jojo, and the only one besides jonathan who ultimately fails in her quest at the end of her part. there are narrative and thematic reasons for doing so, but it doesn't sit right with a lot of people, and that's perfectly fine.

from a medical perspective: according to the dsm 5, a person must fit at least three of the criteria for antisocial personality disorder in order to be diagnosed as having it, most of which jodio does fit. failure to conform to social laws and norms (he's a teenage drug dealer), deceitfulness (when barbara ann asks him where he is and if he's hanging out with paco, he lies), impulsivity (he destroys one of the lava rocks to try and get rohan to cooperate), aggressiveness (he kicks that one fucking cop until he's a stain on the ground, twice, although he is justified in his actions and this kind of willingness to fight people is essentially a requirement to be a jojo), reckless disregard of safety (again, practically a requirement for most main characters), consistent irresponsibility (assuming what we've been shown of him is how he acts all the time, yes, although the story so far takes place over too small of a timeframe to determine that), and lack of remorse (dragona has to remind him not to get too violent in the opening chapter with the cop). so he does fit most of the criteria, but it is also a requirement that, to receive a diagnosis, a person must be eighteen or older, with evidence of having fit some of the criteria before the age of fifteen. so by real world standards, jodio would be on track to being diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, but actually receiving it from a high school psychologist is bullshit. then again, this is the universe where the president made a cowboy race battle royale where the contestants had to collect magic body parts, so it's entirely possible that psychiatric standards in that world are just different. but you would be entirely justified in not liking his diagnosis, and there are several other disorders that fit the behavior that jodio shows. there's adhd (the impulsivity and tendency to get lost in daydreams and beating the shit out of cops), depression (the sense of emptiness he describes upon being given his diagnosis), anxiety (irritability and angry outbursts), and that's just some of the more common disorders. we haven't even gotten into some other full-on personality disorders or common comorbidities with antisocial personality disorder! from this perspective, your assessment is totally fair.

from a thematic perspective: as mentioned earlier, jojo's is no stranger to making its heroes increasingly reflected in shades of gray, and parts seven and eight especially make a point of contrasting their protagonists with their respective foils from parts one and four. johnny is a paraplegic gringo jockey twink that murders people so hard his friend the executioner had to tell him to slow down, in contrast with the jacked and kindly gentleman jonathan who impressed a stranger so much with his dignity that he immediately joined him in his quest. gappy is a quirky lil amnesiac who beats people to death with shovels while josuke has one of the more normal personalities of all the jojos and possibly the lowest kill count. at first it might seem like giorno and jodio are the most similar duo, since they're both criminals that act a-okay with murder, but while giorno's goals and reasoning for joining the criminal underground are motivated by a sense of empathy towards the people of italy and a belief in a higher ideology that passione can aspire to, jodio is a very self-centered kid. he has a very inflated idea of his own reputation, can't spot obvious traps, and the very first thing we're told about him is that he wants to be stinking rich. he also believes in the ideology of mechanisms, but it's an ideology that is explicitly centered around gain and his own material wealth, in contrast to giorno's philosophy, which involves ideals of self-improvement and certain boundaries that should not be crossed in the pursuit of power. giorno's ruthlessness stems from a place of compassion, so having his counterpart being someone who lacks the ability to feel empathy is a really interesting choice that gives the story a lot of places to go. the fact that the other criteria he fills, like impulsiveness and irresponsibility, stand in direct contrast to giorno's ambition and planning ahead, also adds further potential for the jojolands to explore a completely different sort of crime story than golden wind. so from this perspective, i'd say that your assessment is rather harsh.

tl;dr there's a lot of different angles to approach this question from. it's 90% probably that i completely misunderstood what you were trying to ask, though, so please tell me what i got wrong :P

[koszmarnybudyn]

This was very fun to draw, as i said many times i love charakter design so showing it of was very nice.

Also no text and seperate versions:

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics on this awful week?

Absolute Superman #1 - I had a grim foreboding leading up to this week that this book was going to hit hard in part because of the result of the election. I take no joy in having been correct, even though I did love this. Maybe it's the aftermath of the election, but starting this off with a clear cut Champion of the Oppressed Superman makes me extremely happy. He's willing to fight and mess those Peacemakers up, but he retains the compassion we expect from heroic Supermen. Right now all I want to read is a power fantasy story about an underdog immigrant alien going up against an evil megacorp, and this book is delivering that in spades. I like how Aaron has flipped all the major foundational pieces of Superman and positioned them in the AU as weaknesses at first. Kal's farming upbringing on Krypton was the opposite of the idealized life he had in the mainstream universe. His shield, which was a symbol of hope for Krypton in the mainline, is instead a mark of shame on Krypton in the AU. But Aaron takes that and manages to make it a source of strength regardless for Superman. Clearly his low class status on Krypton is where he gets his affinity for outcasts on Earth. He wears the symbol of laborers proudly and gives it a new meaning. It's all great stuff, and clearly Aaron has something to say about our modern reality that I think is only going to get more hard hitting with Trump's re-election.

Cool to see Lois start off as an enemy as I expected. If you're going to take all of Superman's comforts, you can't leave his iconic love interest untouched! I'm betting Absolute Lois is a daddy's girl, that older guy might even be Sam Lane, and I don't think it will be love at first sight for Supes and her. I'm freaking hyped for Brainiac to be the first villain, Brainiac desperately needs stories that do more with him beyond having him try to bottle Metropolis, and Brainiac working for a megacorp is so unlike his mainline counterpart that I want to see where this goes. Glad he has the bottles, and one of them even appears to be Kryptonian as per norm. If Brainiac is *merely* working for R&D, who is the CEO of Lazarus? Could it be Kobra as I have speculated? Ultra-Humanite? Either one would be a cool choice. Absolute DC is now 3/3, I'm totally invested in seeing where this universe goes.

My Adventures With Superman #6 - A nice heartwarming wrap up to a sadly totally overlooked mini. My guy Bloodsport makes it through alive which gives me hope he could show up in future seasons of MAWS. This ends with Clark salvaging Amazo's core and teases that Amazo might get rebuilt in a new body. S2 ended with them likewise having an intact Brainiac core. I'm thinking this mini is foreshadowing that we will have a similar situation in S3 where Lex gets his hands on the core and builds Brainiac a new body (hopefully one more like his comic or DCAU appearance).

Action Comics #1074 - Henry's art improved! I liked his depiction of Krypton anyway. I'm warming up more and more to the main plotline. While I don't love Waid's take on the Phantom Zone, his take on Krypton is closely in line with what I think Krypton should be: technologically advanced while socially regressive. I loved that Kal was acknowledged as older than his own father, really adds to the tragedy of Krypton's death to have Jor and Lara die young. Kara's backup is good too, her new found robot friend makes me smile. No clue what's going on still!

Aliens vs. Avengers #2 - Not as full of twists as the first issue, but still prime Hickman.

Ultimates #6 - Wow I was completely wrong about who gets killed. Tony?!? I don't buy that he will stay dead mind you, but I did not see that coming. Alright my guess is either we're going to get an "Ultimate Vision" based on Tony's brainwaves, or that DoomReed is going to use the Immortus Engine to change Tony's fate.

[brazenautomaton]

I once again came across your post that claims communism is childish, and a result of an assumption that a person's immediate environment includes everything they're aware of, and furthermore that communists feel they should have direct control of everything within their immediate environment... and I have never felt like such a fool before.

When I read that around the time you first posted it I thought it was such a ridiculous post. I said to myself that yes some online communists might talk as though they believe something like this, but this post is vastly exaggerating the issue. I thought that any conversation with a communist who was a median level of clear sighted would make it obvious that such simplistic ideas are not the norm.

This is approximately what I would have thought until about mid October. That was when I was talking with other communists who I respected and trusted and they told me that being able to model or understand the behavior of other people is irrelevant, that being able to understand motivations or desires you don't personally share is irrelevant, because in a communist world the good communists will simply do everything that is correct and proper to do and prevent all other action.

Perhaps you're thinking now that of course those evil communists would kill everyone who disagreed with them as part of creating their utopia? This is something much sillier than that though, apparently people really believe that without force or negotiation a small cadre of communists will simply directly control the actions of everyone in the world. The fact that I didn't share this view seemed to just confuse people, as though nobody else there had even considered that there could be issues with this plan.

I recognized that many communists sucked even before starting to consider myself one, but I did not realize communists were literally lacking theory of mind, and relied upon delusions of omnipotence to make up for the difficulties in coordination that this creates.

I've never felt such despair for the future of this world. How can it be that everyone has such comically ridiculous beliefs?

I know they don't plan to kill everyone who doesn't fit in their utopia, they have the laziest world-model ever and just cannot imagine anything that isn't the most convenient thing being true.

they're so incredibly confident that everything will just be the most emotionally convenient thing possible, they end up in situations where killing people is the only way to maintain their narrative. they end up killing people because it's easier than thinking.

[liliasmaestra]

Well, that was the completely unsatisfactory male-centred bullshit I was worried about.

The Wonder Twink can make the Road real but doesn't even try to fix the Coven's deaths despite his crying about it.

Literally the entire show was a vehicle for his manpain, including the suffering and deaths of the women, gee, if only some of us saw this coming.

Agatha experiences 0 growth. She's still avoiding everything, still just power hungry, no coven only using the zombie for her agenda.

Agatha literally dies for the narrative purpose of becoming his "guide" ("iN ThE cOmICs" a lot of things that happen in comics are in fact terribly written dogshit!)

The fight between Agatha and Rio was boring and ruined by Pound Land Superman's useless interjections, they wasted Aubrey's big moment.

Literally the same fatal flaw as Wandavision in turning into a typical superhero CGI fest at the end.

Apparently Agatha COULD control her powers this entire time? If only the narrative confronted that at all.

I did like Rio's indignation at being called evil; her use of nature and explanation of herself were the best part of the finale.

Pacing was a mess both episodes, zipping through what should've been the big scenes and crawling through everything else.

The Kaplans get five seconds of screentime where nothing gets explained except one line of exposition that dipshit mcgee was gone 24 hours.

Jen flying away looked weird, then again all the flying in the MCU looks laughable to me

Her being the Path Ahead was, what, set up for Midnight Sons(/Suns)? A weird vaguerie about her flying into a new day? Because we got two minutes of grappling with Agatha being the reason she was bound and then poof. Disappointing.

I did like that we got time with Jen's grief over Lilia. I'm going to headcanon that she took care of closing up Lilia's business and is the real carrier of Lilia and Alice's memories.

RIP Sharon you were just a redshirt after all.

What happened to Senor Scratchy?

The forced Wandavision parallel after the big battle.... embarrassing.

Poor Tommy/Whoever has the most fucked up existence that will not be appropriately confronted ever.

The kids shouldn't exist, Rio's right.

No explanation of Mr Magoo suddenly having a costume or his full abilities. OK.

I don't mind Agatha being a villainous bitch, it's sexy and fun, but it doesn't jive with what we've been watching even with the winks and nods, or with her becoming Wonderbread's personal ghost.

Lilia saw the future to warn Agatha how, exactly? Her visions that we explicitly saw on the show are a result of her being unbound in time and experiencing moments randomly. They did not show us a witch with pure divination powers ala Trelawney. I can believe she has those powers but they never showed us that clearly.

Actually quite shitty to have Alice lampshade how unfair her death is!

I can't get over Jac Schaeffer bragging about breaking MCU death norms because, honey, killing off or otherwise shoving to the margins all the women around your special white man who faces no real danger or consequence or test is in fact the most tired trope on fiction not just the MCU.

Agatha creating the Ballad with Nicky was a a bit of a foregone conclusion, and Nicky in general only existed as a plot device so its hard for me to care about him either way.

They really wasted Agatha's true rage, which was engaging and earnt, and the idea of being trapped on the Road.

Even the flashbacks are just set up for her imprinting on Mr Misogyny.

Agatha hates Rio now? Full on? It was all manipulation but also she's an idiot who apparently doesn't understand that if she wasn't a serial killer she wouldn't be stalked by Death so much?

The entire 'end' to that relationship is nonsensical and the beginning is nonexistent.

Agatha does a 180 because Billy No Boundaries invades her mind and invokes Nicky, ugh.

I guess "Agatha All Along" refers to the Road being a scam/her turning into a ghost?

No real time spent exploring the ramifications of everything being created by Billiam, just him whining about his manpain over it.

Honestly, I was just so very bored as soon as it became clear everything was indeed going to be about Palette-Swapped-Arrow.

Everyone I know IRL is confused and unsatisfied by the ending, and these are people who were so excited the past two months and some of them even started watching MCU stuff just because of this show. So that's sad.

[the-owl-house-takes]

If the demons in TOH were replaced by a human ethnicity, their treatment by the show would be considered incredibly racist.

They're not human, of course. They're not real. But they can still reflect the creator's biases, especially since, on paper, they're as much "people" as witches, and aren't supposed to just be enemies or monsters (not that that isn't also often used to slide racism into fantasy stories, by depicting the "others" as a compact, unthinking evil).

Yet, even though demons fill crowd scenes and even give the world its name (DEMON realm not Witch realm), they're never important to the plot. The one demon in the main cast is framed as annoying comic relief, and at the end revealed to be some sort of... Parasite? Such a great and not at all dehumanizing detail to ascribe to a character! The other "important" demon character (Vee) can conveniently shift into human form at will, so she can "pass" as humanoid without issue. King, whose identity is important to the plot, is explicitly revealed to NOT be a demon.

Any other demon who speaks more than one line is just a secondary comedic villain or sidekick (NOT a main villain ofc, because that's an important role that should go to a humanoid).

TOH is considered by fans super diverse™ and inclusive™, but as many have noticed almost the whole crew is white. The way they treat the POC characters feels like an afterthought, with them being overshadowed by white characters all the time, and never getting a chance to show their culture (especially the supposedly Black-Dominican Luz and Camila).

It's like the (white) crew decided, "Let's make this show and let's 'add diversity' to it!", without them actually putting in the effort to have diversity behind the scenes. Just a POC coat of paint, so they can pat themselves in the back for how diverse and progressive they (supposedly) are.

And here we go back to the start. They might have added a few POC characters, but their white bias still shows through the cracks. They just created a new "acceptable" cathegory of fake people that it's ok to dehumanize, as a way to put POCs in the "in group" (but not "too much" as to overshadow the white characters obviously). But it still borrows the same racist tropes that were used to otherize and dehumanize people in media for decades. They don't just disappear because you wrote "demon" over the labels.

In any case, it's telling how the "daring" and "diverse" show that screams from the rooftops that "weirdos have to stick together" will actively push aside any character that doesn't conform to the (humanoid) norm outside of the most inoffensive and watered down features.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I know some people will think this ask is racist because it's comparing POC to demons (I'm a POC myself btw). But. "Demon" is just the word the show uses to otherize the group of people that doesn't fall in line with the accepted "norm" of human likeness.

It has nothing to do with intellect or morality, demons in this context could be called angels or smurfs or elves or whatevs, let's remember they're supposedly "equal" to the witches. It doesn't change the fact that they're just used as a way to add a weird 'n' spooky vibe to the setting but are never, EVER meant to be actual characters, outside of the one that can hide her nature at will.

-

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

You know what I like in superhero stories? When they answer the question of, "Why don't the villains just use their talents for money?" with "Because they're too dysfunctional, too selfish, or too crazy to use their talents honestly."

Because isn't that how it is some of the time? Where you have brilliant people who can easily make a ton of money, but they want it all NOW so they use crime to get it, or they blow it all on hedonism and need more, or something else that ends with them being criminals? Doesn't it also make them such good foils to heroes who often also had a bad hand but chose to do the right thing and put others first, even when it brought great sacrfice?

One side actively chooses to do good, regardless of whether it rewards them. The other side actively chooses to do evil, No matter how much it punishes them.

YES.

Good and evil are choices and the best characters reflect that. To continue beating the Batman horse to death, Bruce Wayne with all his resources and iron will dedication to his cause, could have easily decided to lash out at the world for what happened to his parents. In fact, considering his resources and an upbringing that was more isolated from society than is the norm for most people, I would say most people in his position, in the most corrupt city in the world, would have turned to vengeance and hate. But instead, he made a choice to do the opposite. His vow wasn't to make the people responsible for his parent's deaths suffer. His vow was that no other child would ever have to suffer what he did. His mission is pure. It is noble. And it can never be fulfilled. That's what makes him compelling. That's what makes him a hero.

And that's why all the "Esleworlds" and "What Ifs" where Batman is a murderer and a violent psychopath feel like a water damaged old daguerreotype compared to the vibrant 8k photograph that is the real Batman. Because choosing hate and evil is boring. It's the easy thing to do. It's common and it's commonplace. Reading about people like that does nothing to inspire. It does nothing to make a bad day a little brighter. There's nothing to admire. Nothing to strive towards. True heroism, the choice to do the right thing when the wrong thing would be easier and more satisfying, is noble.

And nobility is something that comics have been seriously lacking, lately.

Now let's contrast that with another dead horse, the Joker, in the deadest of all the Joker's own horses, the Killing Joke.

In that story, at the very end, Joker is offered a choice. Even after everything he's done, to some of the people Batman cares for the most, Batman still offers to help him. He offers rehabilitation. To work with the Joker to get him the help he needs so that one day he can heal and be something other than the monster he is. He tells the Joker he will stay with him so he doesn't have to be alone anymore. And the absolute brilliance of that story, the thing that turns Bruce from a hopelessly naïve idealist into Batman, is that the Joker actually considers it. And the offer that Bruce makes, the way he phrases it, "we can work together" "you wouldn't have to be alone anymore", is him giving the Joker exactly what he's always wanted--Batman's full attention. All he has to do is make the hard choice. To work on himself. To change. To heal and be a better person. And in the end he chooses not to try. And he doesn't just reject it because he's evil, or because he can't understand that what he's doing is wrong. He rejects Batman's offer because he thinks it's far too late for that option. He's done too much, become too much, to ever go back. He chooses to spurn the thing he's always wanted most and to stay on his current path because he thinks trying to go back would be impossible. Which once again brings us back to Batman. Because if you'll remember, the path Batman chooses is also impossible. He can never redeem Gotham. He can never prevent every child from losing their family to violence. He knows this, and yet he still chooses to try.

Once again, that's the difference between a hero and a villain. A hero chooses the right thing. A villain chooses the easy thing. A hero is noble. A villain is common.

Modern comics are common.