#female comic book crime fighters

[comicsart3]

Phantom Lady, the costumed crime fighter who, with her black light ray and jiu-jitsu skills, was the nemesis of gangsters and villains everywhere, had two main incarnations. The first was as a sleekly, if very revealingly, drawn yellow-clad and elegant figure, who featured principally in Police Comics and was often illustrated by Arthur Peddy. Her second version was a rather more camp and sexualised character, in a blue all-in-one shorts number, cascading dark locks and curvaceous figure, illustrated in characteristic style by the prolific Matt Baker. This latter portrayal, that appeared in her own title, Phantom Lady, did not feature more light-hearted stories particularly, but certainly had a more cartoony and fantasy aspect than her predecessor. The “yellow” Phantom Lady looked more severe, adult and intimidating, perhaps pre-figuring more mysterious female comic book characters such as Batwoman. I prefer it.

In the panel featured above, Phantom Lady is on the trail of a desperate Japanese spy and assassin who, although he comes within an ace of overpowering our heroine, surprisingly being able to withstand the black light ray, eventually succumbs and is left bound and gagged by the female crime fighter, even providing her with a signed confession. Whichever version of the character you prefer, one is still left with the mind-boggling proposition that no one seems able to realise debutante Sandra Knight is actually Phantom Lady, despite her absence of a disguising mask, wig or veil - not even Sandra’s own father!

The above panel appeared in the Phantom Lady story The Japanese Assassination Plot and featured in Police Comics #9 (May 1942) and in The Phantom Lady Archives, Volume 1.1, the Quality Years (1941-43).

Source: comicbookplus

[dynamoe]

still dicking around with my Triple Threat design

Bruce Timm-ish/Batman: The Animated Series-style character rendering. Some Tuxedo Mask inspiration snuck in with all the roses... maybe she throws them to initiate battling evil doers?

I actually really don't like superhero shit (tough considering the direction VBros took in later seasons), but even with my distaste I wanted to do justice to the references.

🌹 more 🌹 →

🌹 Triple Threat in the 1980s

🌹 Rose Whalen (old)

🌹 Billy's prom date

Triple Threat's costume is meant to represent a Broadway chorine, but also it's a bit like a majorette... antiquated military uniform but pantsless. Very gendered. The old-fashioned/family friendly version of sexy... but not TOO sexy.

Visual reference to both the pants-less white tie tails of Zatanna the magician of DC Comics and the stage costumes from the "burlesque" Broadway musical revue Sugar Babies

The revue starred Mickey Rooney in his Broadway debut, Ann Miller... The revue subsequently had a short-lived National tour which starred Carol Channing and Robert Morse, from August through November 1980. (Carol Channing is the model for Rose's speaking voice, obvs.)

Billy's mom as a character sucks— she's introduced as [out-of-touch old person] who becomes [smothering mother] archetype— but in just a few appearances implies potential depths not explored. She's the only canon character I've written aside from Billy & White, in a series of flashbacks to Billy's childhood with her in Boy Genius (← read it on AO3)

Based on the hair, this flashback is mid-1960s. Maybe a bit later. OG Team Venture have been painted as Jonny Quest, Doc Savage and the Fabulous Five and James Bond, but this scene has a real TV Batman '66 feel to it. Best arena for a campy Broadway-musical-themed crime-fighter.

Triple Threat would be interesting to explore in the trajectory of comic book superheroes going from Golden Age goofy to the '80s X-treme en-darkening/en-seriousning (imagine Triple Threat reimagined as a Punisher type). At the same time, her Pollyanna American Exceptionalism/Moral Purity message (that Action Man wants to soil with his filth) would get dragged through the mud as she makes "hard choices" aka being a hypocrite in service of her all-American values.

She buys into moral panics. She warns against rock and roll and drugs, despite being a Baby Boomer. She is defiantly "a square" (as well as gullible to propaganda).

Female Conservatives are fascinating as they are gross. The Anti-Feminist Feminist. She's never shown to be motivated by religious fundamentalism (she seems fine with the possibility of her son being gay), it's more insidious than that. Is she machiavellian like a super-powered Phyllis Schlafly or, like the moral panic stuff, she's really gullible to conservative messaging? I see her more as a Kissinger Neo-Con than a MAGA conspiracy rube. She's not angry or hateful in her conservativeness, just reactionary and myopic.

Another ill-defined aspect... does Triple Threat have superpowers? She can still do flying leap kicks at age 60ish which suggests she's more than just "really good at fighting." What if she had been part of some Captain America super-serum ultimate-soldier program that screws her up medically, later causing Billy's genetic birth defects? Is she filled with guilt? Angry at the government for not telling her about the side effects?

→ → More on Rose Whalen's history

all my Billy & White stuff at → FAILURES of SCIENCE index

[xolta]

Super hero fighting game idea i based off ai generated images.

So I was goofing around with ai and i kinda sparked my imagination what if i used these images as the base for a imagery fighting game. Staring a cast of super heroes and super villains. With each hero and or villain with there own back ground. Below each charater is the ai generated image that inspired me to wirte up the charters names and back grounds.

Black Phoenix: A Immortal god like begin, that as invited the cast to his fighting tournament in search of some one who can challenge him in battle. Dose this fighting tournament every 100 years on a different planet offering the winner one wish. Finale boss of the game. become playable after beating him.

EarthSatter: A Intergalactic conquer and warlord who has rule over many worlds. He will use his wish to become ruler of the universe.

Gallahad: A knight that drank form the holy grail becoming immortal, he has been a champion of good for many centuries. Considered to be Earth's first super hero. His wish will be for ever lasting peace.

Jet Woman: A cyborg super heroine form the future year of 2065, set back to get the wish before Earthsatter. She was modified by rebels to undo the future were Earthsatter is master of Earth.

Rose V: The last surviving member of The V Force a team of super hero who battled Night witch. After her comrades died vigilantly defending Earth, her only wish is to bring her team back to life.

Night Witch: A evil witch form a other planet who wants to use the souls of the people of earth to summon her domonic master the Dark Monarch into the world.

Dr. Demon: Lawyer by day demonic super hero at, by using down the demon stone. He transforms to bring evil to justice after the death of his father. Wishes to bring his father's killer to justice.

Mammoth man: A hero form another dimension of magic and swords. Been on a quest to find a way home. He protect castle Greenskin. Wishes to go home.

Sliver Century: Not hero or villain, he found an alien super suit as a child. Uses it to be a one man army for the highest bidder. Wishes to become the universe's richest man.

Rejian: A young boy bounded to the body of a dragon by a cult. Uses his power to defend his home nation form the dragon cult's evil. Can't return to his normal form but his still a child in heart and mind. Wish for toys.( joke ending?)

Shadow man: A 1923 mob enforcer who won the last tournament 100 years and wished for immortality. Becoming Galahads nemesis and leader of the world's largest crime syndicate. Will wish for Galahad's death.

Volt panther: Falsely empersioned for killing her husband and was about to be executed by electric chair. She survived do to her mutant power of shoring energy and releasing it. Now fights for all falsely empersioned. Will wish to clear her name.

Steel amazon: Female Russian Wight lifter injected with nanites during the last days of the cold war. Was frozen for decades and now finds a strange new world. Fighting for the people of Russia. May have a crush on Galahad, may use her wish to make him love her.

Moon Shadow: Consider by some to be Earth's smartest man, he became jaded by humanity at a younge age and plans to make the worlda better place by taking it over. To this end he built the robot hero Scarlet King. Wishes for Scarlet King to rejoin him in his conquest.

Scarlet king: A Robot super hero created as a weapon by Moon shadow but soon rebelled and now uses his powers for good. Disgueses him self as a mild mannered reporter in human form. Wishes form his "father" to become good.

Birghtstar : A comic book super heroine brought into the "real world" by the mad god Heloth for reasons unknown to us all. She is still adjusting to the "real world." Wishes to be made flesh and bone.

~Unlocakable fighters~

The Dark Monarch: The demonic ruler of a helish plane that needs the souls of the living to escape his prison. What he plans to do with earth his deiffinalty not going to be fun for any one. Master of Night wish.

The mad god Heloth: A god of pure and utter insanity. Some say "her" mind was splintered into many fragments by the act of creating the universe, before the begging of time. Her motives like her sanity are broken and vague. Might be black and white phoenix's mother.

White Phoenix: A immortal god like begin that is said to be the other sister and opposite to her brother. Has entered to stop him meddling in mortal affairs out of what she assumes is boredom.

Viperskulltor: A evil lich form mammoth man's home demsion and his arch nemsis. Wants the power of Castle Greenskin to take over it. Wishes for Castle Greenskins power.

Anget Race Solar: A hot headed stunt driver with a massive chip her shoulder and lives for danger. Becomes a goverment agent and super spy. She drives the solar 09 super car. Wishes for a vaction.

~DLC~

Zephyr J: Zephyr j is the first of its kinda antonymous anti kaiju mecha, given a burning scene of justice and need to protect humanity. It can change size at will and is ready to save the world. Dose not make a wish.

Comsic Dodo: Cosmic Dodo is alien police officer who as acendeitly brought a war to earth form his own world. While on earth he takes on the human form of Dead Biologist I.M. bird. He Now defends earth as a secret hero . He wishes to save earth form the war he borught here.

Klaus Von Luger: A Nazi super spy who placed hi brain in a robotic body at the end of ww2. Now he leads the neo nazi group S.K.U.L.L and is the arch nemesis of Race Solar. Wishes for the 4th reich.

Paperclip King: Hank Smith was a normal up and coming small business owner who sold office supply's. Until one day he so called hero cosmic dodo ruined his life ( on accident) by destroying his business, unable to pay his debts he turned to a life of crime and now is out for revenge. Wishes for revenge.

Dar'mosignt the kaiju master: A beging form a under ground civilaztion lost to time. Believe he and his kind are the right full rulers of earth and now sends his army of Bio Kaiju to take back what they believe is his peoples birth right. Wishes for his people to take back Earth.

~DLC 2~

Skull Anget: An cyborg agent of S.K.U.L.L

M. Steven and crash doodle: A Cartoonist given the power to crate life with his enchanted pen. His pens powers may be Heloth's doing. He as crated and controls the "hero" Crash man aka crash doodle. They mean well but some times people wonder if there good guys or not. Wishes for respect.

Mr. Face: Mr. Face comes form a failed Creepy pasta arg game were he was created to sell kids nfts. But now that he his free form his video world he wants to sell body parts form the victims he cuts up. No idea if "he" has been given life by Heloth. Wishes for a chain saw that never runs out of gas.

Jack o doom: A stay at home dad who streams video games for a living is worried about the state of the city he and his family lives in. So he puts on a costume and becomes the comuity hero Jack o doom. Wish for super powers.

~alt skins~

Neo Black Phoenix Neo white phoenix Neo Paperclip king Neo night witch 70's zephry j Dark monarch manga form Good of halloween jack o doom Cyber Kluas von luger Rose V mach 2 Birghtstar human Sane Heloth Neo Scarlet king Kaiju Masters King Moonshadow Anime cosmic dodo crash and doodle neo Good future jet women neo volt panther Sliver century full robo cyber race solar Heroic shadow man mecha Rejian 1940's steel amazon actionfigure Viperskullator actionfigure mammoth man 1940s Gallahad 1940's earthshatter super skull anget Dr. Demon female Mr. face pixel version

~dlc skins~

Heoric moon shadow female earthshatter 1940s Migo action figure Gallahad Migo action figure steel amazon Anime figure black phoenix Anime figure white phoenix 1970's Birghtstar anime steel amazon anime Gallahad low poly cosmic dodo anime figure rose v anime figure volt panther 1940s holth anime figure dark monarch 1940s dark monarch

so Lucha jack, K.o. the robot mascot, Sam and Colt xeno clad would be cross over charters

[roobylavender]

«By the time they finally fleshed the character out, they had to let her go. 1954’s new Comics Code Authority left no room for sexy, likable crooks. “With paranoia building, DC Comics decided it would be prudent to ‘retire’ a sexy and evil female character like Catwoman until such time, if any, that sanity returned to society and its standards.” Once the Code drove Catwoman out of the comics for some years to come, Bob Kane and his creative team introduced a more respectable and less lust-inspiring heroine to fill the “kind of female Batman” role: the first Batwoman, Kathy Kane, a former circus acrobat with an inheritance and a dream of imitating Batman. Bruce’s dates with Kathy (who doesn’t know he’s Batman) and Batman’s interactions with Batwoman, introduced by a creative team eager to reassure readers of Batman’s heterosexuality, failed to satisfy readers. Back when the previous woman who’d interested him most had been a thief on the opposite side of the law, their romantic tension had spiced up the conflict as that line of law kept them apart. With a fellow crime-fighter, though, the flirtations seemed trite. Having no hero-versus-villainess complication in their way, why wouldn’t they pursue their passion, tear off those masks when alone, and become a real couple? “Readers looking for mystery and adventure were beginning to wonder why they should put up with such soap opera, and why Batman wasn’t out at night wrestling with Catwoman instead.” Claiming that Batman had renounced romance while fighting crime didn’t cut it.» it's very strange to see how Selina has essentially become modern Batman's Kathy Kane when the reason for her popularity was that she wasn't like her.

exactly! like it's always a little strange to come across people who think "redemption" is the goal with her as a character. in pre-crisis canon it's a pretty boring development that can only be reasoned to exist to facilitate her relationship with bruce rather than emphasize on anything interesting about her as an individual (len wein era of the early 80s comes to mind, as well as the obv levitz introduction of huntress), and in post-crisis canon it's a development that's more or less lead to the obscurity of her position as a financially disadvantaged sex worker who has all of the right reasons to want to rebel against law and order, and that rebellion offering an interesting social commentary thereby. you're not only losing the tension if you make her into an agreeable partner, you're also losing the grit to the story that her antagonism creates. where are these quotes from btw like is it a book or something bc i would love to read it in full

[rodpupo2]

Research: Project Finish

Tim Sale

Tim Sale is a famous comic book artist, who had worked in several titles along with the writer Jeff Loeb, including Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, Daredevil, and many others.

Tim Sale was born in may of 1956, in New York, where he studied visual arts, spent a good time of his life in Seattle, and today he lives in California.

For some years he drew his art privately, only to please himself. When he found himself working at a fast food in his late twenties, however, he decided to try to sell some of his work. This led to an association with Thives’ World Graphics, a fantasy anthology series, where he illustrated stories.

What most marks his work is the dramatic aspect that he manages to obtain in the characterization of his characters and in the scenarios he creates, making the stories unique and immortalizing the characters.

The union of Sale’s art with Loeb’s engaging narrative has become the perfect marriage for mysterious plots.

One of the most striking characters worked by Sale was Batman, which he drew “The Long Halloween”, “Dark Victory” and “Halloween”. He was able to fully transfigure the dark aura of Gotham and his Dark Knight. He also worked with Superman in the saga “ Superman for All Seasons”.

Both of The Long Halloween and For All Seasons are what is known as “Year one” comics. These works take their heroes back in time to their earliest days of crime fighters.

His main tool is watercolor, which he uses with mastery. Sale's palette of colors is something really impressive, always drawing and painting his characters very delicately, and calmly. His style is very cartoonish, although this does not diminish his art in any way, on the contrary, his style is very unique and characteristic.

Pedro Franz

Is a Brazilian comic book artist, who was born in Santa Catarina and has a degree in design.

He has been publishing several comic books and participating in exhibitions in Brazil and abroad. As an illustrator, he has published works several magazines and books, and regularly collaborates with the Piauí magazine. As a graphic designer, he is a contributor to the Par (Ent) Esis platform. He has comics translated and published in English and Spanish, and has good international recognition, thanks to his publications.

But what is most impressive in Pedro's art, perhaps is his intensive use of colors. Mixing various shades of different colors, mixing different compositions. In addition to sometimes using characters from pop culture, with his elaborate style.

Despite liking traditional comics, he has always published and worked for national publishers, often with authorial works.

Perhaps his best known work, which was even published in the United States is the comic “Suburbia”.

Suburbia tells the story of Conceição, a girls daughter of enslaved rural workers, who flees to Rio de Janeiro in the early 1990s. In the city, Conceição begins to work as a cleaner and to get involved in the world of funk, slums and poverty.

His drawings are extremely surreal, not exactly following a traditional way of making comics, with several images spread across the page, with different shapes and sizes, with extremely strong colors, mainly valuing blue, purple, yellow and red, as his main colors.

Richard Corben

Richard Corben was one of the contributors of elevating the comics to the category of Art, and of its unparalleled style of great influence among many current artists.

Richard Vance Corben was born in Missouri, United States on October 1940, in a family of farmers in the middle west ( where he started reading comics), and lived in Kansas City. There he studied Fine Arts, got married, had a girl and started working in local cinematography animation company. At the same time, he started to create and publish some underground fanzines. From the begging it was clear that he was interested in science fiction, eroticism, and total rejection of institutions ( the Army, the Church, etc), mixed with a lot of humor.

At a young age, Corben was an aficionado of bodybuilding, just like everyone who was interested in a persons aesthetics. The first character that he created, was Rowlf, a dog who took on a human form. In the beginning of the 1970s he amplified his work ( and his fame) in some underground magazines. And in 1971 he started working for the Heavy Metal publisher where he created one of his most famous characters, Den a large muscular man, who was always naked, and always after some adventure.

Corben has a very particular style, with unsettling mixture of caricatured, often satirical grotesque and intense,convincing realism. Never before had such wildly cartoonish worlds proved so convincing.

Also he can handle an exponentially higher standard because of his ability to use colour to show the effect of light on whatever he’s depicting. The way that he mixes light and colors in certain panels to differentiate those elements from each other, is something to admire.

Corben worked in a few mainstream comics, he always preferred to work with authorial works or working in specific themes like fantasy and science fiction comics and not so much on superheroes.

But probably the most famous mainstream comic that ever worked was the character Hellboy, along with writer Mike Mignola.

Hellboy is a series of comics that has a lot of mysticism, Norse mythology, horror and monsters. Something Corben certainly agreed to do, without thinking twice.

Richard Corben is one of my favorite artists, with a style that is perhaps not as realistic as an Alex Ross for example, but the humor and beauty that he puts in his characters is very unique.

Corben died on December 2, 2020, leaving a great legacy, for the world of comics and arts, with a very unique style and extremely stunning worlds.

Charlie Allard 

Charlie Adlard is a British comic book artist, who have worked on the comic industry for over 25 years. He spent the majority of his time since 2003 working in The Walking Dead along side with writer Robert Kirkman , until the last issue on 2019 He started reading comics when he was very young, and he said that he was very lucky to have influences of American comics and the more high art, such as Asterix and Tin Tin. He was fascinated by European comic books artists like Moebius, Alberto Uderzo and Herge. He started his career as many British artists and writers, working on 2000 AD, with characters such as Judge Dredd, Armitage and eventually Savage. In the United States he started working with the X Files, Astronauts in trouble, and of course The Walking Dead. Adlard started in The Walking Dead from issue 7, and brought a slightly different style, from the previous artist. Adlard's art is very cartoonish, but the universe of The Walking Dead still doesn't get silly because of it. Quite the opposite, the dirt and rot that Adlerd puts on his characters and the world, only sustains what a horrible world it is to live in. Many readers complain about Adlard's style, being very simple, that his characters are very similar, and sometimes it is difficult to identify them. But I believe that although his style does not vary much, when it comes time to show a horde of zombies, a devastated city, people feeling despair, and extremely disturbing scenes, Adlard manages to excel. Adlard's main tool is ink. All The Walking Dead magazines are in black and white, and he manages to give a lot of depth to the scenarios and characters using only a few ink stains. Today Adlard is doing some comics, mainly for DC, but says that he does not intend to work with Kirkman and zombies again, because he wants to explore other themes, and to innovate his drawing skills.

Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid was one of the most important and well known figures in contemporary architecture and design. With a singular trajectory, marked by a versatile, bold and out of the box style, she was the first woman to receive Pritzker Prize for architecture and was also the only female representative honored by the Royal Institute of British Architects with a golden medal. Zaha Hadid was born in Iraq, more precisely in the city of Halloween, in Bagdá, in the year 1950. Her family was of high class, her father being an important politician and her mother an artist. Still young, she traveled and studied in other places of the world, like London and Switzerland, but it was in her native land the she got her first formation, when she graduated in mathematics. At the age of 22, in 1972, she enrolled in one of the most famous independent schools of architecture in London, and there she gave the starting point to her career by studying and creating an important connection with the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, a figure that encouraged her and opened the doors for opportunities. Later in the 1980s, Zaha Hadid decided to open her own office. This, Zaha Hadid Architects was born, which made her name and talent recognized worldwide. Known for her works with futuristic lines, clean and pure forms, as well as the fragmentation of architectural design. Her projects and discussions raise issues that put architecture and its future to the test. This is because the architect seeks in her works to interrelate design, architecture and urbanism. I knew Hadid and some of her works, but it was the recommendation of my teacher Lauren, that I should look for this architect. As my project takes place in the future, she recommended that I look at some works by Zaha Hadid to get inspiration when creating the scenario for the comic. I find it very interesting how her works have this futuristic aesthetic , because it reminds me of science fiction films like Blade Runner with those skyscrapers and buildings with different shapes and sizes that are extremely imaginative that could only exist in films. With unique works and projects, famous for their exuberance, futuristic elements, curves, non linear shapes, distortions and fragmentations, Hadid inspired and generated fascination both for her constructions around the world.

Syd Mead

Syd Mead was a designer, best known for working on films such as Aliens, Blade Runner, Tron and Star trek. Mead was born in Minnesota, United States, on July of 1933, but five years later he moved to a second house in the western of United States prior to graduating from High School in Colorado in 1951. Some years later, he did the Art Center School in Los Angeles, where he graduated with great distinction in 1959. He was immediately recruited by  the Ford Motor Company. At Ford he worked in the advanced styling department, creating futuristic concept car designs. But his imagination went beyond cars and he began to imagine clothes, helmets, buildings and scenery from hyper advanced civilization. After Ford, he also worked in other big companies like Chrysler, Sony and Phillips. After that he started migrating to the concept art world of movies. Mead is really important for generation of writers of science fiction, because many of them were influenced by Mead’s colorful paintings. Mead never wrote a novel or short story. He imagined the future in his mind and turned that imagination into illustrations. In 1979 he designed the extraterrestrial spaceship for the first film “Star Trek” in the cinema. Ridley Scott called Mead to design the buildings and flying cars of the futuristic Los Angeles “Blade Runner” in 1982. In 1986 he was hired to design the space station and vehicles of the movie Aliens directed by James Cameron. Almost at the same time, the designer created the electronic world of “Tron” for Disney studios. The same ones who hired him in 2014 to design the futuristic city of “Tomorrowland”. Mead died in 2019 after three years of lymphoma, he was 86 years old. He was a great influence for many designers and science fiction writers and illustrators, due for his creative worlds and automobiles , Elon Musk quotes Mead as one of his major influences, on visions of the automotive future and design in general.

Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson 

Transmetropolitan is a comic written by the British writer Warren Ellis and the American illustrator Darick Robertson, published by the Vertigo label, and falls within the cyberpunk genre, and the problems that rampant technology will cause us.

Throughout the 60 issues of Transmetropolitan, Ellis and Robertson build a chaotic and brilliantly alive future, presenting a sci-fi society with a peculiar mix of elements of cyberpunk, political dystopias, bioengineering and transhumanism, sexuality, economics and much more.

In a dystopia, in a not so distant future, the journalist Spider Jerusalem is isolated for fiver years in a hut in the forest, but he has to return to the city to earn some money.

Throughout the comic, amid a nihilistic aura that humanity has no salvation, the author- Warren Ellis - criticizes the consumerism and futility. The illustrations, of Darick Robertson, is full of excesses as the environment should be, a brand of the style of the 1990s.

The search for the truth is the central theme of this work, and in the midst of all this we found ourselves in a investigative odyssey that involves the lowest scum of that society ( thieves, murderers and rapists) until reaches the highest of the scum ( the presidency).

This background allows the work to touch on the most profound social themes, and without fear of saying what needs to be criticized, this is where Transmetropolitan shines, and provoke deep reflections on issues such as racism, the influence of media, the power of religions, the education, and many other themes.

In short, Transmetropolitan dissects and criticizes everything, it points out the flaws, the lies and the hypocrisy of each one. It’s a study about the problems of democratic society in the 21th century.

Jon Mcnaught 

Jon Mcnaught was born in 1985, London, England. He work with drawing comics, and work as an illustrator, printmaker and lecturer. After spending several years on the Falkland Islands during his childhood, which will inspire his second book, Pebble island. The book pass years after the war, where he tries to recreate his childhood, with aspects of his curiosity, when he was exploring abandon bunkers, where it was just part of landscape, or somewhere where he could play. His work has essentially been landscape print-making (often situated in the city), but with quite simple intention of capturing the sense of space, light, time etc. His work is mostly about that, places that he was interested in depicting, and trying to reproduce the visual. He want the characters to feel like elements of a landscape or an environment ( he preferes to focus more on the background, than the characters itself). But usually he uses figures and postures to suggest expressions rather than close ups showing facial features. What I like about Mcnaught's work is that they are simple designs, but the colors are very vivid. The way he constructs the scenarios is very invective, because it doesn’t need to be extremely detailed, he just needs a few lines to show what he is talking about.

[dangermousie]

I like period dramas (I am watching My Country on Netflix and I am loving it so far through the tears), I like tasteful romances but not ones where the female character seemingly has no personality and all she ever does is get in situations where she needs to be protected or saved by said male. I also don’t like heavy stuff like drugs, sex, murders and excessive gore. I would like to hear your personal favorites too?

You have excellent taste, and by that I mean it mirrors mine :)

All of the below are personal faves that should meet your criteria. No wimpy heroines, serious dose of romance, no drugs and murder grossness.

The Princess’ Man - a period drama about star-crossed lovers - she is the cherished daughter of a royal who plans a coup, he is the scholar son of a loyal family. Angst, romance, gorgeousness, tough moral heroine, hero who goes from funny and chill to destroyed wreck and back to sane, etc. On viki. 

Worlds Within - a slice of life and romance between TV directors and the most addicting perfect thing ever. On viki.

Moonlight Drawn By Clouds - a lighter period romance with the heroine having to pretend to be a eunuch and having a romance with a progressive crown prince. on viki. 

Queen In Hyun’s Man - our heroine is an aspiring actress, our hero is an 18th century scholar who acquires the power to time travel to the present under perilous conditions. This one is sheer perfection - smart and swoony and amazing. On viki. 

Healer - despite the name, not a medical drama :) Our hero is an errand person (think errands involving danger) and heroine an investigative reporter. Conspiracies, true love, and hilariousness as she treats his meek alter ego as a friend. On viki.  

City Hunter - one of my most rewatched faves. Our hero has been taken from his mother and brought up as a tool of vengeance by a man I labeled as Daddy Satan. He finally sends his finely honed tool to Korea but he doesn’t count on his coming across spunky and warm presidential bodyguard, cohabitation, and all the other amazingness. If you love tough OTPs, feral boys becoming human and general awesomeness. On viki.

Haechi - it’s about intrigues, crimes and a polymath’s path to the throne. I love it. On viki. 

Slave Hunters - one of my all time favorites and arguably the best period kdrama I have ever seen (and you get to see Jang Hyuk who plays Bang Won in MC in arguably his most famous role). A former nobleman turned slave hunter, a slave woman pretending to be a noblewoman, and a general made a slave intersect paths on an epic collision course. On amazon prime. 

It’s OK It’s Love/Padam Padam/That Winter the Wind Blows - gorgeous melos with amazing cast and nuance. The first one is rather lighter than the last two. First two on viki, last one on netflix. 

Encounter - A romance between a high powered lady executive and a very nice younger man, this one is so mellow and yet involving. On viki.

Gloria - if you want something longer and slice of lifey and dramatic all at once. This baby is 50 eps.  It’s worth it though. It follows a bunch of characters - a hardworking woman who has to take care of her disabled sister and dreams of being a singer, an icy tormented illegitimate son of a rich family, a small time gangster, a suicidal ballerina. It’s wonderful. on viki. 

Faith/The Great Doctor - that’s the one I am rewatching now. A modern day plastic surgeon dragged to a fantasy version of 14th century Korea by a skilled warrior with an enormous death wish in order to heal a dying queen. If you like Outlander minus all the grossness and the raping and what not. On viki.

Mr. Sunshine - solid, gorgeously filmed period drama set at the turn of the century revolving around a bunch of disparate Koreans dealing with Japanese occupation. The first ep is hard going and has some odd english but it’s excellent after that. On netflix.

Pinocchio/I Hear Your Voice/While You Were Sleeping - all on viki. These three have the same writer/star team and are awesome. Pinocchio involves rookie reporters but also the OTP is a girl who has a (made up) condition where she cannot tell a lie and the guy is a survivor of a brutal family tragedy and they grow up together; IHYV is my fave of the three and is about a burned out lady prosecutor and a young man who can read people’s thoughts who are tied together by a tragic event (OTP is OMG) and WYWS is about people who can see the future in their dreams. 

Extraordinary You - my favorite kdrama of all time, aired earlier this year. Our protagonist realizes that she is just that - a character in a comic book, and a minor one with a tragic set up at that. She decides to change that. It starts out as a funny high school story and becomes a heartbreaking, swoony lesson in metaphysics. This one is probably better if you at least read some manga before. On viki. 

Crash landing on you - airing now (on netflix) - my current obsession. The premise is nuts (a rich SK heiress accidentally gets blown to NK and is helped by a sexy NK captain) but the execution is amazing. 

Goblin - an immortal goblin (think a cursed human) who used to be a legendary general, seeks to find a “goblin bride,” the one woman who can end his existence. His paths cross with a student who can see supernatural entities, a grim reaper who remembers nothing of his past, and an idiosyncratic chicken shop owner. This one is everything. On viki. 

W-Two Worlds - our heroine is a daughter of a comic artist who can cross into the comic world. Our hero is the comic protagonist who has just discovered his whole world and past are a fake and a lie and a story. On viki.

Bridal Mask/Gaksital - I have no idea if it’s your bag but I love it. In 1930s occupied Korea, a Japanese collaborator ends up being a freedom fighter. It has everything. On viki.

I’d love to rec Legend: the First King’s Four Gods or Empress Ki but I don’t know legit sites that have them. 

I didn’t post MVs because some people don’t like the spoilers even that minor, but I’ve always found those are a good way to check things out. 

I can keep this going for a looooong time, I’ve been watching kdramas since 2006 :)

ETA: can’t believe I forgot IRIS!!! But only the first installment.

[rycewrites]

lookism rant #1

so... it’s spring break. and i’ve spent the entire break doing what any smart ap student would do: ignoring my five looming ap tests and draining my phone battery by looking at webtoons and instagram. since most of my favorite webtoons are on hiatus, i have resolved to rereading my favorites, and one that i’ve reread the most so far is lookism. as spring break comes to a finish in two days, i decided to get my life back on track and instead of simply rereading the comic, i will rant about my most and least favorite characters starting with the fandom’s all-time favorite character (yes, if you check the wiki for lookism there is a poll and it is fact that he is the majority’s favorite), jay hong/hong jae yeol. (also, note that these are my opinions so if you disagree with them don’t be offended but i would be happy to hear other people’s opinions on the webtoon! please comment who would be on your list because i need to talk to more people who read lookism!)

top favorite characters~

1. jay hong/hong jae yeol:

let’s just list off reasons why everyone loves him: he is well-dressed (even plans out other people’s outfits), generous (gives daniel literally everything he wants), selfless (he fricking took in enu’s pups even though he is scared of dogs), RICH (main reason for kouji’s admiration), strong (manz uses his systema well), and CAN RIDE A MOTORCYCLE (yes, i love a man who can ride a bike). he may not be the most dynamic character, but his static puppy status makes it impossible for me to put him lower on this list. we honestly don’t know that much about his backstory and i am super curious about why his family relationships are so strained (except with his sister, joy). for now, he remains a mystery, but like an attractive mystery. overall, me -> ( ･_･)♡

2. zach lee/lee jin sung:

honestly hated this boi in the beginning because he was a big bully to daniel, but  he has been through some SERIOUS character development. mira was a big part in this but i feel like overall his morals have changed so much even when mira isn’t around. he does still fight often, but now it’s not meaningless violence as he uses his boxing skills to defend his friends (ex: defending johan during the god dogs arc).

i also hated his eyebrows and hair in the beginning of the comic but like that’s personal preference. however, in the last few episodes, his hair looks SO GOOD (reference image above).

he is second on my list of favorite characters because i feel that his development throughout the story has been the most dynamic. he not only changed mentally as he overlooks lookism more (ex: he is not only friends with big daniel but also little daniel) but also physically as he doesn’t simply depend on his inherent talent for boxing but actually goes back and trains again in order to get better (to defend mira >.<)

in the future, i hope to see more development with his relationship with mira and his friends because i hold a lot of high hopes for this boi! ♥‿♥

3. vasco/lee eun tae/tabasco:

BIG CUTIE ENERGY ♥╣[-_-]╠♥! first off, he may not have as much long-term development over the course of the story like zach, but we do see a lot of his development with his own arc and bullying story. he was always a pure boi and his inherent innocence creates a discrepancy with his appearance which makes him more endearing in my opinion. the idea of lookism is very apparent in his character because most people look at him and see him as a gangster or someone very intimidating, but in reality his personality and mindset are very innocent (showing another way that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover). i honestly LOVED the scene in the god dogs arc in which he defended zach and daniel joins in because that friendship is GOLDEN. i love how he always strives to be stronger and more powerful to defeat the evil in the world because it shows that he truly cares about the weaker people and those impacted by lookism. in my opinion, i think that vasco and zach will end up being the most powerful in the story (but that’s my opinion)

4. mira kim/kim mi jin:

pure! cute! sweet! moral! (✿ ♥‿♥)! mira is just an all-around great gal that makes it impossible for me to find flaws with. although she isn’t super major in terms of daniel’s story, she does impact zach significantly and makes him a better person. like she is the sole reason that zach has become a character that i truly admire and like. (although she did think that daniel was the r-word when he tried hitting on her in the beginning of the story. but throughout the story we see that she isn’t really a person to judge people on looks and stuff as we see that she gives jasmine the benefit of the doubt even after the vasco fiasco)

5. yena/eli jang’s (jang hyun’s) daughter:

honestly too cute for words. like the episodes where zach and mira find her are my favorites so i just wanted to include her in my favorite character list. also, she seems to be a character that really impacts other characters (zach and eli really changed for her ಥ_ಥ)

least favorite characters~

park ji ho:

always doing dumb things and making it harder for the people around him. he tries too hard to be a part of the popular group and as zach said, he doesn’t really think of them as friends because he just thinks about what the benefits are for hanging out with daniel and co. i think we all went from being tolerant of jiho in the beginning and then hating him at the end. i especially hated how he kept blaming other people and yet not accepting when people were being friendly. especially during the fake bank account arc, he just brushed off daniel when he asked jiho if he wanted to go to the convenience store then jiho goes running back to daniel and his friends when he realizes his mistake. overall, -123912830/10.

2. james gong:

don’t even know where to start with this punk. very violent for very little reason! i know i stated before that i hate jiho but i still felt kinda bad for him when he realized that james had sold the bank account he made for him. just overall a very intimidating character that hurt zach (ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ ┻━┻

3. jasmine huh:

needs to get her shit(ake) together. first off, she almost got vasco expelled from the school because of her lies. like big! red! flag! it seems that she really doesn’t care about other people (except james) and is willing to put so many other people at risk to save her own behind. also, i hate how she uses other people. like how she uses mira to make money when mira didn’t do anything wrong ヾ(ﾟдﾟ)ﾉ. i hope she one day realizes that her lies are gonna hurt so many other people and then herself.

4. heemin kim/zeus/creepy dude from the boot camp arc:

sexual assault is a big no in this household. i hate how he thinks that being handsome can defend him of his crimes! also, he broke zach’s arms which made me FLIP OUT. LIKE HOW DO YOU DARE TO HARM MY BOXER BOI. he also attacked mira, an actual angel ლ(ﾟдﾟლ). words can’t describe how much i hate this man but numbers can -> 0/10

5. logan lee/lee tae sung:

big bully energy. he needs to lay his hands off of everyone (especially zoe!). blackmail? big no go in this household. he also dumped his plate of food on mira? BIG NO GO! he needs to get his life together and realize that people don’t hate him because he’s “ugly,” it’s because he has THE WORST PERSONALITY!

6. strong contenders for least favorite: stalker girl, animal cruelty cat mom/hoarder, zoe’s stalker

characters that i need more information about to form stronger opinions about~

vin jin/jin ho bin:

dislike him because he abused enu but also want to know more about him. big bully energy but i feel like he has a deep backstory behind him so i want to know more. why did he quite judo? why does he wear sunglasses? hope he gets over his superiority complex and changes because i feel like he has a lot of potential.

2. eli jang/jang hyun:

so far, very cute and strong is all i have to say about him. also, he is a good dad like that scene where he put out that god dog’s cigarette? MAJOR PROPS TO YOU ELI. i’m very curious about his backstory as well because it seems that he was a contender for gun’s successor but he changed drastically to take care of yena. i also just love a man with good hair sooo…

3. jong gun + joon goo:

i want to know more about these two! like what’s their backstory? why did gun create the 4 big crews? why was goo sent to the juvenile detention center before? (look at vasco’s bullying arc for reference) why did gun leave goo alone with the money collection? overall very mysterious and i want to learn more.

random characters that just deserve appreciation~

crystal choi/choi soo jung:

we stan a strong female character. however, i don’t like how she is immediately prejudiced against handsome men in the beginning of her appearance. i think over time she’ll realize that her prejudice isn’t right and her experience as someone who has to deal with lookism doesn’t justify her immediate judgements. however, we need more female fighters in this story so she is a big yes.

2. duke pyeon:

WE STAN A MAN WHO FOLLOWS HIS DREAMS DESPITE BEING BULLIED AND JUDGED. yes, we stan.

3. daniel park/park hyung suk:

honestly, he’s a great character and all, but i don’t know if he could ever reach favorite character status. i just have a mindset that makes me unable to pick the protagonist as a favorite character because i feel like they are sometimes created specifically to just bring the story together. don’t get me wrong, he’s a great person, defends his friends, and doesn’t fight for no reason, but i feel like there isn’t anything super special about his personality (other than the fact that he has two bodies but like so does crystal). he also looks like kim seokjin in his new body which is a big plus.

4. inu/enu + inu/enu’s pups:

i love dogs

5. mary kim/idk her korean name someone help me:

strong female character? i think yes. honestly such a fav. she doesn’t take sh*t from vin jin and i honestly want to know more about her character and background. *spoiler alert* i read ahead in the korean version and saw that she can beat people up too so like… she’s a bada**.

6. kouji:

as a person interested in computer science, I STAN. i also love a man with good hair. his cocky personality is sometimes off-putting but honestly his confidence is endearing at times. also we both love money!

7. jace park/park bum jae:

during vasco’s bullying story, i was so sad when he left vasco, but i love how he realized that he should’ve been a better friend and has stuck with vasco after all of this time. also love how he listens to vasco and tries to make him happy even when he knows that vasco does some silly things (like planting durian seeds in korea)

8. zoe park/park ha neul:

i love her development! she still fights with herself over whether she should like big daniel or small daniel, which displays her internal conflict with lookism. over time she has stopped judging people solely on their appearance and she is even able to distinguish between daniel and his cousin! (in my opinion, if daniel doesn’t end up with jay he better end up with zoe instead)

9. daniel’s (hyung suk’s) mother:

ICON! WE NEED TO APPRECIATE OUR PARENTS MORE! I AM A BIG STAN! SHE WORKS HARD FOR DANIEL AND IT BREAKS MY HEART WHEN DANIEL DOESN’T REALIZE!

10. song johan:

deserved better. he was just trying to help his mom which makes him so pure! but i feel like he should realize that he has friends (zach and mira) that could help him get through his problems! overall, want to see more of him and i hope he develops even more.

[msbeccieboo]

Arrow 7x17 brain dump

So, this week’s episode was ok. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. I had expected to not really be fussed by this week’s offering and as such wasn’t deeply disappointed. I really missed my Olicity babies in this episode though. The upside of the episode being a bit meh, is that this review didn’t take me 57 years to write, which whilst sick, was a bonus haha!!

Olicity

Olicity weren’t the focus of this episode, but we still managed to get some cute little moments and touches thrown in there. Felicity’s praise when Oliver came back to the lair looking like a prize fighter, was too cute! I love how smitten she still is with him even after all this time, and how bashful and blushing and gorgeous he gets in response is just 😍😍

Source: olicitygifs

We also got a lovely little comfort scene once Oliver realised that Emiko was in fact evil (shocker, I know). Felicity cupping Oliver’s face whilst stroking her baby belly was so damned adorable!!

Source: oliverxfelicity

Continued under the cut

Oliver

Oliver being so open and trusting and just happy to be training with Emiko was so lovely and so heartbreaking because you just knew she would let him down. He mentioned Thea (yay!) and said that she’d always wanted a sister 😭😭 Why does this leave me feeling like Thea is gonna come back and try and kill Emiko??

I also loved seeing Oliver telling people the truth straight up, when asked how he knew about Emiko, listening to Dig’s advice (if not his wife’s) and just being an all-round hopeful bean!!  The growth he shows is amazing, it’s just a shame that his hope and faith in his sister didn’t pay off. He so badly wants to be in her life, to help her be good, and in turn redeem the Queen family name in her eyes. His line “If I abandon her now I’m no better than my father” just made me so sad. His parents were so important to him he wants them redeemed, so in turn it can redeem him too (not that he needs it). I don’t think he does, or will, find out just how much of a shitty Dad Robert was to Emiko, which is a shame, as I think it would give him some peace that some things just cannot be redeemed and that it isn’t a reflection on him. He had such faith in Emiko being good, he still didn’t think of her at first when he found the signal jammer in the lair. Even now I think he will continue trying to bring her back, despite Dig’s advice and reminder that sometimes evil siblings are just evil siblings 😂 I hope this isn’t foreshadowing Oliver having to kill Emiko like Dig did with Andy?

Bonus: Oliver shooting all the drones was so damn hot 🔥🔥

Source: legends-of-today

Felicity

Our girl didn’t have a huge role this week, but what we did get was fabulous! Felicity’s little pep talk to herself at the beginning of the episode about having it all was too adorable for words! 

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

We got to see the beginnings of Smoak Technologies, along with the first name drop of the company I think? I love that she brought Alena in to be CTO, she gets to have a friend in her company that won’t try and mansplain everything to her at last!! Alena’s reaction is all of us!

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

It was so nice to see her back as Overwatch on the comms, and just generally people being back in the lair! We even got a couple of OTA moments! I loved her “computers will never replace people” line too!

Bonus: Felicity being cute in the lair gives me life!

Source: ebett

Emiko/Robert

This was really Emiko’s villain origin episode. We saw her as a child being evicted and abandoned by Robert, who yet again, proves to be the scum of the earth, and the true villain of the entire series. Upon overhearing that Robert was kicking them out of their home and would no longer support them, the only words of comfort he had for her were “Life isn’t fair, we don’t always get what we want”…Robert Queen was a prize dick!! His reasons for abandoning his family? Moira will take his company, money and kids if he doesn’t. GTFO you philandering old bastard, you made your bed…lie in it! Ugh he was the actual worst!

So as a penniless and possibly homeless 11 year old in Starling City, Emiko naturally turns to a life of crime in order to support her and her mother when she meets Dante. (For the record, I found the younger Emiko far more compelling to watch than the adult version 😬) Dante evidently enrols her into the Ninth Circle, who present her with a gift, as her final induction…the plans to blow up the Queen’s Gambit. She goes back to Robert with a business plan for a new subsidiary of Queen Consolidated, a chance to prove herself to her family and earn some money, and despite the solid plan, Robert wants nothing to do with it, telling her that QC is Oliver’s legacy and that she needs to remain a secret, before leaving her again for his trip on the Gambit. Crestfallen and angry, she doesn’t show him the plans and lets him leave to meet his fate.  The horrible irony here is that Emiko would have failed the Ninth Circle’s ‘test’ and saved Robert/Oliver/Sara, had Robert not been such a massive douchenozzle.

I like that they managed to link everything with Emiko back to the Gambit, and they did so without retconning. Malcolm still had the yacht sabotaged, but it looks like he did it via the Ninth Circle.  The big ‘twist’ we see at the end of the episode is that Emiko is now, in fact, the leader of the Ninth Circle, not Dante, and as such appears to be the season’s Big Bad. Part of me is like yaaaasss female Big Bad woohoo! But then the way it has come about has been lacklustre to say the least, and we weren’t given the time (or the writing) to get to like Emiko in order to actually care or feel the impact or shock value of her turning on Oliver. Instead we’re just all left feeling a bit meh.

Emiko still seems to have a soft spot for Rene (someone has to I guess) and with both of them being Oliver/Team Arrow traitors, they make a good fit 😜  We also found out that she still hasn’t found her mother’s killer. Maybe if Oliver could help her solve her mother’s murder and Rene keeps making eyes at her she will come back round to the good side??? Doubtful haha, but just a suggestion. The season’s theme is redemption after all!

Black Siren

Whilst Oliver is at home, preparing dinner for wifey (adorbs), he gets a visit from an injured Laurel, looking for Felicity. Instead, she tells Oliver about Emiko killing Diaz, and not being as squeaky clean as he thinks. This, as to be expected, leads to a confrontation between the two, which is interesting, because we all know that Laurel is telling the truth. When accused of having a blind spot for his family, Oliver hits back with “it’s called loyalty, I know that’s a concept you don’t totally understand”. Burn. Their scenes are so much better when they are open in their dislike for each other! Much as I have enjoyed Felicity and BS friendship this season, the petty bitch in me still laughs at Oliver’s clear disdain for her…he didn’t even help her with her wound, just gave her some supplies and left her to it 😂😂 He ‘helps’ her here purely for Felicity’s sake, which is lovely though!

Next, Dinah gets on her arse about doing things by the book, which ordinarily I would agree with, but Dinah is a vigilante herself! And although they are now sanctioned by the SCPD, Dinah has herself coerced witnesses, stolen evidence and violated the law in about a dozen other ways in her pursuit of justice.  This is the premise of the show people! The hypocrisy is real! BS is just a little further behind on her journey than Dinah. Dinah later accuses BS of killing the gangster guy (I wasn’t really paying attention to who he was), bringing up her killing Vinnie, which immediately gets her back up. BS says that she has earned the benefit of the doubt, which I agree with to an extent. Dinah then effectively washes her hands of her.

I can empathise with BS for trying to do the right thing, and not being believed/trusted by anyone. I think it was intentional to not see a scene with her and Felicity this week, so as to keep her feeling isolated, whereas Felicity would have believed/reassured her. Felicity even defended her in the bunker to Rene. The episode finishes up with Emiko ‘outing’ her to the press, and ‘setting her free’ to be evil again. This will all set up her apparent return to her evil roots next week. I think she will ultimately end up being redeemed. We know (I think we know?) she is leaving for good after next week’s episode, so hopefully she will go back off to Earth 2 or something like that to become Black Canary there, and she can take all her little comic book friends with her, and everyone will be happy!

Other stuff

The drone attack in this episode was a practice run. Is this sarin gas attack going to be the thing that brings down the city, and causes it to turn on Oliver and the team?

Was the episode synopsis written whilst on crack?? I know we all laughed a little bit when we first saw how it was worded, but after watching the episode it was literally nothing like what actually happened??

Why on earth did they bring in Highlander, just for him to end up being Emiko’s lackey?? It’s like Cayden James/Michael Emerson being usurped by Diaz all over again!

Source: arrowdaily

I miss the flash-forwards!! I need me some Mia/William/Felicity goodness now please!!!

Anyway thank you as always to the gifmakers. Fabulous work as ever! 💗

[writersblocktango]

Fan-Casting the Batfam

So DC Titans has me super pumped and hopeful for the future of DC’s favorite family. In my opinion, they absolutely nailed casting Dick and I have great aspirations for their casting of Jason. But who else will fill in our favorites?? Here’s how I imagine it.

To remind you here’s Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson and Curran Walters as Jason Todd.

So there are our first two batsons, but what about the Bat himself? Now, I’m still holding out for Titans to unite with the DCEU, but should that not happen, I envision either Jason O’Mara or Thomas Gibson playing the caped crusader. They’re both exceptional intense actors and have both already voiced Batman in the cartoons. Who could be more perfect?

Next we have to cast the first of the Batgirls. Certainly no damsel in distress, Barabara “Babs” Gordon joined Batman’s side soon after Dick’s departure in the comics as the kickass sidekick Batgirl and later became her own heroine known as Oracle. Smart, driven, and fiery I see her being played by a quippy and quick-tongued Carson Young.

Next comes another fan-favorite member of the Batfam: Timothy Drake, Robin III. Now there was originally a huge campaign for Ryan Potter to play Tim, but for obvious reasons (hello Beastboy) that won’t be happening. But who will fill that spot? Tim is a genius and one of the first people to ever discover the identities of Batman and Robin I, and after the [[SPOILER] death of Jason Todd 😭], Tim approaches Bruce and asks to become the next Robin, realizing how much Batman needs Robin. Most importantly, Tim has to be wickedly smart and full of a dark dry sense of humor. He also struggles with severe anxiety, depression, and sleep deprivation, as well as a run in the comic books where he’s turned into a broken minion of the Joker, so whoever plays him will have to add a great deal of depth and nuance to the character. I imagine Cameron Boyce, Israel Broussard, or Froy Gutierrez as being equal to the task, and while I can see each of them bringing something special to the role I would admittedly like to see Israel Broussard (pictured center) take on the cowl most of all.

After Tim came Cassandra Cain, expert martial artist and all around lethal weapon. Raised with limited human contact with the sole intent of being formed into the worlds greatest assassin, she becomes a ward of Babs, at the behest of Bruce Wayne, after saving the life of Babs’ father, Commissioner Gordon. Cassandra soon becomes trained as the next Batgirl and later becomes her own interpretation, Black Bat. Cass is often quiet and somewhat aloof, not having a childhood, friends, or family before. Her portrayal will rely largely on physicality and body language. Depending on what age she’s meant to be portrayed as I can see Lana Condor, Arden Cho, or Jamie Chung taking on the role.

After Cassandra, the next person to join the Batfam was Stephanie Brown. Daughter of a Gotham criminal and villain, Cluemaster, Stephanie donned the alter ego of Spoiler to patrol and stop her father’s schemes. Deciding she likes her life as a crime fighter she continues patrolling and begins to connect with Robin III, Tim Drake. Later, at a point when Tim is away, she even dons the Robin suit basically demanding her way to Batman’s side as the first female Robin, and still fights even after Bruce demands she give it up. Stephanie embodies the perfect balance of style, joy, enthusiasm, fire, whit, and confidence. That being said, I imagine her as being played by Hunter King or Ellie Fanning.

Next we have the youngest member of the Batfam and another fan-fave, Damian Wayne. The only biological child of Bruce Wayne, Damian was born from an ill-advised tryst between Batman and, sometimes enemy/sometimes lover, Talia Al Ghul. Raised as the inheriting leader of the League of Assassins and only deposited at his father’s front door around age 10, it’s fair to say Damian has some pretty serious issues. He struggles with morality, compassion, self-control, boundaries and authority, but hey growing up is hard. It’s also important to note that for a while, after [[SPOILER]the supposed death of Bruce Wayne], Damian serves as a sidekick and almost as a son to Dick. Depending on what age they decide to go with I’d like to see Damian played by Robert Daniel Sloan, Ethan Andrew Castro, or Aidan Gallagher.

Later, after Damian mellows out a bit, Batman takes on another sidekick: Duke Thomas. One of the latest additions to the Batfam, Duke is one of many in Gotham to take up the role of Robin in the year that Batman goes missing. Bruce later brings Duke into the fray integrating him into Wayne Interprises during the day, and training him to patrol as the hero The Signal by night. While I can imagine lots of people bringing this well-meaning justice seeker to life, my favorite for the role is Alfred Enoch.

And finally, last but not least, we have the latest edition to the Batfam Harper Row aka Bluebird. A punkie Gotham engineering student, Harper feels eternally grateful to Batman after he protects her brother and herself from being assaulted in the streets. But how can he show this gratitude? By suiting up and joining him on the streets as the crime fighter Bluebird of course! Known for her purple hair and being a bit of a wild card, Harper is brilliant and talented but volatile, and effortlessly cool. I’d love to see her played by someone equally as awesome such as: Victoria Justice, Paris Berelc, or Sydney Park.

*BONUS ROUND*

We’ve already seen Wonder Girl, Donna Troy, in Titans and a few members of the Bat Family, but what about the Superman family? If we’re expanding the DC Universe and possibly setting up Young Justice they’re essential, so here are my casting ideas for Conner “Kon-El” Kent and Jonathan Kent.

Max Lloyd Jones as Connor Kent and Noah Schnapp as Jon Kent.

[seanhowe]

“Superwomen Fight Back!” by Diane K. Shah Newsweek, March 20, 1978

Red Sonja, the "She-Devil With a Sword," was once again facing certain doom. Jimodo, the giant general, was advancing on the fiery redhead with a mace and whip. "Consider it an honor, sniveling wench, to be killed by Jimodo, the greatest," he roared. Undaunted, Sonja brandished her trusty sword, severed the whip and impaled the lumbering giant. AIIIEE! Similar fates also await the ne'er-do-wells who tangle with Medusa, "The Mistress of the Living Locks," or—heaven help them—Power Girl, Superman's long-lost cousin from the planet Krypton. And these spritely ladies are only a few of the superheroine comic-book characters who, though they're built like Raquel and dress like Jane, are busting through walls and bashing skulls right alongside the men. AARRGH! Superheroines have been around in one form or another ever since Wonder Woman appeared in DC Comics in 1941. But recently, raised consciousnesses on Earth have seeped into comic-book land: new heroines are being created, old ones updated. Five superwomen now have comics of their own—Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, Red Sonja, Wonder Woman and Madame Xanadu, "Mistress of the Occult”—while others like Black Widow, Hawkgirl and the fighting Femizons are becoming more prominent inside other comic books.Wonder Woman soon will leave the U.N. crisis bureau to be-come an astronaut. Six months ago, Hawkgirl, the wife of Hawkman, finally joined the Justice League as a full-fledged crime fighter. Even perennial schoolgirls Betty and Veronica have be-come staunch supporters of women's lib. "Kids today just won't accept women in roles of being exploited," explains Leonard Darvin, code administrator for the Comics Magazine Association of America, Inc. Like their male colleagues, superheroines battle villains, talk in exclamation points and now, according to a CMAA code change, are even allowed to get zapped back (though never raped). And just like the men, each has her own special superweapon—Medusa her snakelike hair, Ms. Marvel her awesome strength, the Wasp her deadly sting. But not only do superheroines have to battle the bad guys, they must also contend with their chauvinistic male allies. "I hope your swordsmanship is the equal of your pretty face," a teammate tells Red Sonja as two blackguards approach. "Strange," she replies coolly, "I was just going to say the same about you." Not all feminists are delighted at the trend, however. Some question whether superheroines are proper symbols of liberation. "I don't see why you have to be wonder women to prove you're somebody," says Betty Friedan. Stan Lee, publisher of the Marvel Comics Group, agrees female characters are exaggerated, though necessarily so. "Once we get over the guilt feelings for the way we've treated women in the past," he says, "we can let them settle down and be more realistic." But Jenette Kahn, the 30-year-old publisher of DC Comics, believes that the whole purpose of fantasy is "to create heroes and heroines who can do things that we cannot.” Still, balloons of reality occasionally intrude. Deep in combat, Mary Marvel realizes her costume is inhibiting her. She wrenches off her short sleeves, then muses: "I'm fighting for my life and worrying about how I look. So much for my raised consciousness!" But then, Ms. Marvel and friends still live in a man's world. Virtually all of the 200 titles published each year are written by men, and the 250 million copies sold annually are read predominantly by boys. Moreover, the comics are drawn almost entirely by males (which may explain why these liberated souls flit around in fancy underwear). And some men still want to protect the superwomen from their new equality. DC Comics writer Bob Rozakis recently outlined an episode in which Robin "The Boy Wonder" found himself face to face with a cold-blooded murderess. Robin was supposed to grab the femme fatale and hurl her head-long into a brick wall. But the artist balked at the assignment. "Couldn't Robin just sort of trip her?" he protested. Rozakis replied: "Not any more." CRUNCH!!!

[comicsart3]

Wildfire was a short-lived super heroine of the Golden Age. Her true identity was Carol Vance Martin, a young woman who was orphaned as a child by a forest fire but rescued by the supernatural “Lord of Fire”, who endowed the infant Carol with flame generating and control capabilities. Adopted by a wealthy couple, Carol becomes a sensitive debutante-like character, but she has secretly determined to use her powers to combat evil. Wildfire, as her name implies, was a tempestuous character when in super hero mode, and was very distinctive, thanks both to her very long and flowing bright red hair and one of the skimpiest costumes on display at a time when most 1940s and 1950s heroines were already reasonably sexualised. In the adventure featured here, Wildfire, through a combination of astute use of her fire-raising powers and the time honoured female skill of logic and persuasion, recaptures three escaped convicts who before their encounter with the heroine were cocky and murderous, but by the end are simply begging her to be allowed to surrender. As with so many female crime fighters of the time (Phantom Lady, Black Cat, Lady Luck) Carol’s disguise is negligible and yet none of the companions she rescues seem able to put two and two together.

Wildfire appeared in twelve issues of Smash Comics between August 1941 and September 1942. The title was illustrated by Jim Mooney. The story featured here appeared in Smash Comics #33 (May 1942).

Source: comicbookplus

[x5red]

Sixty fun & fascinating facts about the classic Supergirl (1 / 4)

Great guns! How time flies!

May 2019 will mark sixty years since the pages of Action Comics #252 carried its landmark tale: a crashed rocket ship in a Midvale field, and emerging from within, an enthusiastic young teenager who was destined to become one of Earth’s fiercest champions. That teenager was, of course, Kara Zor-El -- otherwise known as Supergirl..!

To celebrate the classic Kara Zor-El’s sixtieth anniversary, compiled below is part one of a series outlining sixty surprising or unusual facts about the original intrepid Argo City teen who leapt from that crumpled Midvale rocket ship. Covering her original Silver and Bronze Age incarnation, in comics and on screen, each factoid is calculated to intrigue and delight -- hopefully even seasoned Kara fans will find a few morsels of trivia that had previously escaped their attention.

Enjoy...

1. She wasn’t originally known as Kara Zor-El when she debuted in comics.

What’s in a name? Well not a lot, it seems, if you happen to be Kryptionian..!

Although everyone knows Supergirl’s real name is Kara Zor-El, the Maid of Might herself didn’t deem it worthy of a mention until Action Comics #288 (May 1962), three years after her introduction, when she innocently referenced her full moniker during a dream sequence. After that readers would need to wait another fifteen years(!) before she’d mention it again in Superman Family #177 (June 1976). Outside of these rare instances Kara was usually known as Kara of Argo City, or in very early comics simply just as Kara, her birthplace itself not having acquired a name until Action Comics #280 (Sep 1961).

2. 1984′s Supergirl wasn’t actually the first movie headlined by a superhero female.

Many movie buffs will list 1984′s Supergirl as the breakthrough release that finally saw women headline a movie in the superhero genre, but this is far from the truth.

Supergirl’s record is true, but only in the English-speaking world: there had already been numerous superhero movies in non-English markets centred around super-powered female crime fighters, most notably in the Philippines. The most popular Filipino superheroine, Darna, had already racked up no less than eleven movies by 1980, plus one guest appearance in another hero’s movie.

3. She once fell madly in love with a woman.

As incredible as it seems today, the straight-laced DC Comics of the 1960s once okayed a story in which the Maid of Might fell head-over-heels in love with a woman. It happened in Adventure Comics #384 (Sept 1969), and, as you might expect, the story had a few twists and turns before the true nature of Kara’s romance was revealed.

The short version is this: Kara uses computer dating to select a match suitable for a superwoman. The computer picks Volar, a male superhero from the deeply misogynistic planet of Torma (second planet of Star-Sun 447B, in case you want to pay a visit.) Kara travels to Torma and is smitten by Volar, but he seems reluctant to reciprocate her affections. Eventually the plot reveals its twist: due to Torma’s notorious chauvinism, Volar is actually a superheroine forced to masquerade as a superhero. ”I’m heading back to Earth – where I belong!”, exclaims a disappointed Girl of Steel, “I found out Volar was no hit – but a real miss!” (Ho ho!)

4. She’s a self-professed fan of Jazz.

Growing up in both Argo City and Midvale, Kara was probably exposed to a wide range of different musical styles -- but at the end of a long day saving the world, what kind of sounds did she like to relax to? The pages of Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #7 (May 1983) dropped readers a hint when Kara expressed a strong affinity towards Jazz music. Indeed in a later issue of that same series, it is while attending a free Jazz concert with friends in Chicago’s Grant Park that Kara first tangled with the super-villain Reactron (making his comicbook debut.)

5. She once packed in her superhero career to become a socialite and style-icon in Paris.

The mid-60s was an interesting time for DC Comics; a tipping point between the juvenile gimmick-driven hangover of the Golden Age, and the more mature storytelling style of the upcoming Bronze Age, as one generation of artists and writers slowly gave way to the next. Brave and the Bold #63 (Dec 1965) fell squarely into the former category with its outlandish story, Revolt of the Super-Chicks.

The tale begins with a restless Kara feeling unappreciated: the public see her as just a hero in a gaudy costume, ignoring the sophisticated woman inside. Much to the chagrin of Kal-El, Kara abandons her superhero-ing career and heads to the bright lights of Paris to live it up. Kal sends Wonder Woman to Paris to talk some sense into Kara (the first time the pair had shared an adventure, by the way), but Diana is likewise wooed by the socialite lifestyle and joins Kara in her nocturnal revelry. If it hadn’t been for the intervention of the villain Multi-Face, the pair might have still been in Paris now.

6. Producer Ilya Salkind regretted Helen Slater’s casting as Supergirl.

When Ilya Salkind took on the task of co-producing Superman-related movies in the mid 1970s, he’d argued against the wishes of both Warner Bros. and his producer father, Alexander, by suggesting that the title role not go to a Hollywood A-lister. Ilya followed exactly the same logic when it came time to cast 1984′s Supergirl, championing an unknown actor called Helen Slater over more bankable names such as Brooke Shields (favoured by his father.)

In an interview in 2000, however, Ilya seemed to have some regrets, telling Scott Michael Bosco on behalf of Digital Cinema, “[...] frankly, with hindsight I regret it. Brooke Shields would have – not made it a better movie, but perhaps a more commercial one. This I’m convinced. I think there would have been more men seeing the movie.” Commenting on how Slater’s screen presence was more Katherine Hepburn than Sophia Loren, Salkind noted, “What happened, I think, is that we lost a lot of the audience, the male audience. I think it was also because the girl was a little unattainable.”

7. One of her most iconic costumes was originally designed by a fan.

Supergirl has had a number of crime-fighting outfits over the decades, but two particularly stand out as being iconic: Helen Slater’s 1984 movie costume (plus its imitators, such as the post-Crisis Matrix costume and Melissa Benoist’s tv costume), and the 1970s hotpants outfit.

The Girl of Steel’s hotpants attire was a racy number that screamed 70s sexploitation at a volume only Kryptonian lungs could achieve: short shorts, a plunging V neckline, billowing sleeves, and a neck choker, all in the customary red, sky blue, and yellow. The design wasn’t something dreamt up by one of DC’s staff of artists, however. but taken from a sketch submitted by reader John Sposato of Edison, New Jersey. DC had used several fan submitted costume ideas during the early 1970s -- each outfit typically receiving one or two story outings -- but John’s submission was obviously so liked by DC artists that it eventually became her permanent costume for most of the 1970s.

8. She turned Streaky into a Super Cat by accident.

DC in the Silver Age prided itself on being a family-friendly brand, free from the squalor and depravity that had once graced the pages of some of its competitors, causing moral crusaders (armed with books written by Dr. Fredric Wertham) to brand the medium as a threat to the youth of America. Without the use of excessive violence to bring thrills and drama to its superhero comics, DC relied on gimmicks such as Kryptonite. Consequently, by the Silver Age, the stuff was everywhere(!)

With her keen practical mind, Kara decided (much to the condescending amusement of her cousin) to develop an alchemy that would neutralise the harmful effects of this ever burgeoning supply of Kryptonite (Action Comics #261, Feb 1960.) She failed, naturally, but the discarded end-product, labelled X-Kryptonite, ended up accidentally giving a local stray alley-cat super powers. And so Streaky the Super Cat was born -- entirely by accident..!

9. Lena Luthor wasn’t the only female Luthor family member giving her trouble.

The Luthor family has a long history of causing trouble for the Girl of Steel. Not only did Supergirl struggle to keep her secret identity from the telepathic Lena (Thorul) Luthor -- Lex’s little sister -- but Adventure Comics #397 (Sept 1970) saw the introduction of Lex’s scheming niece, Nasthalthia. Nasty, as she was known, joined Stanhope College with a determination to help Uncle Lex flush out which of Stanhope’s students was secretly Supergirl. Suspecting Linda Danvers from the start, Nasty even followed Linda when she graduated and moved to San Francisco to become a TV camerawoman. The pair would play a dangerous cat-and-mouse game throughout many early 1970s Supergirl tales, but Nasty never quite got the proof she needed to unmask the Maid of Might.

10. She was married when she died in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

A story published in Superman Vol. 1 #415 (Jan 1986) saw the Fortress of Solitude infiltrated by a mysterious visitor from a distant planet. Intent on stealing a memento of the recently deceased Kara, the handsome green-skinned thief named Salkor is quickly apprehended by Superman.

Salkor explains how he had found Supergirl drifting unconscious in space some two years previous. He had cured her of Kryptonite sickness, but she had been left with severe amnesia. In the days that followed Salkor and Kara drew close and entered into a quickie marriage, but not long after the marriage he awoke to find Kara missing -- her memory had presumably returned. Over the next two years Salkor slowly traced his bride back to Earth, but tragically he arrived just as news of her death was broadcast around the world.

11. Her creation was part of a strategy to boost DC’s flagging superhero comic sales.

Supergirl wasn’t created on a mere creative whim; the impetus behind her introduction was likely a long-term sales strategy DC Comics had been following since the mid-1950s. According to Gerard Jones in his book Men of Tomorrow, DC knew that the demographics for the Superman radio and television shows revealed a sizeable share of young girl audience members, and that market research showed that girls read their brother’s Superman and Batman comics (second hand!) DC therefore set out to entice young girls into buying their own superhero comics by introducing titles like Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane, and characters like Batwoman and Supergirl. Although some superheroines have been accused of being nothing more than eye-candy for the young male audience, Supergirl was introduced squarely to inspire young girls.

12. She could read your mind.

In Adventure Comics #397 (Sept 1970) Supergirl investigates a mystery girl found in a coma on the Stanhope College campus. As the anonymous patient lies motionless in a hospital bed, the Girl of Steel conveniently remembers that she has the ability to perform Vulcan mind-melds: ”I'll try to delve into her subconscious -- maybe I can learn something”. The trick reveals that the mystery girl was the victim of a black magic cult, causing Supergirl to infiltrate the group undercover (literally!) Strangely, although the Girl of Steel can read other people’s minds, she seemed very poor at reading her own, as she promptly forgets all about her mind-reading abilities after that single issue.

13. She always knew how to be popular.

When Kara from Argo City first landed on Earth, she took it upon herself to pick her own secret identity name. “While you were gone”, she tells her cousin, “I used my super-hearing and heard many Earth girls’ names! I thought of a good one for myself.” The name she chose, of course, was Linda.

It isn’t perhaps a surprise that her super-hearing fixated on that particular name, given that according to names registered with US Social Security, Linda was one of the most popular girls’ names in the 1950s, beginning the decade in the top slot, but dropping two places to third by the time Kara arrived on Earth in 1959. (Kara, by the way, was 935th on the girls list at the time that Ms. Zor-El crashed her rocket ship in Midvale.)

14. Her first appearance on television was in a 1962 comedy sketch, played by Carol Burnett.

In 1962 the Garry Moore Show featured a seven minute sketch lampooning the popular George Reeves Superman TV show -- the comedy gimmick being that instead of the Man of Steel, the sketch’s evildoers were pitted against the Maid of Might, played by comedian Carol Burnett. (A similar spoof by Lucille Ball a few years earlier doesn’t count, btw, as Lucy was playing Superman, not Supergirl.)

The madcap plot sees Carol dashing to and fro, frantically switching back and forth between her everyday clothes and her hero costume, while performing an array of ridiculous feats of strength. It is debatable whether this truly qualifies as a genuine Supergirl appearance, given the obvious Reeves inspiration, but Burnett’s 1962 version does use the Supergirl name and a reasonable facsimile of her 60s costume.

15. Her first proper appearance on television was in an advert, selling underwear!

Even if the 1962 Carol Burnett sketch is ruled out as not being canonical Kara, Supergirl’s late-70s underwear commercial qualifies without a shadow of a doubt. The short advert, for the kids brand Underroos, sees Supergirl, Spider-Woman, Wonder Woman, and even Batgirl, all extolling the virtues of wearing superheroine themed undergarments. Dating from sometime around 1978, the ad seems to be the first authorised on-screen appearance of Supergirl, meaning that the ad’s opening line, “Now Supergirl is on Underoos”, is the first spoken line uttered by any actress playing the Girl of Steel. (It is unknown who the lucky voice artist was.)

That’s all for part one -- hope you enjoyed it..! Check out part two (soon) for another fifteen fascinating factoids.

[viostormcaller]

Ego Headcanons: Jackieboy Man

I meant to do this yesterday night but I had schoolwork and then I had a headache and was burnt out, so whoops! But I'm doing it now! Just like the others it's probably gonna be long so ya know. Here goes:

Jackie has adored superheroes since he was little. The superhero persona he is seen as is actually just a silly character he made up when he was younger, but he kept the name because of the sentimental value behind it. It took the city a long time to take him seriously, and even then not everyone does

Jackieboy Man is transgender! He was born female, and over time saved up to get top surgery. He wasn't able to get bottom surgery because he had to start focusing his money into upgrades for his suit and equipment, which he figured was much more important

This is also the reason why his hero name is Jackieboy Man. When he created the character as a kid he was adamant about being seen as a boy. The name meant a lot to him, so he refused to change it when he became a superhero

Jackie's real name actually is Jackie -- it was the name he was born with. Because he sees it as a gender-neutral name, he didn't feel the need to change it after his transition

Jackie went to a fancy prep school in high school. It was around then that he got his powers. He still doesn't know how it happened. He had been trying to get his phone that slid underneath a parked car, and for whatever reason his brain told him to lift it. He did, and found the car weighed virtually nothing. He almost dropped it on himself in surprise.

He became a student by day, crime fighter by night. This made his studies difficult, but he managed through it. Once he graduated, he got a job at a comic book store and used any extra money he had to try and design a suit for himself. For the time being he wore a red hoodie fitted with shoulder and chest pads, he wore kneepads over a pair of leggings, and he wore gloves and boots as well as his signature mask.

Jackie is insanely intelligent. Like, insanely. He's an absolute master at puzzle solving and is extremely well versed in technology. He invents things often and is an impressive coder.

Once he saved up enough to make his first armored suit, he started taking on more difficult enemies rather than just fighting robbers and criminals. However, because the police saw him regularly turning in these people, they grew to trust Jackie and eventually partnered up with him. He began earning money through the city and was able to quit his day job before long

On the side, while Jackie was hunting down the supervillains that lived in the area, he was also on a secret mission to hunt down people on the Deep Web. He was forced to give up the case after he had been kidnapped, his captors not quite realizing who they were dealing with

He met Marvin when a powerful villain attacked a theater. At the time, this villain's skills were about on par with Jackie's, so taking them down prover to be tough. When Marvin revealed he knew real magic, they teamed up to take the villain out

Jackie, figuring a partner was just what he needed, offered to meet up with Marvin that next weekend to get to know him better. Marvin accepted and they went out for pizza and talked everything over

After a while of teaming up and growing close, the pair moved in together.

They may not be brothers or related by blood in any sense of the word, but they might as well have been. They were rarely seen without each other. They never fought, and their interests overlapped so they always had something to talk about

They made it a habit of theirs to always cook something for every meal. Marvin was an exceptional cook, while Jackie was still learning. Marvin taught him some things that he knew, and on mornings and at night they both cooked together. Every meal was home cooked, no matter how simple it was

They were both usually home during the day; since they both earned money from the city, they didn't have any obligations. They both dedicated this time to research and studying, and they would spar occasionally

Jackie and Marvin both suffer from gender dysphoria. On a day that it was particularly bad, Jackie revealed to Marvin that he was transgender. After Marvin revealed he was genderfluid and he understood where Jackie was coming from, Marvin offered to use transformation magic to finish off Jackie's transition. Jackie agreed, and while he swore he had never been in so much pain in his entirel life, he still feels eternally indebted to Marvin because he did that for him.

They met Schneep on a night Jackie was gravely injured. The three felt a connection between each other and stayed in touch after Jackie and Marvin both recovered, and refused to see any other doctor after a while. They moved in with him once Schneep bought a house.

Jackie, like Schneep, is also pansexual. Unlike Schneep, however, he hasn't been in many relationships because he was too afraid he'll put his future partner in danger by being in a relationship with him. Moreover, he's constantly busy doing hero-related stuff, so he doubted he would have the time.

Schneep once made Jackie a picture of him in a comic-book style. Jackie had it framed and hung it up in his room, right over his bed. When Schneep found out Jackie did that, he teared up

Jackie is up the earliest out of all the Egos. He spends the mornings doing research, and then cooks with Marvin once he gets up. He goes on patrols at night

Jackie's powers include super strength, super speed, the power of flight, the ability to envelop his fists in green flames, and a sonic clap (which he only uses if he absolutely must; it's extremely dangerous and destructive). He excels in melee combat which compliments Marvin's ranged combat

When Jackie's using his powers, his eyes will glow a bright green, and if he's under a lot of strain his veins will glow faintly green as well. When this happens he knows he's reaching a limit

Jackie is the most optimistic. He's also the most silly (with Chase coming in close second). Chase and Jackie share a lot of jokes together, which is how they grew closer. Jackie often uses his optimism to cheer Chase up when he's feeling low.

Jackie can actually be one of the most serious Egos when he needs to be (though Schneep will always hold first place on that front). He knows when to joke and when to be focused, and is often seen as the leader of the household because of his commanding presence when he's serious

Jackie and Jameson often work out together. Jameson is almost as physically fit as Jackie is, because in his time he did all his own stunts. He may not do them anymore, but he didn't want to stop exercising regularly, and knowing Jackie often worked out he went to him for advice on keeping a good regimen.

During the day, when he's not researching, Jackie is more often than not checking in on Schneep and making sure he's doing alright. He feels the need to he Schneep's protector, just as Marvin does with Chase. Especially after his kidnapping, Jackie wants to keep Schneep safe. He's usually there to ground him during flashbacks and panic attacks. The two are rather close and spend quite a bit of time with each other talking about work or venting general frustrations. Jackie's optimism and general bubbliness counteracts Schneep's serious attitude, and while Schneep reminds Jackie when to be serious, Jackie reminds Schneep when to loosen up.

Jackie loves movies, but sadly doesn't have a whole lot of time to watch them. He also adores retro video games, but agrees the modern ones are super cool, too. His favorite game is easily guessed.

Jackie's favorite superhero, like Jack's, is Spiderman. He sees a lot of himself in Spiderman, and on the days he doesn't go on patrols or research he's often seen playing the most recent Spiderman game on the PS4. He wants to 100% complete it.

Jackie doesn't rely on coffee as nearly as much as Schneep does, but he does drink a cup to help wake himself up in the mornings. He drinks his with a bit of cream, that's it.

Jackie can easily lift the others. Sometimes he'll sneak up on someone and lift them up, carrying them in his arms and spinning them around while laughing.

Jackie is a HUGE cuddler, and has a very tight hold. He's also a heavy sleeper, so if he falls asleep, good luck getting back up! He's always the big spoon

Most of his research is dedicated to tracking down Antisepticeye. He has Marvin help with this, since Marvin has more knowledge on demons than he does. However, Schneep, Chase, and Jameson also all have had direct contact with Antisepticeye and offer up any information they gathered. They all work together as a team to gather knowledge and keep track of common traits, symptoms, and telltale signs that Anti is active. Jackie also relies on the community and Jack's channel for information, since the community finds things first. This information is given through Chase. Jameson has only been in contact with Anti once, but his knowledge that he gained in his experience is also helpful to Jackie and isn't overlooked.

Jackie doesn't get sick often, but when he does he gets hit hard. Schneep is the one who takes care of everyone when they get sick, so every time Jackie comes down with something he gets all sappy and thanks Schneep for being a doctor and helping them. When he's sick, he's an emotional mess, but he does mean everything he says.

Jackie never makes a promise he can't keep, but he also never breaks his promises either. He's probably the most dependable out of everyone

I think that's everything for Jackie! The headache hasn't gone away so if I felt I missed something I'll probably add it in a seperate post. Same with any of the Egos, actually. If I need to add something I'll just make a continuation post and add it there. In any case, there's one more Ego to go! After that I'll clean out my inbox, though because I'm currently feeling shitty and moody I may not open prompts for a little bit, like a few days or so. But yeah, that's Jackie's list done!

[ryanmeft]

Captain Marvel Movie Review

*This review contains heavy spoilers* The tagline of the latest Marvel solo outing, “Higher. Further. Faster,” implies some kind of quantum leap in superhero movies, as does the very feminist-focused marketing surrounding it. This is mostly hype; the actual movie delivered by directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden is firmly a product of the Marvel/Disney studio machine, breaking very little new ground and offering no serious change to the formula. The question is whether that harms the movie. It does not. It’s an enjoyable sci-fi action flick that will please everyone and offend no one. That is both its strength and its weakness.

Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) is a member of an ill-defined alien race called the Kree; some are blue and some are entirely human-looking. Their enemy, the shape-shifting Skrull, are more consistent; their heads look kind of like pickles with faces. They are determined to infiltrate the Kree homeworld, and are opposed by crack commando teams like the one Danvers is on. It is led by Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), the no-nonsense military man who rescued Carol when she showed up six years ago with no memory. After being captured and escaping from a passing Skrull ship, Danvers crash-lands in a Blockbuster and meets a young Nick Fury (a digitally de-aged Samuel L. Jackson), whose help she enlists against a Skrull invasion of earth. To do that, she needs to find a secret technology that was being developed by a scientist named Lawson (Annette Bening).

All is not as it seems, and the movie has a few twists that are definitely spoiler-territory. Initially, we think S.H.I.E.L.D. (translation: it does not matter) has been subverted by Talos, a Skrull leader whose human disguise is Ben Mendelsohn. As things progress, we learn that the Kree are actually the greedy imperials, determined to wipe out the Skrull for not bowing to their rule. This could be the plot fodder for something on the scale of a Star Wars trilogy, but at least for now it serves mostly as background to Danvers’ story. The main benefit of this war for those of us who are comic book apostates (or never-believers) is the addition of three of our most excellent actors to the Marvel franchise. Law has one of those faces where, even if you don’t trust him, you believe him. He turns out to be the film’s central antagonist, yet even then, I was fully convinced he believes in what he is doing; he comes across not as bloodthirsty but as a soldier doing a job for his homeland. Like many soldiers, he seems to regard the ethical questions around that job as being above his pay grade. Mendelsohn is someone every person in the theatre should know but does not, as he lacks either the perfect looks or comedy bonafides needed to make him a household name. He spends most of the movie in a suit, but unlike the crimes against cinema that befell Ciaran Hinds in Justice League or Oscar Isaac in X-Men: Apocalypse, even behind a green pickle mask his talents help his character immensely. Perhaps no newcomer has more fun with their role, though, than Annette Bening. She’s pretty straight-forward while playing Danvers’s actual mentor, but there’s a scene where she gets to be the embodiment of a scheming A.I., which is drawing the image from Danvers’s own head, that is the best single exchange in the film.

The center of this particular story is what amounts to a buddy movie starring Larson and Jackson. It’s set in 1995, before the Fury character took a full-time job saying cryptic things in badly-lit rooms, and Jackson has been de-aged to match this. To my everlasting surprise, it works. Jackson does not look like his modern self with a bad coat of CG paint. I’m notably opposed to resurrecting dead actors with the ghoulish black magic of computers, as was done to poor Peter Cushing in the unworthy spin off Rogue One. Computers as a fountain of youth is a more agreeable use. He’s also a more relaxed and less serious version of the character, cracking actual jokes instead of spooky pronouncements and taking an immediate liking to a cat named Goose who, you might have quickly deduced, is not an actual cat. Larson fits her role well, which is good, because we’ll probably be seeing that role quite often over the next few years. She’s always been capable of striking a note somewhere between power and pain, seen to stupendous effect in her Oscar-winning role in Room. This talent seems to be why she was chosen, for Captain Marvel is a bit of a mercy. Many “strong female characters” are just male movie archetypes with the gender swapped. CM feels mostly like her own person, even if she never does escape or transcend the shallow demands of the genre. An ace fighter pilot in her lost human life, she is strong enough to casually kick alien butt and thoughtful enough to come up with non-butt-kicking solutions. If you ever see any films not made by Disney, she won’t be too surprising. It is only fair, however, to judge her by the standards she is set against, and she successfully fills a role the MCU has had trouble with in the past. Other fine actors get walk-on roles, including Clark Gregg, Djimon Hounsou, Gemma Chan and Lee Pace, though it is sisters Akira and Azari Akbar who, playing the daughter of Danvers’s best friend (Lashanna Lynch) at different ages, get the real power moments, a clear call-out to the little girls in the audience.

Yet for everything it does right, the film will not go down as one of Marvel’s most memorable (at least, if you are an adult). It follows the pattern exactly: the hero has doubts, the hero discovers who they really are, the hero saves the world in a bang-up finale. That finale is typical, and ends up enjoyable mostly because it knows when to stop. In some MCU films, particularly Avengers: Age of Ultron and Black Panther, the wow finish drags on and on and on, until all but the most patient or comatose of the audience are tapping their armrests impatiently. Here, there’s no excess; the last fight does what it needs to do and lets us get on to dinner. The entire film, in fact, feels quick and easily digestable, perhaps as a mercy; after all, next month’s Avengers entry is almost certain to be a bit too complex for its own good. Boden, Fleck and fellow writers Geneva Robinson-Dworet, Nicole Perlman and Meg LeFauve have chosen expediency over flash, conciseness over complexity. While Boden and Fleck’s unique directorial style (for the love of cinema, please run right out and find a copy of their last film, Mississippi Grind) is entirely devoured by the hungry maw of Marvel’s marketing monstrosity, this is still a fun, if non-essential, little tights caper whose cultural cachet is greater than the thing itself.

Verdict: Recommended  

Note: I don’t use stars, but here are my possible verdicts.

Must-See

Highly Recommended

Recommended

Average

Not Recommended

Avoid like the Plague

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 All images are property of the people what own the movie.

[vee-angel]

Upcoming Story Introductions

I just wanted to write a brief introduction to give a quick look at some of up-and-coming stories and story series I have in the works.

--The Pervert Pentet--

This is going to be a series of stories exploring the lives of five women who each embrace and exemplify a certain extreme fetish lifestyle. There is:

Potty-Mouth Piper- Skinny girl with Swedish ancestry and a punk-rock aesthetic. Piper is the epitome of a filth-fetishist. On top of living up to her name in the sense that she often insists that her mouth be used as a toilet, she speaks and acts in the most obscene ways possible. As an example, she has a tattoo on the side of her head (which is shaved into a green mohawk) which reads “Ass to Mouth 4Ever.” However, rather than the normal interpretation that anything that’s been up her ass must immediately go into her mouth, she insists that anything that goes into her mouth must have first been up her (or someone else’s) ass. Piper identifies as a lesbian, but is more-or-less free-use for any gender, due to her love of obscenity and bodily fluids. The early part of her story takes place in high school where she meets the love of her life; a timid filth-fetishist names Mackenzie; she becomes obsessed with Piper, who slowly helps Mackenzie open up to her fantasies. Mackenzie helps Piper feel as though she has someone who actually accepts her.

Sharking Sherry- Soft, feminine body with very pretty breasts, slightly large for her frame. Half-Japanese/Half Caucasian. Exposure/exhibitionism fetishist. Sherry grew up in a very Americanized family, but from a young age, she felt drawn to her Japanese ancestry. Her parents had no objections to her engaging in her Japanese culture (after all, things like Pokemon and anime were becoming increasingly commonplace). Due to their ignorance regarding how “adult��� anime and manga could be, Sherry was exposed to themes of female humiliation/embarrassment as a form of comic relief at a young age and eventually started watching hentai in her early teens. As she became more adult, she became interested in a Japanese activity called sharking; the trend and fetish of exposing a woman in public against her will where it would be filmed and posted online. After high-school, she takes a year off to visit Japan where, much to her delight, she becomes the victim of a sharking video, but to her disappointment, only her panties are exposed. The experience re-ignites her interest and she later tries to make arrangements with someone online to participate in another sharking video in which she would get to shark another girl, but leaving her completely naked in public. However, due to a miscommunication resulting from her incomplete comprehension of the Japanese language, the people she meets with believe she wants to be the victim. With her having been so adamant about wanting to make the video, she ends up stripped completely naked and is forced to walk back to her hotel without her clothes. She finds the experience humiliating, but at the same time incredibly exhilarating. She decides that whatever else she does with her life, one thing she absolutely wants to do is to have her body and her sexuality exposed, and to expose the bodies and sexuality of other girls. In fact, this is how she ends up meeting Piper, who she ends up sharking, much to Piper’s amusement.

Non-consent Nancy- Nancy grew up as a shy, bisexual, African-American girl. She was bullied through much of her youth, but rather than resenting the bullies, she tried to befriend them in hopes that they would stop. She always tried to think of things they’d like, or ways she could be nice to them. Over time, she developed the coping mechanism of empathizing more with abusers and rapists and bullies than with their victims. In her mind, she often finds herself adamantly defending them and thinking that their victims should be punished. While in public, she maintains a persona of a typical college feminist/black lives matter/lgbt activist, she privately fetishizes victimization, often using her role as a rape-crisis counselor to arrange the re-victimization of women who confess their trauma to her, and to help and defend known rapists. She has an athletic build, due to exercising and women’s self-defense classes, but secretly, she uses her athleticism to abuse and rape other girls. She eventually develops a close friendship (in which she becomes something of a subordinate side-kick) with the artist Teira Volks.

Torture-lover Teira- German-born artist Teira Volks, average build, early 30’s, aryan features, straight blonde hair, perpetually serious expression. As a youth, Teira was close to her grandfather, who was a Nazi officer during WW2. She became fascinated with the idea of torture and suffering. Due to her connection to heinous war crimes, the idea of pain and despair felt very real to her. Not just like some abstract that people read in a history book. As she grew up, she became a controversial performance artist, often causing herself so much pain and harm that it became difficult for her to even find venues that would allow her to showcase such extreme self-abuse. In the past, she had sometimes employed assistants who would allow themselves to be abused, but she usually found them to be insufficiently masochistic, or unwilling to endure her forceful and pushy style of management. She eventually comes across Nancy, who she allows to participate in a performance with her. She finds that no matter how much Nancy hates what is being done to her, or how much she’s hurt or abused or humiliated; Nancy keeps coming back and never says a harsh word toward Teira. In time Teira takes on Nancy as a sort of full-time assistant, often treating Nancy as a slave; forcing her to participate in performances against her will. They meet Piper and Sherry at a performance near their college. The theme of the performance is “mirror,” in which anyone is allowed to do whatever they like to Teira, on the condition that they will allow it to be done to themselves. After Piper imposes her kinks on Teira, and subsequently submitting to having those same kinks imposed on herself, they become friends. With Piper, Teira, Nancy, and Sherry occasionally getting together and forming a tight-knit group.

Bimbo Bailee- Tall and pretty, in a trashy way. Bailee has huge fake tits and dresses in an incredibly exhibitionistic way. Her origins are a bit unclear as she seems too ditsy to remember ever not being a bimbo. Sherry, Piper, Nancy, and Teira meet her at a plastic surgeon's office. Piper makes an obscene comment upon noticing her (“Holy shit, look at the size of the fuck-bags on that little cock-socket!”), while Sherry discretely takes some upskirt pictures of her to post online later. After talking with her, they discover she seems to be profoundly stupid and impossibly gullible. As an example, after someone comments on her tramp stamp that reads “Butt Slut” she consistently says “Nuh uh, it’s a butterfly. That’s what the tattoo guy told me.” At times seeming to become flustered due to the fact that everyone keeps commenting that her tramp stamp (which she still insists is a butterfly) clearly reads “Butt Slut.” She seems to be so gullible that nearly any embarrassing trick or prank will work on her, regardless of how little thought is put into it. She’s consistently vain and often critical of the appearances of other women, generally contextualizing everything they do in the context of how attractive it makes them to men. She sometimes makes comments indicating that she doesn’t believe lesbians are sincere, and are only with each other as a way of getting attention from men. Despite her ditsyness and frequent critical comments about the other girls appearances, Piper, Sherry, Nancy, and Teira decide to invite her into their friend group due to how entertaining she is.

Each of these five characters will be getting their own story to start, and after they all meet up, there will sometimes be stories that involve all five of them, but more often stories will involve only a fraction of the full group.

--The Kinky Mass-Effect Fanfiction Trilogy--

This is the series that is the most fleshed out by far. This is going to be a trilogy of full length erotic novels set in the Mass Effect universe. The third book in this series was actually my first attempt at writing erotica (it sort of evolved from a sort of roleplay, and before I knew it, it was turning into a book). But a ways into the story, I realized that there was a lot of story leading up to the one I was writing, so I decided it needed to be a trilogy.

The story follows Dr. Biavalia Bi’tarah (usually called Beebee, by her friends), a dutiful asari slave and whore for her human master. Her playful sexuality and juvenile sense of humor belie her skill and competence as a fighter and engineer. The first book in the trilogy follows her as she deceives Commander Shepard (female) and Jack (aka Subject Zero) into helping her find someone who could aid her and her master into gaining an edge over the other slavers of the Terminus systems. Aria T’loak also makes an appearance. Throughout the first book, Beebee will happen across situations where sex and kink are preferable solutions to fighting (though there will still be a decent amount of action). And for those of you (like me) who were disappointed that Jack didn’t have any girl/girl romance options in the game, rest assured that the psychotic biotic will be having plenty of sapphic fun with the sapphire slut.

--Unnamed Female-Inferiority World--

At some point in the past, a genetic virus came about that only affected females. If untreated, it would degrade their DNA, and would eventually become fatal. It was discovered that the only way to repair the genetic damage was by administering incomplete pieces of human genetic material (i.e. human sperm). Early attempts to synthesize a more stable treatment were failures, and eventually society came to accept that all females would need to regularly absorb male semen, either anally, orally, or vaginally. This new sexual desperation among females reshaped how males and females interacted, with women having their very lives depending on how sexually appealing they were to men. Over the generations, women with unappealing bodies or personalities became scarce. Yet, every woman still knows that her long term survival depends on being more sexually appealing than the women around her, so even the most attractive and obedient females are still competitive.

Men in this world have become entitled and demanding as women have become more accomodating. Feminism is the greatest crime a female can commit and is punishable by a fate worse than death.

These stories will likely involve a strong emphasis on heavy and extreme kinks. Misogyny, rape, humiliation, torture, filth, and even snuff will be recurring themes. This is most likely going to be a series of stories exploring various aspects and characters of this alternative universe. While I’ve had multiple fantasies set in this universe, it’s probably the least developed so far.

[201700210caic1819-blog]

Ghost in the Shell. The Great Wall. Pan. The Lone Ranger.

What do these four recent blockbusters have in common?

Success.

Shame. That’s more like it. 

Despite being the 21st century, Hollywood continues to be plagued with discrimination. The diversity and acceptance that permeates throughout society has failed to penetrate Hollywood’s barriers. Non-white actors and actresses struggle daily to try to breakthrough into popular culture, whilst white actors are having to turn down film opportunities left, right and centre. Unfortunately for many, directors often decide on traditional Western ‘beauties’ such as Scarlett Johansson or Jennifer Lawrence instead of the culturally appropriate choice.

Ghost in the Shell was the latest film to spark whitewashing controversy. The 2017 anime-inspired motion picture brings to life the comics of Masamune Shirow. The film follows the life of soldier Major, a human body featuring a cyber-enhanced brain, making her the ultimate fighter. Many expectant fans were eager to see which rising Asian female director Rupert Sanders was going to appoint as their favourite anime character, would it be Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels), Brenda Song (The Social Network) or even Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy)? Surely it is reasonable to believe one of these culturally appropriate actresses would be used to bring a Japanese anime character to life?

Stretching back to 2015, the announcement of Scarlett Johansson’s appointment to the character of Major, denied the film any opportunity to diverge into a popular franchise before even gracing our screens. It was no surprise in turn when social media blew up in response. Fans launched a petition against the Americanised casting in a futile attempt to reverse Sanders’ decision. Yet instead of correcting the crime against Asian actresses, the controversy only tainted the film’s reception. The controversy didn’t stop with anime fanatics, the beauty of modern technology sent the misrepresentation viral. Ghost in the Shell was destined to fail even before it had the chance to impress. 

“The original film is set in Japan, and the major cast members are Japanese. So why would the American remake star a white actress?”

Fans such as these seem to be making a ground-breaking change in Hollywood. After 100,00 fans signed the petition against Johansson’s appointment, the film’s reputation crumbled. By channelling anger towards Hollywood as an institution and not the actors themselves, whitewashing can be combatted. However, progress is slow. But at least change is in the air. It may take decades for Asian actors to be fairly represented in Hollywood. This uproar has inspired directors to look closely at their decisions, but big brands such as DreamWorks and Paramount should be doing more to combat this racism within their companies. 

Not only hard-core anime fans have noticed this rift in minority representation. 

Whitewashing is much more common in modern day Hollywood that it seems. Films such as Ghost in the Shell bring to light questions of diversity. Defined as “the practice of casting white actors as non-white characters”, whitewashing is a problem that has forever loomed over society and continues to be swept under the carpet. It has been interwoven into popular culture for decades. Every now and then minorities latch onto the problem and cause a fuss, but has anything ever really been done to combat it? It has been 55 years since the Civil Rights Act passed into law, surely the time of a white dominated screen is over?

We all like to think that racial discrimination is a thing of the past. A distant memory. But it is unfortunately an ongoing 21st century dilemma.

In 2017, Marvel released the latest superhero film from their collection. Black Panther is set in the fictional African country of Wakanda and details the Afrocentric cast’s fight to protect their home. Since its release, Black Panther has been widely recognised as a step in the right direction for equal representation. Many have labelled the film as “truly heart-warming and refreshing” in their celebrations of black talent and moreover, the complete lack of white characters except for a few American actors. For many of the younger generation of African-Americans, Black Panther has provided them with hope and inspiration in the face of an increasingly regressive society. The film demonstrated that despite discrimination, black actors are equally as talented than the white denominations. Make no mistake, this film is an amazing leap forward to minorities. But let’s face it. It is ridiculous to believe that one film is going to change the face of Hollywood, many have tried and failed to diversify popular culture, but purposeful action must be taken to give all minorities equal opportunity on the big screen.

2018 marks 55 years of an equal and accepting society. But how can we pride ourselves on finally being equal when Hollywood has remained locked in a pre-segregationist state of mind?  Instead the racism has deflected internally, it may not be visible, but racism continues to plague Hollywood and the movie culture. A recent survey investigated the statistics of Hollywood and its diversity problem:

In 779 directors, only 5.8% were black and 2.4% Asian.

Only 17 out of the top 100 films feature a lead or co-lead from a racial or ethnic minority.

The top 100 films are whiter than the cultural makeup of America: 73.1% of characters are white.

Black directors bring diversity from 10% to 40% in their films.

 It is harrowing to see these statistics in this day and age. Ethnic minorities face daily struggles to fight their way through the world of acting. It is time to focus our attention on overcoming Hollywood’s diversity problem and eradicate whitewashing from popular culture for good. But an integral question continues to halt this change. Whose duty is it to make this jump?

Is it us as the audience who should be inspiring the change? Or is it the directors and actors place to demand equality in their productions? Should we be boycotting and protesting the films that clearly participate in whitewashing? Should actresses such as Scarlett Johansson simply not audition for culturally inappropriate roles in the first place? Are directors actively trying to avoid casting minority actors in their films?

These are all questions that our society needs to address. Hollywood is in desperate need of a change, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later. Franchises like Marvel are transforming the way films approach issues such as casting by proving a white ethnocentric cast is not necessary, through films such as Black Panther. More people should be thinking like the late great Stan Lee, who upon speaking about his comics said: "If my books and my stories can make people realize that everybody should be equal then I think it would be a better world." It is important as a whole society that we combat race issues like whitewashing and misrepresentation in the movie enterprise. What kind of world are we creating for the younger generation? One where white actors are more talented and valuable than other minorities?

Aren’t America’s days of blatant racism over? 

Apparently not.