#honestly just came on here to ramble about all my feelings about the ongoing comics tonight apparently

[harlivycentral]

Also can I just say I looooove Howard's Harley Quinn run so much 😭 From the beginning, Howard's run has brought back elements of Harley's character that I love and had missed. I loved the way her first issue leaned into the looney-tunes-esque element of Harley, the way we saw her pull out her big hammer again, the way Bud & Lou were back, the way it at once illustrated her tendency toward criminal mischief and her PhD credentials, etc. This most recent issue (#38) feels like it just cements everything I've loved about Howard's run, which is that she has obvious respect and love for all the iterations of Harley that came before and has used them to create a Harley run that is distinctly her own at the same time. Seeing the panel with all of her friends from various runs gathered for her birthday party made me so emotional--it really felt like not only a fun way to honor the history of the character but also to affirm how many people (in-universe and in her readership) love her!

I loved how Howard brought back Carmen & Bonny, mentioned their "sleepover days," and made them explicitly lesbian. Since the beginning, Harley's had this tongue-in-cheek gay undertone to her character, and revisiting a story line from her first solo run that felt soooo gay while being so not felt like a fun way to nod to that history; making Carmen & Bonny explicitly lesbian felt like a celebration of the fact that we don't have to dwell in subtext for Harley anymore!

I've really loved the way Harley & Ivy have been written in Howard's run. Obviously I think the breakup storyline in Phillips' run was probably more editorial than her own choice, but it's been so satisfying to finally settle into Ivy & Harley FINALLY being a canonical couple AND not instantly broken up. I've really enjoyed the way Howard has explored their relationship and at once explored the way Harley's past with Joker still impacts her while also showing that it doesn't define her. (As a side note, I think a lot of the Harlivy content in the Harley: Black & White & Redder series did an amazing job of exploring that too <3)

I really liked the conversation Ivy & Harley had about the whole concept of "hero vs villain" not making sense to them. I think that's been a pretty clear stance of Howard's since the start of her run, but it's nice to see her have FUN with the character, and I'm excited to see Harley hopefully unleash a bit in the next few issues. It's been fun to have her mallet and hyenas back, and now to have the return of her iconic original costume! Again, I feel like Howard has a real sense of balance in writing this plotline: it's clear that we're not going back to the same emotional place that Harley was in when she first went around in her jester suit with a big mallet and a couple of hyenas, and I'm sure we'll see her out of the suit/continuing to explore teaching as well/etc. I like that we get PARTS of Kessel & Doddson's run mixed in with others. I like that Howard also brought Kevin back in a significant role for the conclusion of this last arc, and I was so right to make this post honestly at the beginning of her run--I think she has expanded on the emotional kernels in Palmiotti & Conner's run.

Idk, Harley has just meant a lot to me personally, and I remember reading her comics not so long ago when it felt like so much of what I loved about her had to remain subtext, or was spread out disparately over so many different runs. I just love love love to see it all being so loving solidified and explored in this run! And it's FUN to read! And the art is pretty! I honestly got emotional reading issues 37 & 38 because Harley feels very much like a Real Person to me in a way that few other fictional characters do, and these past few issues have really honored all of that growth and complexity that used to feel more weaved together by fans! Love love love Harley and also y'all xoxo

[bbyeeti]

thanks so much for sharing!! 8 hours to edit ch 9 wow

i love your plotting doc so much bcos it's so well-structured and it never occurred to me to use a coloured background. i almost didn't recognise it was google docs at first? ugh its even more organised than the notes i take during lectures

also the fact that you put those funny little questions to yourself and that's so useful cos it really helps you find the plotholes and stuff if they do occur. plus that encyclopedia section thingy at the front to establish world-building is cool! also i literally just started writing using comics sans a week ago just to troll myself?? and HAHA it really works when proofreading 😁

also how long did it take you to do up the plan bcos it looks super detailed e.g. the dates and timeline did you write the whole plan at one go (i.e. no writing at all for a period of time, just plotting) or do you sort of plot the chapter maybe a few days or weeks before you start the writing and how do you resolve structural plotholes when they appear do you write around them by adding new ideas to accommodate it or do you go back and change the story

sry i have so many qns lol

and yes i wrote a thing for enhypen & am working on another thing (hellu it's me ao3 user tenet ⊙‿⊙)

WOOOOOOOW HI BRO GOOD TO KNOW IT'S YOU :D

ummm is this, ahem, being 'more organised than the notes you take during lectures' an achievement bc honestly the notes students take are sometimes very—

OKAY BUT HONESTLY using comics sans feels like a fever dream T^T I'll be praying for you on this journey

I mean ✨the action✨ of writing the plan of a chapter doesn't take lots of time but figuring out what the heck you should do?? ಥ‿ಥ lots of lots of. Not sure which one you were asking about? But yeah, I didn't write the whole plan of the fic beforehand, I just started with the chapter 1 (I'm a simple girl and I like gays ok) posted it and then I sat like

and yeah, I eventually came up with a plot (more or less) and found a few things which I know I have to put here and theeeere. And, in general, I don't usually know how to put these ideas until the last minute. because my small brain just XDD it just can't. so yeah, I'm writing the plan bit by bit

if I have plotholes I ignore them, I don't go back to fill them or correct them, mostly because it's an ongoing thing, some people download the pdf of that sh t so I don't want to confuse anyone!! BUT if I was more incognito I would edit the shit out of it, not gonna lie

sorry I'm a master of rambling :))

OH GREAT SO I've just started reading your fic so when you get a kudoso but not a comentoso don't worry!! bc you shall expect my comment at the end

WHAT YOU'RE WRITING THERE IN SECRET SPILL THE TEA or bitch the pot even though I know it didn't mean spill the t—

wow I should stalk the commenting people

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

ACTION COMICS ANNUAL (2021) fixed the trash fire that was Future State: Superwoman so lemme just RAMBLE about how much I loved it.

Spoilers, obvs.

Folks who read this blog (thank you, but also, my sincere apologies XD) will perhaps recall that I...did not particularly care for the Superwoman book, that came out of Future State.

(Of course, various individuals on twitter have since pointed out that Future State was deliberately set up to be a bad timeline; a future that the current DC books are actively fighting against. So I guess, technically, you could argue that the book was awful on purpose.

Except that, you know, some of the awful stuff was still framed good and inspiring. 

So, okay, but also, no.)

BUT THIS ANNUAL? FIXES EVERY GRIEVANCE I HAVE WITH FUTURE STATE: SUPERWOMAN.

I wasn’t even going into this book with huge expectations for Kara because of Superwoman, but! She’s here! As like, a key component of the House of El!

SHE IS THE LEADER. FOR MANY YEARS, APPARENTLY, WHILE CLARK IS AWAY.

I’m getting ahead of myself.

Backtracking a bit: this book begins with a framing device, featuring a group of Kryptonian refugees that have been introduced recently in Action Comics. 

We’ve got an older guy, Byla, telling a bunch of kids stories about The House of El.

Which is how we get back to the characters introduced in the initial House of El oneshot: Brandon, Theand’r, Ronan, Rowan, etc.

And, to be clear! I was excited for this book, knowing it would be about these guys! And these guys alone! Because they’re very cool! And there’s clearly like, a whole history and mythology just simmering below the surface and MAN. I wish we had a House of El ongoing. XD

They’re all gathered on Sanctuary to attend the wedding of Alura Van-El and Khan.

So FIX NUMBER ONE: The moon sanctuary introduced in Superwoman is no longer home to a bunch of rando jerks; rather, it’s an ACTUAL sanctuary for aliens/folks who need it, AND there are a BUNCH of House of El family members!

PKJ clarified on twitter that the ‘Sanctuary’ is built from Kara’s Fortress of Sanctuary, and that it’s a city that functions a little like Camelot. They grant refuge to all, and the members of the House of El act as a kind of Knights of the Round Table, protecting anyone who needs their help.)

THUS!! The actual dream of Kara’s Fortress is realized, AND she is SURROUNDED by friends, family, and loved ones, as opposed to dying alone. On the moon. With just her dog to keep her company.

Anyways it’s great. We love to see it.

FIX NUMBER TWO: Kara displays an emotion OTHER than barely-suppressed rage, and is genuinely happy to be overseeing this wedding!

Like, there’s no background, simmering animosity towards her cousins. 

Byla even hints at another ‘tale of the House of El’ where Kara and Clark meet again! And presumably get along okay!

FIX NUMBER THREE: The Superwoman mantle is passed down to Theand’r! 

Future State: Superwoman made a big to-do about how the Supergirl name was so singular that Kara never gave it to anyone (which is so STUPID because if your big thesis is how inspiring Kara is as an individual but you say, ‘no one else gets to be Supergirl’ you kinda undermine your own point.)

(Imagine if Into the Spider-Verse spent all that time building up how inspiring Spider-Man is as a hero, and then in an epilogue narrated by Miles, he revealed that no one else ever became ‘Spider-Man’, and that the name died with Peter.)

(That would be DUMB, right?????)

This isn’t passing the Supergirl mantle, but it’s passing the Superwoman mantle, so it’s close! Which, hey. I’ll take it. XD

FIX NUMBER FOUR: Kara actually comes across as the mature, adult leader of the House of El. This ties into the whole ‘she’s not a walking bundle of barely-contained rage’ bit; she’s, like. Graceful and dignified and very clearly no longer a kid/teenager. 

Literal and figurative character growth! WOOOOOOO. 

FIX NUMBER FIVE: There isn’t the gross ‘birthright’/’pure-blooded Kryptonians are stronger/better’ element in play. In fact! Pyrrhos, the bad guy, calls Kara a traitor for allowing the ‘diluting of Clark’s bloodline’ e.g. letting folks who AREN’T Els by blood become part of the fam.  

FIX NUMBER SIX: Kara gets angry at Cyborg Superman (the original one, not her dad) but it never devolves into murderous rage, as it does in Superwoman. She PARDONS him!

Mercy! Sympathy!

AaaaaAAAAhhhhhh love it. LOVE IT.

And so! Nearly every. Major. Complaint I had regarding Superwoman is fixed in this Annual.

*happy sigh*

Some final thoughts on the Annual overall, so as not to make this COMPLETELY about Kara. ...Well. Moreso than I already have, anyway.

The art is solid, though I feel for the artist who had to share the book with Godlewski; it’s not that their art is bad, it’s just that Godlewski is very, VERY good, so his pages look a touch more polished and confident.

That said, the character art throughout? Excellent. This is a cool, varied cast and both artists do a great job with all the designs/costumes etc.

(Well, okay, Kara’s costume looks a little weird at times; I like the costume but I honestly think they should’ve stuck with the costume introduced in Superman of Metropolis, it’s much easier for artists to replicate.)

(But also like. The Superwoman costume looks more stately/’grown-up’ so I get it.) 

I WANT TO SEE MORE OF BRANDON AND HIS KID.

I want to see more of ALL of these characters but you KNOW I found the two of them particularly endearing.

I love that the House of El has a Brainiac!

As is right and good, and should always be!

Overall, SO GLAD the annual allowed us to go on another adventure with these guys, and hope that PKJ has opportunities in the future to weave them in a bit more.

There’s already a cool connection brewing with the new character introduced in Action Comics proper. Thao-La, I think her name is? Can’t wait to see where that goes!

[thefloatingstone]

If we are still on the anime topic, what’s your opinion of slice of life anime?

SLICE OF LIFE ANIME IS MY JAAAAAAAAM!!!!

And I’m gonna have to put this under a cut too because I can never shut up so this ALSO turned out really long.

My friend likes to joke I like watching shows “that are about nothing” and like... SHE’S NOT WRONG???

However, I don’t ONLY like Slice of life anime, which is important I think. because if Slice of life was the ONLY anime I watched, it would get pretty boring pretty fast. However, if I watch a balanced amount of shows, anime or not, having the slice of life anime as an added spice to my media salad that I consume and makes it all the more delicious!!!! (that metaphor came out from nowhere and I’m not 100% sure what it means)

I also find, with slice of life anime, even if there isn’t an overarching plot, I still prefer it when the slice of life story has some kind of thread through it that leads it forward to something.

I’ll use some of my favourites as an example for what I mean. (and I know these are super obvious but just bare with me.)

First, I’m a big fan of Azumanga Daioh! the anime. And Azumanga is masically as slice of life as you get. With no overarching plot whatsoever and even conflicts and situations changing up every few episodes or so as we literally just follow the girls around and the various school-related activities they’re in.

But there IS a through line to the whole show, and despite no major dramatic events happening, there IS character development as the show goes on. Most noticeably in Sakaki (who happens to be my favourite character) who starts off shy, reserved, and embarrassed of her interests and hobbies, and by the end of the show, has not only opened up about the things she enjoys to her friends, but has actually managed to use them to direct her life as she realises what she wants to do after school is to become a vet.

The series also has a through-line in that it follows the girls through their 3 years of high school, and so, it has a logical place its working towards, namely, it is working towards Matric graduation at the end of the series. So we are not left feeling as if we are in a static state regarding the Slice of Life nature. We are not trapped in limbo, we are progressing forward towards something. And I feel it’s this detail that stops a slice of life story from being stagnant. Even if there is no plot, there is forward momentum.

The other slice of life I really like a lot is Lucky Star, which is similar in many ways to Azumanga except with even LESS plot to it. As often times entire episodes of Lucky Star are just a random collection of events that sometimes have absolutely no connection to each other at all.

Which I think, is why Lucky Star works, ironically, even though it does not have a clear through line like Azumanga. Because Lucky Star, just like Azumanga, is based on a series of yonkoma manga, or “4 panel manga”. a type of manga much more like Garfield or probably more accurately, Calvin and Hobbes, with singular jokes and punchlines, sometimes with a situation or topic spanning a handful of strips before moving on to the next thing.

This means Lucky Star has no TIME to start feeling stagnant and in limbo because its just moving from joke to joke and situation to situation without any of it to linger for too long.

As a result, it also means Lucky Star can focus on small slice of life details to devote and entire joke to them, which means many situations end up being MUCH MORE RELATEABLE on a real life level than an anime that had to worry about plot or character development.

Things like Konata’s ongoing struggle with sitting down and actually studying for once in her life. Or Miyuki’s problems regarding her love for sweets and candy but her penchant for getting cavities and her crippling fear of the dentist. Or the character Hiyori who is an up and coming Yuri manga artist and who is already making her own comic strips (inspired by her rather problematic “I ship it” personality regarding two of her classmates, however she acknowledges that she is bad for doing this and honestly feels guilty for it. But she channels it into inspiration for her stories with her own characters)

(Please enjoy the most relateable moment in all of anime)

(also it doesn’t hurt that Lucky Star has shockingly good animation for an anime, which further helps the “Real life” situations, even though the characters themselves are hyper stylised. As well as it being clear the animators have a lot of life drawing in their repertoire, especially concerning hand poses)

Also just a side note; Lucky Star is absolutely my sense of humour in a meta sense. I can’t find out who exactly because the internet is garbage, but literally EVERY SINGLE EXTRA in the show is voiced by the same Seiyuu. Who himself was a very famous voice actor at the time. and he voices EVERYONE of the incidental characters. Doesn’t matter if they’re young high school girls. He has to voice them. It’s incredible.

Not to mention the ending credits which is different for EVERY SINGLE EPISODE, starting at first with the main characters singing Kareoke to famous songs from other anime, including Dragon Ball Z and Doraemon, before becoming live action as the crew went out to film the same voice actor who does all the voices for the extras just walking around tourists spots and being a weirdo, to which they then added things in post production to make it even stupider.

Lucky Star was making shitposts before shitposting was even a thing. And they put it into an anime that aired on television.

Also I am sorry I know I’m rambling but please enjoy my favourite outro EVER.

(this is my entire sense of humour in a nutshell right here)

However, I do want to mention an example I had recently of what I felt was an extremely disappointing version of a slice of life manga in this case;

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō

Kaidashi as I’ll call it for short, is a post apocalyptic manga about a robot girl who runs a coffee shop out of her house for any travelers wandering through the area, after an unspecified disaster has caused the earth’s enviornment to drastically change, specifically with oceans slowly rising each year and swallowing what was in the past entire cities.

But the post apocalyptic nature of the setting is not what’s important in the manga. It’s what I’ve heard call a “soft apocalypse”. There are no roaming bandits, or mutant animals or radioactive fallout or none of that. It is merely a world which the ocean is slowly encroaching on the land, and the human population has plummeted in numbers. Meaning the communities that remain are small and close knit, with “larger towns” resembling normal functionality, with us not even being aware that what we see as a middle sized town is in fact in the setting, the largest gathering of humans living in one place.

The manga follows our main character, Alpha (the robot coffee shop owner) and her dealings with about 3 or 4 other characters. Specifically an old man and his grandson. The old man runs a petrol station nearby and has more or less taken Alpha under his wing as she is otherwise on her own, her house sitting on the outside of the small town they live in (which we never really see as a result)

I started out really enjoying this manga, which is why I ended up reading all 100+chapters of it. But as I got near about the last quarter of it, it really fell apart for me.

The manga had set up certain things which would crop up now and then throughout its run. Like where Apha’s owner had gone and why, or who really developed the Alpha series of robots, or why Alpha has a strange quality to her that seems to ground other robots she meets into becoming more human, or why she dreams about fish so often, or who the strange immortal creature who lives by the waterway is. It sets up all these interesting ideas and mysteries as we follow Alpha in her day to day life... and by the end of the manga answers NONE of them. Not even one.

On top of this, whereas the manga started following Alpha with a very clear situation following upon situation, Her getting struck by lightning one evening and needing to be repaired by a local doctor, her reluctance to use her camera to take photos because she only has so much film she can use etc, and suddenly the timeline between events stops being a matter of days or at most a month, and suddenly YEARS are just jumped over. Turning the last quarter of the manga in a disorientating mess where we’re never quite sure WHEN we are, or what’s happened in the YEARS we apparently skipped over. Or where ANY of the characters now are because it’s suddenly 15 years later and somehow now characters are in a completely different place in their lives???

Not to mention the art started degrading rather shockingly by the end of the manga. It had slowly been turning to a more streamlined style as the chapters went on (the manga ran for 12 years) however, near the end there was a very jarring and sudden downgrade in quality. Robbing the manga of all its life and making the characters look flat and bland and unrecogniseable compared to where they use to be.

It just felt, overall, like the mangaka completely lost interest in his own story.

Art for Chapter 5

Art for chapter 139

It really soured my entire perception of the story as a whole. Because although I was reading it as a slice of life story, the story itself had presented situations and characters and questions I did not ASK it to have. But then at the end, it did not follow through on one single thing it set up. Coupled with the degrading art quality, AND the sudden fractured timeline where I had no idea when anything was happening any more, it felt as if every part of this story which had so much care and love put into it, was now just trying its best to get itself over with already. Because it had completely lost interest in itself, and was just trying to get to SOME feeling of conclusion so it could end, without taking time or effort to get there naturally.

I was supremely disappointed by what had started out as a very enjoyable series.

There are 2 OVAs adapted from the manga, one in 1998, and one in 2002. ANd just from looking at screenshots and gifs I can tell which one is the better of the two

And maybe the 90s OVA will do wonders for the story, without having to worry about the ending that I consider to be broken. And I can fully see how the slice of life nature of the show would be wonderfully suited to an anime adaptation, given that it gives the same care and attention to its real life honesty the first 3/4 of the manga did.

Because that’s what a slice of life story boils down to; How accurately it can capture the honesty of real life situations and experiences. Even in post apocalyptic settings. The setting is not important. What’s important is how well a slice of life story can portray actions, emotions and experiences we take for granted in real life. Things we do every day or things we have encountered and didn’t really think about as being anything special.

Slice of life stories’ strength lies in their ability to pump effort and care into bringing the mundane to life through art, and thereby shining a light on these taken for granted experiences, and showing it in a way that turns it into art. Which, in turn, then helps us look at our own realities a little closer, and we gain a deeper appreciation for our own lives and the every day experiences.

Even though his movies all have plots, Miyazaki does this a lot, in his glorification of the everyday mundane. Especially with food. But in other things as well. All the real world details he puts into his films, which is why they seem to breathe with so much life, and why I often find “ex Ghibli animators”, despite perhaps having the technical skill, are still not able to capture the living breathing feeling Myazaki and Takahata movies have to them. They understand what makes a Ghibli story and Ghibli characters, but they don’t understand what makes a Ghibli FILM.

Anyway this is an obscenely long post AGAIN. But that’s I guess “my opinion on Slice of Life anime”

[renaramblesaboutcomics]

Wednesday Roundup 25.10.2017

Reviews this week are going to be a little shorter than usual, but not to worry! I’m preparing to bring the Rambles to a whole new medium by launching a podcast in the very near future with the amazing @theeffar as a guest so that we can talk about her experience making comic strips for the US Airforce, future publication plans, and a decade plus of friendship with yours truly that can be traced back to a single comic.

But for today, we have a whole lineup of comics to dig into with lots of intrigue across the board. I hope everyone enjoys!

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine, IDW’s Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, Archie’s Jughead, Marvel’s Moon Girl and ?, Dark Horse’s Overwatch, Image’s Saga, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine (2015-present) #26 Tom Taylor, Juann Cabal, Nolan Woodard

I’ve said it many times before but it still holds true, I’m not a huge fan of diving deep and providing a big consensus in the middle of a storyline, and that is definitely true here where there were so many developments to the current Orphans of X story that Taylor is unfolding for us but also so much left to do. And that couldn’t be more clear than in the fact that we get the hints that Sarah is either knowingly or unknowingly an accomplice to the Orphans, or isn’t even Sarah at all.

My bets are on the latter because Sarah’s death being the status quo for Laura’s story is honestly something I’ve just accepted over the years, but man I would really be interested if Taylor broke expectations by actually allowing Sarah to be alive and a part of her daughters lives now, especially since he finally brought Debbie and Megan back into Laura’s life. ... One also has to wonder how nothing came up from Beast’s scans and medical exam of her but alright.

Another thing I really love is the fact that Daken and Laura act like... actual brother and sister? And are treated as such by everyone around them. There’s not a huge amount of canon supporting this interpretation of their relationship outside of Taylor’s run, but you can definitely argue that the seeds for this have been planted since their X-23/Daken crossover ages ago, and the fact that they do have so much in common and are so similar in so many respects. 

The medical stuff at the beginning, or rather the perversion of medicine that was the torture sequence Daken was going through at the start was incredibly difficult to watch, and the fact that his arm hasn’t grown back is super concerning to me, especially if there is strong hints that the same will possibly happen to Laura as the storyline continues.

There are a lot of stakes and I think, most importantly of all, there is just a lot of love for the relationships that Taylor has shown in the Wolverine family and I honestly just hope that he handles everything to do with these characters and Logan for the foreseeable future. I rarely get what I want in comics though so, here goes to me looking apprehensively toward Logan’s future resurrection with an “ugh”

This is also a small moment and not really a big part of the review overall, but the sequence I used above? Where Laura and Daken realize that they’re attacking each other and then have that fight of “Get in the car!” “No you get out of the car!” is just... so hysterical to me for so many reasons, but especially because it just sounds like siblings who can’t figure out who’s in charge.  I love it. 

IDW’s Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2017-present) #1 Kelly Thompson, Corin Howell, Valentina Pinto

I hadn’t realized it had been as long as it had been for me since I was reading a title that Kelly Thompson was on concurrently with it being released, and I have to say, given how strong of a first issue release Answer the Call ended up being, she’s a pretty perfect fit for this series. 

As I’ve said before, the ongoing Ghostbusters IDW universe is one of its longest running and seriously compelling series to date, using the original 80s movies as its baseboard while expanding into all collective universes and mythology to continue what are fascinating and enjoyable stories which sometimes even add debt to a lot of the characters who weren’t necessarily given it in the original two movies. Which is part of the reason I was so excited about Ghostbusters 101 and also why I was really hopeful about Answer the Call. 

One of my major critiques of the 2016 movie is that there were too many concepts with a lot of potential which ultimately weren’t utilized to their full expectations, which is why a comic series with the sort of IDW development and support is exactly what could have been useful to it. Especially where the character of Patty is concerned. And so far, it seems like Thompson is delivering, having put a lot of emphasis on Patty’s history background and her general knowledge and position in the group as the period expert for the ghost they encounter really having a more prominent role (i.e. allowed to have any role) in the comic. 

Thompson has a good sense of comical timing and Corin Howell’s art really helps emphasize that. So while I was initially bummed that the long time creative team was not going to be in charge of Answer the Call, I much prefer what we got which is a different taste, and a different universe, where the 2016 ladies are allowed to truly shine on their own with their own unique voices.  And that’s all thanks to Kelly Thompson.

Archie’s Jughead (2015-present) Vol. 3 Ryan North, Mark Waid, Ian Flynn, Derek Charm

I have actually been really supportive of the relaunch of the Archie comics, albeit mostly in theory since those things tend to be rather expensive, but I don’t think that it was ever fully appreciated by me until this volume of Jughead that I came into a full understanding of just why it seemed like Riverdale needed such a makeover to begin with. 

It also adds to my disdain for Riverdale but that’s a whole other subject.

The point is, the reason Archie comics have been such a force in American comics and, honestly, American culture as a whole for decades is because when my grandparents started reading, the nature of the comedy and relationships between all the kids from Riverdale was something like a modern morality play. Easily read, easily relatable daily situations of the All-American kids of the time who learne respect, love, and friendship from each other through zany and truthfully nonconventional lessons. 

There have been small, subtle modernizations to Archie over the years, from adding to the diversity of characters to allowing Betty and Veronica’s relationship outside of Archie to develop and at times even taken center stage, so having Kevin come out as openly gay. Archie has maintained a progressively changing outlook for American youth for a while, but at the end of the day the style and the roots of being a teenage romantic comedy from the “Greatest Generation” are not something that I can say I ever saw as more relatable and real than, say, a superhero. 

But this update of the last few years has allowed for a complete change in that. It’s not just that clothes and relationships have been updated, it’s that what moralities and what behaviors are being taught in this new and crazy time. Like Jughead learning about internet autonomy and general etiquette. 

It was a fun comic, and if you enjoy Jughead or Archie in general, you obviously should pick it up, but the real value for me this time around was rediscovering what made this particular “reboot” exactly the sort of thing I wanted to see.

Marvel’s Moon Girl and ? (2015-present) #24 Brandon Montclare, Natacha Bustos, Ray-Anthony Height, Dominike “Domo” Stanton, Michael Shelfer, Tamra Bonvillain

This issue of Moon Girl and... *gasp* Oh no! Devil’s no longer around!!!

So this issue is a collection of stories allowing lots of artists and writers to take a swing at dealing with Lunella in her heartbroken and honestly rather depressed time in attempting to find a replacement for Devil Dinosaur, her best friend who she finally acknowledges as such, and ultimately with deciding that she can’t replace him and will rather work solo after trying out a roster of fellow superheroes who leave something to be desired. 

This comic as always threads the needle perfectly of being for children (read: all ages) while being grounded in mature context and understanding of the world through the eyes of a super genius who is smarter beyond her years but still very much mature for her exact age. And I think that balance is perhaps on its best display here when allowing Lunella the true mark of what makes her character so realistic and believable: smart kids are more prone to anxieties, depression, and having difficulty relating to people, especially their own age. 

This is the first issue where none of Lunella’s supporting cast feature, and that’s such a genius choice because it emphasizes that loneliness and heartbreak she clearly feels, while still stuffing the book full of cameos and guest appearances from adults showing that she is not neglected or not being looked after.

I will someday express how important coloring has become to the mood and feel of comics in the modern era, specifically as rotating artists have become more and more prominent in bigger books and tighter production schedules, but once again Moon Girl proves to be one of the best if not the best in the business at understanding and really utilizing that feature. 

Dark Horse’s Overwatch (2016-present) #11 Matt Burns, James Waugh, Joe Ng, Espen Grundetjern

I cannot even begin to attempt to pretend that I understand how Dark Horse is choosing to release its issues of Overwatch through comixology, but then again that is making it sound like I ever understand Dark Horse’s publication practices particularly with digital media so the next three entries and how they aren’t... remotely chronological is just something we’ll all have to get through together, I guess. 

So I think of the three issues this one, which surprised me by showing up in my New Comics on Wednesday nearly a week after I had finished writing the reviews I had for issues .... #14 and 15.... even though this one is #11... This whole thing doesn’t make sense, moving on. 

In any case, of the Overwatch characters, it’s probably of the least surprise that I adore the adorable and tortured backstory robot because, well, I’m me, so my love of Bastion from his short to this comic release now and the environmental message that goes along with it all just makes me so genuinely happy to read, especially with the icredible art we see in this comic.

And I definitely was not expecting to have as much enjoyment and #feels from Torbjörn coming into the story and basically making the decision to become Bastion’s companion after they have a touching moment of bonding. 

This is just a short and sweet comic I really enjoyed and would recommend to those at least interested in trying out these Overwatch freebies. 

Dark Horse’s Overwatch (2016-present) #14 Robert Brooks, Miki Montilló

Just about any time a comic is free, even if it’s promotional material, I will give it a try, which is why I have been so pleasantly surprised by the Overwatch tie-in comics over the past year. And that’s with me having almost no experience in the game itself. I’m not really a fan of multiplayer or learning curves as it were, but as you know from this blog, I’m a huge fan of superheroes and an even larger fan of character-driven world building which is precisely what these comics provide. 

AND we got two separate ones with different creative teams!

I haven’t been swept up by the intense love that Overwatch fans seem to have for Junkrat and Roadhog, but I found this origin story for the both of them but mainly through Roadhog’s perspective to be absolutely fascinating. I still have qualms with how well a Mad Max-styled Australia really fits into the more technological and advanced world of Overwatch, but it does make a way for some pretty amazing visuals in this issue.

And I have to say, Miki Montilló is the real star of the issue because the style and just beauty the artist was able to find in the grungy and somewhat terrifying world of this post-apocolyptic wasteland is really inspiring. I’m definitely keeping an eye out for their name in the future.  

Dark Horse’s Overwatch (2016-present) #15 Andrew Robinson, Joelle Sellner, Kate Niemczyk

Despite as I said before about how I don’t really have much of a dog in the Overwatch fight, I love the character designs, especially the variety presented for the women. And one of my favorite characters aesthetically who has unfortunately not been given much in the way of cinematics and comic storylines has been Zarya. I absolutely love her.

I think the storyline for Zarya’s comic is a lot more inventive and pertinent to the world building, as well as speaks to Zarya’s character. It might seem a little cheap to have her be hateful/racist toward Ominics and then ultimately work alongside and befriend one, but sometimes the tried and true formulas work and personally I think that’s the case here. And I like that we are tying her in to the more “central” narrative that’s been going through all of these anxilary material by having her tied in with Sombra and the growing conspiracy of this world government. 

Also her hacker robot friend was adorbs and we all know how I love robots. 

I will say that the art didn’t feel as unique or mood centric as the previous issue, but at the same time that straight forwardness adds to the really straightforward narrative that was being told. 

So overall really enjoyable. I hope to see more features with Zarya as well as giving the other original heroes who haven’t received focus some attention. Like really, where’s our Lucioó story already?

Image’s Saga (2012-present) #48 Fiona Staples, Brian K. Vaughan

We’re running up against, once more, that difficult challenge of properly explaining why something that is just so universally good is beloved to begin with and that can’t be said enough with Saga. 

This wasn’t the strongest issue to go out on, but it gave us a lot more reason to relate to both Squire and Ghüs, characters we’ve really not had as much time with before now or have mostly related to through their relationships with other characters like Sir Robot. 

I’m still not entirely won over by the reporters but it is interesting to see how they still are exposed to the consequences that I know I forgot about an entire story arc ago at this point. And it’s interesting to have what feels like a narrative guilt for having not been aware or actively considering their lives and what their challenges were in that time because the consequences then felt like we were neglecting them as much as the main Saga crew had been as a result. Which is a nice narrative trick on Vaughan’s part.

Hazel’s narration is a welcome return after missing it from last issue, but it’s still fairly sparse. I’m just excited at the fact that Robot and Petrichor as well as Hazel and Squire are apparently going to have more relationship focus and development to come. That’s so promising.

As for Staples’ art? What can be said? She headlines the credits for a reason and there is no character design, no environment that I don’t love and find horrifyingly surreal all at once, and this issue is no exception. I’m so excited and fearful of what is to come, especially now that the Will is captured and going to be used to take another new foe directly to Alana and Marko’s doorstep.

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011-present) #75 Kevin, Eastman, Tom Waltz, Cory Smith, Mateus Santolouco, Chris Johnson, Ronda Pattison

What a landmark issue! 75 issues strong! The longest running, most expansive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property to date and it has reached a landmark issue far beyond, I think, anyone’s expectations. I genuinely could not be more grateful and more appreciative of this creative team, the love and hard work they have poured into this comic for over six years now without almost ever missing a release date, and especially for putting together this incredible, extra sized comic which ties up the current space opera and sends us right into the very next arc that I think I and many other turtle fans have been long awaiting: The Triceraton Wars.

In the upcoming podcast, I’m pretty sure that @theeffar and I will have quite a lot to talk about in regards to TMNT and our history with it, but when it comes to this series specifically I think the most outrageous and yet the most true compliment that can be offered to it is that somehow they were able to introduce elements which are common and looked forward to from all TMNT fans regardless of generation or preferred continuity, and not only seamlessly weave the elements together but manage to surprise us over and over again with the twists and turns.

Like who could have predicted that the Mirage dark and angsty Leatherhead, the 80s cartoon maniacal General Krang and suffering Dimension X Neutrinos, and the Triceraton Invasion as it was played out in the 2003 cartoon would not only play out the way it has here, but work together so perfectly that it’s unlike anything long time fans or new have seen before.

I’ve also talked about how this run of TMNT understands the multi-genre nature of having the four turtles and tie their development to particular genre storylines. This was held true as we got a lot of Don in this arc, especially Don operating outside of his brothers while the three of them worked with the Neutrino forces, and usually that would mean for the TMNT writers to move to a different genre and focal point for the next arc. But since we’re jumping right into a sci-fi storyline, but one completely opposite of the ones that Don has taken center stage in (this being a 1950s-esque Invasion movie), I wonder if we may just mix perspectives all the same. I think Raph’s been due for center stage and as we all know, he has Pepperoni to look after...

And those are the comics for this week! Did you happen to agree with me? Disagree? Think I missed out on picking up a comic that was good? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

But before I let you go, I have to (yes have to) plug once more:

I have exactly a month to pack up everything I own and move halfway across the country again which is not helping those financial crunches I mentioned before either.

As such, I really would appreciate if you enjoy my content or are interested in helping me out, please check out either my Patreon or PayPal. Every bit helps and I couldn’t thank you enough for enjoying and supporting my content.

You could also support me by going to my main blog, @renaroo, where I’ll soon be listing prices and more for art and writing commissions.

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New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/jonah-hill-joins-the-five-timers-club-on-a-uniformly-funny-saturday-night-live/

Jonah Hill joins the Five-Timers Club on a uniformly funny Saturday Night Live

Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Candice Bergen, Drew BarrymoreScreenshot: Saturday Night Live

“I guess the worst part of the play was their confidence in it.”

“I’m not an actor, I’m a [movie, Netflix, directing] star!

It’s be nice to think that Jonah Hill has fully stepped out of his pigeonhole at this point. A couple of Oscar nominations, co-lead in an hit Netflix series, writer-director of a promising new coming-of-age movie, Hill has emerged from the Apatow star factory still straddling the line between serious artist and broad comedy movie star. (Sort of like James Franco, except that people actually seem to like Hill’s directorial debut and no one—as of this writing—has accused Hill of being a sex creep.)

That dichotomy showed up in Hill’s monologue, as SNL legend Tina Fey ushered new Five-Timers Club member Hill into the selective lounge set, where fellow FTC members Candice Bergen and Drew Barrymore celebrated his entry by showing an old sketch where Hill’s character admits to doing some serious damage to a toilet. Protesting that he does more than toilet humor now (“But that’s where you shined!,” enthuses Bergen), the disappointed Hill can only endure an all-ladies Five-Timers welcome, since, according to Fey, Bergen, and Barrymore, all the male members have turned out to be, well, sex creeps. (Steve Martin will just play his banjo “without consent.”)

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Saturday Night LiveSeason 44

Fitted with the coveted FTC smoking jacket, Hill is disappointed to find that the new female leadership has refashioned it into something like a kicky boldero number. It’s a neat little way to incorporate Hill’s evolving comic persona while still trading on the downtrodden victim vibe he carries with him, especially once Kenan pops in to remind everyone that his record-breaking seniority carries its own privileges. “This is my show. I let you in here sometimes,” he responds to Hill questioning his presence in the Five-Timers lounge.

Over at Vulture, AV Clubber Jesse Hassenger recently did a ranking of the relatively rare phenomenon of SNL hosts’ recurring characters, and placed Hill’s Borscht Belt six-year-old Adam Grossman near the top. I get it. For one, the field isn’t exactly littered with gold (glad I’m not the only one sick of the Omletteville guy), with most of the bits weathering even faster than those done by the actual cast. But Grossman keeps working as well as he does because of a character throughline, as the garrulous little guy keeps tossing out his inexplicable Catskills schtick to his unlikely Benihana co-diners alongside a series of guardians indicating the unstable family life that’s somehow spawned such a weird creature. Here it’s forbearing nanny Leslie Jones, sighing deeply as she weathers Adam’s insult comic “I’m just kidding” one-liners as Grossman attempts to puncture any tension his borderline racist material generates by proclaiming his age (complete with specific and funny awkward hand gestures). It’s never been my favorite sketch, but Hill (who created the bit alongside Bill Hader and Seth Meyers, based on a bafflingly tracksuited child diner Hader once sat with) is into it, and he suggests the merest hints of the defensive mechanisms that are powering Adam’s transformation into a hacky joke machine, which always lends just enough shadings to the idea. Leslie kept breaking, but, then again, so did I.

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Weekend Update update

There was a certain elegance to the way SNL kept weaving themes through its political material tonight, with jokes about Trump’s “caravan of scary brown people” terror tactics, and the importance of voting on Tuesday reinforcing each other throughout. Jost and Che were on, each landing their material confidently. On the caravan (of desperate asylum seekers that are a thousand miles away), Jost noted how Trump’s sweatily named “Operation Faithful Patriot” (where American troops are needlessly stringing barbed wire for a piece of election eve fear-mongering theater) sounds like a company that makes “reverse mortgages and catheters.” (Fox News commercial viewers get that.) Che followed up on the race-baiting scare tactics by urging that the old white people being hyped about the looming but nonexistent threat should be more worried about the less-easily-scapegoated specter of their grandkids stealing their pain pills.

On the election front, Che continued his role as Update’s resident “slow your roll” skeptic, confessing that, while he does intend to vote (on Tuesday, November 6, kids), he’s not going to buy into any “final notice for democracy” panic. Joking that, if final notices were actually final, his college debts would actually be paid, Che, as ever, positions himself for the long view, an edgy place to be in a time of national crisis (see, there’s that panic), but one consistent with his stance as a (black) guy who’s been living in a dangerous situation his entire life. For Jost (white guy), the jokes were less pointed, but not bad, as he noted that things are pretty dire when ice cream is taking a side, and that it has to be a complicated feeling when Oprah knocks on your door, only to present you with a pamphlet about Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams instead of a new car.

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Pete Davidson has become such a strange star on SNL, his very public statements about his battles with mental health and substance abuse and the recent ongoing saga of his tabloid-fodder relationship with now-ex Ariana Grande have made Davidson more of a personality star than anyone I can think of in SNL history. Pete’s never been the most polished sketch guy (although he’s improved), and his Update pieces as himself have always been his best showcase, especially since he’s sharpened up his material beyond the adorable stoner little brother schtick he started out with. Here, with newly-dyed hair and the elephant of his recent, much-publicized breakup hanging over his head, Davidson delivered a solid series of political takedowns in advance of the Tuesday midterm elections. Sure, they were all cheeky appearance smack (NY Republican Peter King looks like “a cigar came to life,” Florida candidate Rick Scott looks like “if someone tried to whittle Bruce Willis out of a penis”), but, for a young comic staking out political material for the first time in his life, it’s funny stuff. And since SNL has made hay all season long about Davidson’s rising media profile, his genuinely sweet and decent-sounding appraisal of ex Grande was both de rigeur and unexpectedly touching.

Melissa Villaseñor made the leap to the main cast this year, but hasn’t had much opportunity to show off her mimicry skills or her comic chops much on the young season. So, taking a page out of Heidi Gardner’s playbook, she debuted a specifically targeted character piece on Update, with her “Every Teen Girl Murder Suspect on Law & Order.” Honestly, it’s such a specific Gardner niche at this point that I was surprised to see Villaseñor in the chair, but Melissa did fine, as her Brittany—ostensibly there to talk about young adult literature—squirmed and equivocated about what happened to her friend Logan at that “big alcohol party.” Not to harp on the comparison, but Brittany wasn’t as immediately memorable as any of Gardner’s similar turns, even if Villaseñor delivered on the premise with a uniformly strong performance.

Just when I think I’m tired of Kenan Thompson’s Big Papi, he pulls me back in. It helps that there’s a reason for his appearance tonight, as, you know, the Red Sox won the World Series again. (That’s, like, what, four in 15 years, right? Huh. Cool.) Petty sports partisanship aside, Kenan’s performance as retired and beloved Boston slugger David Ortiz has never been the problem. Kenan’s Ortiz, with his nonsensical endorsements, gap-toothed ebullience, and food obsession, is an all-time belly laugh, his infectious enthusiasm for baseball, food, his spokesman deal for the concept of spokes, and simply being Big Papi is impossible to hate. (Presumably even for Yankees fans, whose team got clobbered in the ALDS 3-1, including a humiliating 61-1 loss on their home diamond.) But the jokes don’t change much (as in, at all). Thankfully, it’s been a while, the Sox won the series, and it was nice to see the big lug again. Mofongo all around.

Best/worst sketch of the night

Look, some of you are going to clamor for a “worst” tag on Kate McKinnon’s teacher sketch. You’ll point to both its unexplained weirdness and its languorous pace, and how it never quite announces its authority as something that should appear as early in the show as it did. Well, shush. This was great stuff, not as much for the sketch itself (it really could have used more writing punch to match McKinnon’s performance), as for how it represents the sort of oddball conceptual idea Saturday Night Live desperately needs to encourage. The premise of someone acting weird while other people comment on it is hardly new SNL territory, but, as McKinnon’s overly dramatic drivers ed teacher sprawls on the classroom floor and rambles on about her predicament and its meaning, it was like a cool drink to realize that the sketch wasn’t going to go out of its way to hammer the premise home with explanations for the slowest possible viewer. It was just weird for weird’s sake, and McKinnon, accusing her charges at laughing at her “like this was some episode of Friend,” worked within the framework of the sketch to craft an enigmatically loopy character whose comic integrity isn’t over-explained. There is room on SNL for a lot more shades of humor than its current template generally allows.

This week’s branded content sketch, on the other hand, was pretty unnecessary, even if some of the performances livened it up a little, as another NBC property got some free advertising. Not watching interminably long-running televised talent shows as a rule, I’m not particularly invested in how the celebrity judges were impersonated here (although Kyle Mooney’s perpetually amazed Howie Mandel got a laugh). But at least the joke that there are only a very few possible narratives to every contestant’s journey on such shows took the piss a bit, and Cecily Strong, Kenan and Leslie, and Jonah Hill all sang their hearts out as the contestants who are probably terrible—but then are shockingly not terrible!

Also not terrible but not that surprising was the newscast sketch, where Cecily Strong’s weatherperson is nonplussed by boyfriend Hill’s decidedly unwelcome on-air proposal. Hill manages to create a nicely realized character is his unimpressive suitor, unwisely wearing a green shirt in front of Strong’s green screen and even more unwisely busting out a proposal rap. And the bit even has a decent turn, when Strong reveals that her refusal was only because she’d planned an elaborate on-air proposal of her own. I kept waiting for the reveal that Strong’s too-perfect twist was only in the downtrodden Hill’s head, but the sketch decided to let the improbable duo have their happy ending, so that’s nice.

“What do you call that act?” “The Californians!”—Recurring sketch report

Adam Grossman, Big Papi.

“It was my understanding there would be no math”—Political comedy report

With SNL’s resident guest Trump Alec Baldwin otherwise occupied (and pointedly joked about), the show opened with the always more-profitable tack of doing Trump without Trump. With Kate McKinnon adding Fox News talking head and smirking white supremacist Laura Ingraham’s glint-eyed provocation to her long list of current right-wing a-holes (“No, you’re an a-hole,” McKinnon’s Ingraham responds to her viewer mail), the sketch ran through the usual roster of weekly outrages. Finding ways to satirize the news at this point is a thankless task since reality is so far beyond satire that our pals at The Onion can essentially just transcribe stuff. Here, the jokes leant on hyperbole to make comedy out of Fox and friends’ (and Fox And Friends’) daily klaxon blare of racist bullshit designed to make white parents vote against their self-interest. Like Trump’s ginned-up, racist, Hail Mary, pre-midterms caravan, which Cecily Strong’s appropriately wild-eyed Jeanine Pirro’s claims contains such terrifying, non-white figures as “Guatemalans, Mexicans, the Menendez brothers, the 1990 Detroit Pistons, Thanos, and several Babadooks.” Similarly, Kenan Thompson’s cowboy-hat-wearing disgraced former Sheriff David Clarke showed footage of the caravan in the form of a swarm of migrating crabs. “And those are humans?,” gently presses McKinnon’s Ingraham, to which Clarke replies, “Basically, yeah.”

Unlike Baldwin’s uninspired Trump, which serves as a crutch for some very one-dimensional writing as a rule, the satire here is more layered. There are the performances, which are uniformly great. (McKinnon and Strong don’t need more praise at this point, but they are both outstanding, nuanced comic actresses). And the sketch casts a wider net, encompassing Ingraham’s fleeing sponsors (and the reason why), leaving her thanking warm ice cream, nurse’s sneakers, and White Castle. (“A castle for whites? Yes please.”) And, divorced for now by Baldwin/Trump’s absence, the cold open works to lay the groundwork for some recurring satirical themes for the rest of the show. There’s GOP voter suppression, here prodded along by Ingraham giving non-white voters the wrong advice. There’s Fox’s feverish efforts to mock the very idea that Donald Trump is a bigot. (“Except for his words and actions throughout his life how is he racist?”) And there’s the transparent propaganda of Trump’s latest “brown people are coming at you from below” propaganda, with McKinnon claiming that Trump’s try-hard gung-ho operation is actually named “Operation Eagle With A Huge Dong” and bragging that there will be “five armed soldiers for every shoeless immigrant child.”

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Hey, there’s a midterm election coming up on Tuesday, so vote in that. Pete Davidson ended his amiably goofy Update stint by urging everyone to vote, as did musical guest Maggie Rogers (via T-shirt), and, in the Vote Blue campaign ad, so did a roster of very fucking nervous Democrats. While polling shows that maybe, perhaps, enough Americans are motivated, pissed, and goddamned terrified enough to actually go out and vote on Tuesday (yes, this coming Tuesday, you) to put some checks in place against Donald Trump and his GOP accomplices in dismantling democratic norms, environmental regulations, and civil rights of any kind, well, we’ve seen sweaty Democratic overconfidence explode in our faces before. That’s the message here, as the person-on-the-street interviews parroting optimistic election messages all veer into a series of forced grins, shaking hands, binge-drinking, eyes-averted mumbling, and, in the case of Heidi Gardner’s tremble-voiced suburban mom, hair-trigger panic. “Get inside until Tuesday!,” she snaps at her frolicking children, while Hill’s anxious doctor tries to take comfort in the fact that Nancy Pelosi predicted a big victory on Colbert, and Leslie Jones grits her teeth in her stated faith that “white women are going to the right thing this time.” Pitch perfect stuff, right down to Aidy Bryant hauling off to slap teenaged son Pete Davidson when he jokes about forgetting when Election Day is. (It’s Tuesday. November 6. Check here for all the necessary info you need to vote. On Tuesday.)

“HuckaPM” continued SNL’s baffling comedy position that literally every woman involved in the Trump administration is secretly ashamed of her role in, well, every shitty thing Trump and the Republican Party does. You know, despite the fact that there is no evidence to that in the public or private actions of any of them, including (or especially) the sketch’s target, White House Press Secretary and sneering daily mouthpiece for whatever bigoted nonsense dribbles out of Trump’s Twitter account in the middle of the night, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Still, this sketch works because of Aidy. Good god, is Aidy Bryant great at physical comedy. Even if one can’t follow the show’s premise that there is some glimmer of humanity in Sanders’ soul somewhere, Aidy sells the hell out of the idea that only a sleeping pill loaded with quaaludes and “what Michael Jackson’s doctor called ‘one-and-dones’” can knock Sanders out after a day of claiming that “CNN spelled backward is ISIS” and that Trump’s caravan boogeymen includes ravenous chupacabras with a trio of outstandingly timed and committed falls. Sometimes performance overcomes everything else.

The off-Broadway show short film trafficked in a sort of joke that never doesn’t work on me, so I’m going to allow myself to be pandered to. The main joke—that an actor-written topical revue is not very well written—is fine. (I loved how at least two of the numbers shamelessly aped Hamilton). But I’m just a sucker for jokes where scathing review blurbs are read out as if they’re raves by an enthusiastic voice-over guy, and these had me laughing. “This is helping no one,” and “Whose parents paid for this?” were good, but the New York Times critic’s economical “Jesus Christ!” got me out loud.

I am hip to the musics of today

Maggie Rogers came out flat in her SNL debut. Like, vocally, very flat for her first song of lilting, pretty pop. It was the sort of wobbly beginning that could knock a fledgeling performer right off her pins, but, to her credit, Rogers came back stronger in the second number. It helped that that song was more uptempo and didn’t highlight a delicate introductory vocal, but, still, props to Rogers for pulling it together. As Adam Grossman might bellow, “Redemption song!”

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Ego Nwodim got a line. Keep plugging, new kid.

Otherwise, in an exceptionally strong night for the female cast, Kate wins it by a whisker, edging out Cecily and Aidy.

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“What the hell is that thing?”—The Ten-To-Oneland Report

While it’s no “Whiskers R We,” “Wigs For Pugs” ably carried on the ten-to-one tradition of doing adorably weird stuff with animals, as Hill and Cecily Strong played a couple of clearly mobbed-up entrepreneurs whose pug toupee business is in no way “a front for something.” Mainly, it’s just pugs in wigs, with a succession of very chill pugs getting carried out in their hairy finery, but sometimes that’s enough. And Hill, Strong, Aidy, Mooney, and Kenan (as a guy making pug beards) are thoroughly committed to their characters in a broad yet deadpan way that adds another level to the premise. Pugs in wigs. What more do you need, people?

Stray observations

Kenan’s Clarke cites his caravan sources as “the crows from Dumbo,” echoing Clarke’s description of his current state as “unpopular with my own people.”

McKinnon’s Ingraham refers to Baldwin as “disgraced former actor Alec Baldwin” and shows a clip from “Canteen Boy” to explain.

Che claims that the country would be doing better if red state parents would stop “sending all their liberal kids to coastal cities to do improv.”

Pete Davidson, addressing his new blue hair, claims he looks like “a guy who makes vape juice in a bathtub,” and “a Dr. Seuss character who went to prison.”

Melissa Villaseñor’s teen suspect finally breaks down, telling Jost that she only stabbed her dead friend as a joke, “but Logan took it the wrong way and started bleeding.”

Big Papi for Apple Watch: “You gotta watch your apples or a monkey’s gonna steal them, man!”

Vote on Tuesday.

The Red Sox won the World Series.

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Source: https://tv.avclub.com/jonah-hill-joins-the-five-timers-club-on-a-uniformly-fu-1830206395