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m00nslippers · 6 years ago

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Jason is actually in-character in RHATO Issue #35!?

Wow, we got so much about the All-Caste in this issue. On the one hand, it kind of feels like it was pulled out of Lobdell’s ass, but on the other hand it’s badass and cool and the visuals are beautiful so I don’t even give a shit. Also like, there is just so much of Jason being Jason in the best and most pure way possible in this issue that it’s crazy? Let’s jump into the review and you’ll see what I mean.

We open on Jason in the midst of some kind of charity fundraiser with Isabel. Jason is looking awesome in his suit. The shoulder pads are toned down in most scenes finally, and he doesn’t look like he’s cosplaying Jafar anymore thank goodness.

First off, Jason doing a charity gala for Gotham’s poor is freaking canon now and I love that. Despite his new money and his fame, it doesn’t go to his head, he sees himself as separate from the rich people who didn’t have his experiences living poor on the streets. He still remembers that desperation and wants to help people. He’s a truly giving person that cares about others, always has and always will. Second of all, Jason is hanging out on the balcony being broody which is just Classic Jason™. He’s a loner, an introvert, he doesn’t like crowds. Especially crowds of rich kiss-asses. And he dislikes rich people. It’s so great when characters are written in-character, isn’t it?

And third of all, I love Isabel’s dress. It’s so classy, cream lace on black with a bow at the neck? Nice. You got style, girl.

So Jason opens up to Isabel and is unusually vocal about his thoughts regarding his negative feelings about Gotham and the rich and his father(s). It’s interesting to me because she’s the only person he’s ever really opened up to and spoken about this with. He’s not sharing his plans or involving her with his machinations, but he’s definitely sharing his thoughts, complaining even. This is unusually healthy behavior from Jason, to be honest. He usually bottles it all up and doesn’t say more than a few snide words out loud. Any insight into his feelings are usually given in thoughts, not dialogue. That said, it really shows how much Jason trusts Isabel with his emotions unlike anyone else, maybe even Roy.

The more I read with Isabel, the less I think she’s going to turn on Jason. I never believed that idea to begin with and I still don’t see it. She seems genuinely kind and loving. The only problem is that Jason isn’t as out of the game as he pretends to be and she’s going to be pretty upset with him when she finds out he lied, so I can’t see them lasting. I also still have a bet on that she’s going to die. I’m less confident in that prediction as I was before, but we’ll just have to see what happens.

So Isabel leaves the party because she has to work the next morning and we catch back up with Jason after the gala, getting into his fancy car with James/Wingman as his driver. We get the slightest little bit more of James identity reveal--more like clarification really. Wingman’s name isn’t James, or probably isn’t James, and Jason doesn’t know or care who he really is. Jason tells James that it doesn’t matter, that if he betrays him Jason will just kill him. And again this is just so reflective of Jason’s kind of apathetic view about how others think of him. He really just assumes people are thinking the worst of him, are going to betray him, so there’s no point getting worked up about it--if Wingman turns on him, Jason will be ready, it’s as simple as that. Jason has had too many people betray his trust for him to even care about trust at this point.

Now when it comes to Wingman, I am more and more convinced that James is Jason’s dad in a different body. I am like eighty percent certain now. James knows who Jason is and is loyal to him out of nowhere. James is concealing his true identity. James talks with a rougher accent and calls himself ‘a dope’, suggesting he’s just an average Gotham street thug. He hedges on his belief that Jason should have returned to Gotham, as if sympathetic to how much it bothers Jason to stay there. It just fits, in my opinion. I believe that in the experiments that Jason's dad was a part of when he was in prison, the same ones that created Solitary and mixed up his consciousness and memories with other inmates, Willis's mind was either fully or partially transferred to a different body as well and that is James. Wingman is either Willis’s mind in a different body, or a different person who got Jason’s dad’s memories. I also feel Jason’s Dad’s bat tattoo is going to come into play again somehow. We can only wait and see though.

So James drops Jason off at the docks where he has a freaking yacht ready too take him to the Iceburg Lounge. Suzie meets him there because she heard the Euro-Bloc 'coincidentally' got hit when Jason was in Paris, last issue. Remember that these guys were investors in Penguin’s criminal empire and the casino. Suzie seems to be on to Jason and expresses her concern once again about Jason getting her family involved in something shady that's going to screw them over when this whole thing was supposed to be them going straight. Jason promises her family is going to be okay, which is just inviting trouble. She says for some reason she trusts him, which just goes to show how much Jason inspires trust in people, even his former enemies. He gets on the yacht, and speeds off.

Okay, I know that Suzie had done some really messed up stuff in the past but like...I really like her and I hope her family doesn't get screwed by what is obviously going to happen with Penguin? I didn't like her character’s actions in the New 52 version of RHATO but I've really warmed to her and her sisters here. I really hope her relationship with Jason doesn't become soured after everything goes down, but it seems inevitable.

On the yacht, Jay does some reflection. I love how in-character Jason’s internal monologue is. I know that is an odd thing to be happy about, but sometimes I honestly wonder if the Jason I love is something I made up in my head and the canon doesn't actually support how I and many fans envision him--but it does! It does so much! This is all just so very right, how Jason understands himself but when an issue is painful, when it hurts to think about and he doesn't want to consider it, he just puts it out of his mind. He focuses on action and denies his his pain. Also, Jason acknowledging his growing friendships with his new teammates shows Jason's caring nature as well as his introverted and anxious side. He never means to adopt these people he finds himself with, but he just cannot help empathizing with them and coming to see them as 'his' people, no matter how much he tries to be distant. And yet he's afraid of them being hurt, or them hurting him. I love when Jason's personality is shown off like this!

On the way to the casino Jason is confronted by Essence, who wants to stop Jason from committing ‘petty revenge’ and falling to the dark side...or something. It's very vague what the hell her problem is. I guess she thinks Jason is just running around playing crime boss and that is inherently against the All-Caste code or something and she wants him to give it up but of course Jason doesn’t do what people want him to.

As they are talking, we get a little bit of a flashback showing their relationship, just a scene of them under a tree in All-Caste outfits when Jason was young and they kiss. It seems to me that she was the one who was into him for the most part and it’s both cute and sad that young Jason seemed so surprised by her affections. She still seems into him now, saying she doesn’t know whether she should kiss or kill him but Jason makes it clear he doesn’t have feelings for her anymore, not least of all because of the events in New 52 RHATO when Essence lied to and used Jason to instigate a confrontation with the Untitled which broke their truce so they could be destroyed. Remember that?

Basically they gear up to fight and Essence draws her freaking badass red swords and Jason draws his crowbar and katana and they face off in THE FUCKING ASTRAL DIMENSION, WHAT?!

We get just...so much about the All-Caste here.

Essence was the heir to the All-Caste but she didn't want the job, she wanted to be a warrior, not a peaceful leader.

'All' refers to the ability to see the past, present and future. Ducra, it’s leader, is omniscient.

Jason is the only human to have ever learned their techniques and not gone insane.

When Jason met Ducra, she saw his past, present and future and hoped he could overcome his destiny.

Jason and Essence seem pretty evenly matched, despite her being an immortal empowered by the Well of Sins. So yeah, Jason is a badass.

In the Astral Plane at least, Essence’s sword can make a three-eyed demon oni-looking construct thing and they can both do crazy energy blasts and flames.

So...if omniscience is part of the All-Caste arts/abilities, does this mean Jason can see the future/past if he wants?! I mean maybe he doesn’t use it because he doesn’t want to go crazy, but still that’s freaking cool. Also, this could be another explanation to hand-wave various points when Jason was acting crazy and out of character in certain preboot issues. Previously the explanation was ‘Lazarus Pit madness’, but now we have yet another thing that could make Jason go mad. Like...Jason is really just doomed to be crazy from all sides, isn’t he?

And since when the hell can Jason go into the Astral Plane?! That's it, Jason needs to do more magic stuff! I need a team up with Constantine and Zatanna, stat! No, that terrible arc in Trinity when Jason got possessed by a demon doesn't count. It doesn't even make sense with this new information, and Bizzaro still had backwards-speak like before the reboot and was really irritating, instead his of cute baby-talk. Like clearly the writer of that issue never even read RHATO.

But anyway, the two continue their fight, Jason with his kickass glowing swords and Essence with her red ones in the crystalline Astral Plane. There are crystal looking formations everywhere and asian-style clouds and they float on nothing, it’s pretty cool. The colorist does an amazing job as always, and the art is awesome in this issue, much better than it has been in my opinion. Essence seems to have the upper hand when she suddenly stabs Jason through the chest!

Is this the end for our hero?! Yeah naw.

It's revealed that Essence's sword is called the 'Blood Blade' and works kind of like Katana's cursed sword, it absorbs the soul of evil people it stabs--but if you stab someone innocent (or just not evil) your soul gets sucked in instead. And that is exactly what happens.

I don't think any of us were fooled into thinking Jason was actually going to die for even a moment. As it turned out Jason was playing her, pretending to be rusty at swordplay and the All-Caste magic and mad with revenge on Penguin (that last he didn't do the best job of being convincing, but she already thought the worst of him so it didn't really need much selling I guess.) He just wanted her to stab him with the blade so she would get sucked into it. I like that Jason's strategic ability is being shown off here, but I feel like stabbing him was her plan to begin with so I don't get why Jason needed to fight back at all? Eh, maybe she would have been suspicious if he just stood there and let her stab him.

So Essence is sucked into the sword because Jason isn't evil--surprise! Or not, I think it was pretty obvious Jason isn’t evil. He organized a charity in the first page of the issue for godssake!

Jason explains to Essence as she gets sucked into her sword that he isn't good or bad, he's “just practical as hell.” Which is just so freaking validating. Jason isn't evil, he isn't a bad person, in fact he is a good person with good intentions but you can't make the world a better place on good intentions alone. Sometimes you have to walk the line to get results and Jason draws that line further out than most, further out than Bruce, but his methods are necessary and they work and that's more than most can say.

I still don't know what the heck Essence's problem with Jason was, I guess she shares Bruce's terrible viewpoint, always believing the worst of our Jay, maybe she just had a grudge over Jason leaving the All-Caste, but at least this means my feelings from the beginning were probably intentional and not bad writing--those feelings being confusion as to what reason anyone could have to object to Jason's actions, because he wasn't doing anything wrong! All he did was lock up Penguin, when if he had been arrested for his crimes and not wiggled out of them with all his money, he would have been locked up anyway! His safe room was probably way nicer than a jail cell, to be honest.

So Jason takes Essence's sword and locks it up in his safe back at the Iceberg Lounge when who should appear but Penguin, back in black after having been released by Miguel last issue! It seems like Cobblpot has won Miguel to his side, probably by spinning some sob story that conveniently leaves out that he is a crime lord that uses his money to stay out of jail and oh, also he framed Jason's dad and tried to have Jason murdered and sent goons after him and was trafficking illegal weapons. Yeah, I bet he didn’t mention that part. Miguel is getting played, the poor kid. He’s too innocent.

Oh man, I really enjoyed this issue, there were so many parts when I was just like, "Yes! That is exactly what Jason would do!" and I'm not sure why I am so surprised when he acts in character, but I just am and pleasantly so. The art was also really great, I love with All-Caste stuff shows up because their aesthetic is just cool, and Pete Woods, the artist stepped it up. The fights were great, Jason’s faces looked a lot better than they have, he actually looks like a good looking twenty-something adult and not a snakey thug in most of the panels. Hopefully that trend continues. Also the colorist, I love this colorist, he does such a good job, kudos to Rex Lokus who really brought out Dexter Soy’s art too. I think his consistently really does help tie the run together even with the artist change.

Well, that’s it I'm excited to see the confrontation with Penguin and Miguel next issue and see where it goes! I think we get the Annual later this month? Or next month, that will also be awesome, and I’ll be here for it.

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gtgrandom · 5 years ago

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Where Young Justice: Outsiders went wrong

(And before you tell me to just stop watching if I don’t like it - I’ve been supporting the show since 2011 by creating a significant amount of content and giving back monetarily. I have every right to critique the writing, thank you).

Honestly, I think they pulled their act together in the finale, and this season left me much more satisfied than I anticipated. That being said, there are some issues I want to address.

Major flaws:

Overabundance of characters

Undeveloped Relationships

Lack of Continuity

Problematic Representation (getting better)

Weak Dialogue

Lower Quality Animation

The Message

Overabundance of characters

I think we can all agree on this one. There were far too many characters in season 2, but season 3 is laughable. It’s hardly a story anymore. Instead it’s an episodic series featuring new heroes each episode to appease niche comic fans.

There’s a formula for a superhero show (and any group-oriented tale in general), and that’s having a central team of five or less. Then you can introduce one or two new characters max per episode as side characters or villains. But you always circle back to your main team. YJ did a nice job of this in season one. So did most CW superhero shows before they made the same mistake of expanding their cast to make their writing task easier. (Yes, easier - new characters means you can stop developing old ones, especially with time jumps). YJ started to narrow down the team by the end of the season, but it still left many mains as side characters / aesthetics.

It’s great seeing these characters brought to life - I won’t deny it. But you can’t delve deep if you have this many. You can’t focus on character development or meaningful relationship development (hence why nearly every ship was established off screen). Furthermore, you frustrate fans when you focus on one group more than another. With a smaller cast you can always count on appealing to your audience because their "fave” is always present in some way. In many ways, fans feel like they’re being dragged along simply waiting for their character to pop up because of a one time cameo. It’s not fair to the audience.

The relationships

I think the only romantic relationships we’ve seen develop on screen are:

Violet/Brion

Spitfire

SuperMartian

Robin/Zatanna

sort of Roy/Jade

- and all but one were introduced in season 1.

The others were simply introduced as a couple with little to no previous interaction. Like:

Tim/Cassie

Dick/Babs

Jaime/Traci

Bart/Ed

Kaldur/Wyynde

Gardita

M’gann/La’gaan

Mal/Karen

That is not how you write romance. You don’t stick it in there for the sake of it. You have to show us why they work, how they got there, and why we should care. I’m not saying there HAS to be romance, but if there is, it still has to be written well.

Continuity

This begins to overlap into the next issue, which is continuity. I understand that Outsiders is not necessarily a new chapter to Young Justice, but if you are going to call it Young Justice Season 3, then I expect story lines to bleed over beyond just villainous deeds.

Let’s look at Dick Grayson, for instance. He’s one of the only mains who has had a very consistent, though shallow, character arc throughout the series. First he wants to lead, then fears it because of the sacrifices he would have to make - because he didn’t want to be Batman. In season 2 though, he becomes his worst nightmare. He risks the lives of his friends, lies to his team, and ends up losing his best friend anyway. And in season 3, we actually get a little bit of continuity here with Dick mourning Wally and being afraid to take on another team after season 2. It could have been expanded upon, but it was still present, and I applaud the writers for that. Especially for driving home his leadership qualities at the end there.

Now, what about the other characters, specifically those introduced in season 2? This season is called “Outsiders,” and yet, it seems to only focus on the original team and Violet’s new group.

What about Bart’s entire arc of coming back, stopping the apocalypse, and then losing Wally, his mentor? What about Jaime’s home life and the lasting effects of being turned into a villain who nearly killed all his friends? What about TIM and his role as the new leader?? Where did that plotline go?? Why is the unfamiliar Beast Boy now the leader of this Outsiders group? How did Ed overcome his anger issues and repair his relationship with his dad? How did Jade go from being a supportive wife and mother into the opposite?

The writers tried to avoid all these problems by giving us a time jump. But that’s just lazy writing if you don’t take the time to answer how things have changed!

Also, I’ve said this before, but continuity isn’t simply having characters mourn a dead character. You can’t keep using that plot device to give heart to the narrative. If that’s your only source of true pathos...and that character is dead...then you’ve got a problem.

The representation

Okay, I’ll admit they saved their asses with Kaldur. I love my wholesome pansexual rep. Would I have preferred to see his relationship occur with a character we’d already been introduced to outside the comics? Yes. But I’ll take it.

Disappointed with Ed/Bart and Bluepulse. They could have shown us more, but they didn’t. They could have given us a story, but they didn’t. And don’t hit me with “this is a children’s show - we’re lucky to get what we get” BS. Because it’s not anymore. This show is literally written by adults for adults.

I really don’t want to talk about the whole Halo/Harper kiss because it was just so wrong in so many ways, but it needs to be addressed. So, first of all, if you excuse cheating in any capacity, shame on you. I don’t care what the characters are going through or how old they are. You don’t both recognize that you have significant others and then proceed to make out!! Second, what the hell?? You’re going to have the first lgbt content be a bisexual stereotype of two girls cheating on their boyfriends (and two characters who have only interacted in one episode before??) Not to mention, underage drinking and gun use? That sends the wrong message to the audience, even if the teens were reprimanded.

Also, Halo is supposedly non-binary, and yet they explained it away by technology, so idk, I’m hesitant to count it as legitimate rep. I still think it was a good discussion to have. But yeah...

Finally, Halo is not Muslim rep after all. She’s a hijab wearing character, but she does not identify with her faith or her culture. She outright rejects it in her scene with Harper. So...what? Is she diversity points that you can continue to violently kill off over and over? Not a fantastic way to treat POC. I don’t think the creators meant any harm by it, but it’s something they need to consider going forward.

(I do appreciate the number of POC characters that have been introduced however. Especially the Latinx and black characters. This show has improved its diversity. But without proper characterization, they’re sort of just...there).

Dialogue

I can’t be the only one who cringed through entire episodes this season? Some episodes had stellar writing. But the bad ones were very, very bad. Obviously, not every joke is going to stick the landing, but if you’re going to kill off your beloved comic relief character, you have to have a better backup plan.

Like, do you guys remember how witty some of the lines from the pilot were? The whole “Speedy” vs. “Kid Flash” debate in the opening sequence? You can tell how much effort went into those scenes. How much love was given to those characters. Because they knew that was their only chance to hook the audience, to get a green light for a full season. So they put everything into character development and plot - and now they’ve lost so much of what made the show precious in the first place. (It’s still precious, but it’s tainted in many ways for me now).

Animation

It’s gone downhill. That’s really all I can say without being mean. Some episodes seem slightly better than others, but if you compare the animation from 3x01 to an episode like Failsafe...there’s just no comparison. I could hardly watch Wally’s scene without frowning at the frame rate.

Message

I don’t understand what the show is telling us anymore (or I didn’t, before Black Lightning gave a very “on the nose” speech about what it is that we were supposed to take away from this season).

I mean this has always been an issue with the show, but at least it was a little clearer in season 1. Then, we had several themes:

Found family (+ Actions speak louder than heritage)

Don’t call us sidekicks (AKA the kids can make a difference)

Secrets are poison (They can tear a team apart. Trust in friends)

Season 2 was a little convoluted...and sort of just recycled material.

Secrets are poison (dammit, Dick)

You are in charge of your own destiny (Jaime/Connor)

Sacrifice (Kaldur, Artemis, Wally, Bart...they all gave something up for the greater good).

But what is the message of season 3?

Secrets are still poison (Tara, Violet, Batman v. Wonder Woman team)

I suppose it’s about healing and letting others in? Like how Brion and Victor have both worked through their anger? Artemis and Jefferson and Dick and Gar sorting through their grief...somehow...off-screen...(except for the episode devoted to Artemis saying goodbye to Wally.)

Perhaps...accepting yourself? (Victor, Violet, Brion, Connor?)

Do you see my issue here? How much harder it is to see what I’m supposed to take away from the show now? I’m not saying there aren’t any good messages being told, but they’re difficult to interpret. Sometimes that can be good. But this time I’m on the fence.

Conclusion

I love many of the characters from this show, but the fandom acts as if the writing is impeccable, and that’s just not true. Not everything is bad. Some of it is still miles beyond other animated television (looking at you vld). And I genuinely enjoyed about half of the episodes this season. But I think it’s important to recognize the flaws in media, as a writer myself, and as a consumer of these shows.

Plz be civil in the comments, and understand that this is only my opinion.

#young justice outsiders #yj outsiders #yj review #yj spoilers #dick grayson #artemis #connor kent

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thattimdrakeguy · 5 years ago

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Tim Drake in Wonder Comics Young Justice so far

#TimDrakeIsTheBestRobin is something I been seeing Brian Michael Bendis tweet out a lot, but I just started to think about Tim, what all he’s actually done in Young Justice so far as we’re about 7 issues in, and well, he’s done nothing of note.

While the issues so far has shown Tim to be the most in-character he’s been since the New 52 (and even a little bit before), he’s done freaking nothing and half of the year is almost over. The only thing of note he’s going to do this year so far is change his identity, and that’s not only disrespectful to the fact they marketed Tim to fans on something else, but it’s also awful story telling.

The other members in their spotlight issues got to do stuff that actually added to the plot while showing off their personalities, like Cassie had her issue with Zeus that showed how she liked to earn her spot while also being spunky. Conner had stuff set up with S.T.A.R Labs that showed off his rebellious side, and Amethyst had her whole world showed off for the first arc, but Tim got nothing in his.

Tim in his own spotlight didn’t do anything that showed off his personalty. He didn’t even have a plot set up. Stephanie even had a plot set up. Tim’s plot was how he remembered his past timeline (thanks to Zatanna), and going to Metropolis to see where Conner was. So basically, now that he found Conner, there we go. That’s it. His big set-up in issue 5 is done before we even got to see it.

Tim didn’t have any personalty in his issue, or actually do anything in it besides get his memories back thanks to someone else, and all it showed is that he loves his girlfriend and Conner, nothing about his own personality.

From the sounds of it though, Tim’s going to be pretty important for some of the next arcs, but at the same time, he’s getting a new costume and identity, which isn’t a good sign. Especially since the costume’s color scheme stands for boring.

One of the things about the build up to Young Justice was how it seemed to be getting rid of everything people didn’t like about their treatment and getting the characters set back on track. They gave them costumes that fit their personalities, Patrick Gleason almost always (literally only 2 panels I can remember not liking) was able to draw them perfectly as well as get the tone perfectly, and they were the most in-character they been in years for the issues so far.

Now they’re already changing stuff before the years over.

Tim has had no build up to having a need for a new identity.

There was people that wasn’t happy with Tim being Robin again though, they preferred him being Red Robin, but in Heroes of Crisis (which I would recommend avoiding since it’s crap, and certainly Tim’s singular panel) it said he was still Red Robin even though he had his Wonder Comics costume on. Which means he was literally Red Robin still, he just went by Robin with Young Justice.

I really liked that since that meant if you wanted him to be Red Robin still, he was, and if you were happy he was Robin again, he was. That’s a fan pleasing decision that I approved.

So why would Tim want to change his name AND costume now? Especially considering he just got this new Robin costume that fits his personality to a T, and still has his own name to use when having two Robins would be confusing.

Why would there be no build up in the story to this apparent identity change unless him being back on track was just a marketing stunt for more people to buy the issues?

What would be the real life reason for it be, besides they just freaking wanted to?

Are you telling me in the middle of going dimension to dimension that Tim’s gonna think it’s a good time to change his identity?

Did Didio ask for this?

Was it Bendis?

Why?

In what world is this considered good story telling?

Doing stuff at random to change stuff that made people happy isn’t good story telling.

I’m aware some people wanted him to remain Red Robin, but as seen in Heroes in Crisis, he still is, he just likes to go by Robin when he’s with Young Justice. So that problems already been figured out. He’s Red Robin if you want him to be, and that’s actually canon, he’s just also Robin if you want him to be.

If they’re so willing to out of no were change the basic identity of Tim Drake in the middle of an arc, when they just got his character back on track after almost a decade. Why should I trust they care about Tim to do him justice?

They might like him, but does that doesn’t mean they care about Tim’s character enough to do what fits. At this rate it’s gonna be just another DC comic that relies on sudden shocks and changes in desperate attempts at headlines or to please their selfish desires of doing what ever they wanted because that’s all they thought about.

They could even finally allow him to interact with the plot more than once in a substantial way, but when they treat him like he doesn’t matter that much why should I feel like they’re really gonna care about him?

The act of suddenly changing a character randomly is something people do when they do not care about a character.

In fact it’s even something some people do when they dislike or hate a character.

If Jason Todd suddenly became “Finch” with no build up in the story or a quality reason, while he was on another planet, just after they brought back his friends, while getting his story back on track right prior, and in the new story he didn’t even get to choose his own name, it wouldn’t be considered a good story would it? It would feel like they had no idea what they were doing, or they at least didn’t give a crap about him or fan loyalty.

To be honest though, I’m not that upset Tim hasn’t done much as far as the plot so far. It’s very understandable to me. The other characters deserve the page space more than he does. Tim (even if he wasn’t in-character) got to have plenty of page time in other comics compared to them. So that’s not a problem of mine, it’s just a bad sign when adding it up with other stuff.

You don’t get rid of the stuff they used to market the series this soon and have it be a good sign of stuff. That’s something people do as a publicity stunt. Something cheap and scummy.

You don’t have the character do essentially nothing of note by himself in his own spotlight issue that’s supposed to be focused on him and have that be a good sign.

The other character’s spotlight issues told you a lot about them.

What’d Tim’s spotlight issue tell you about him? He loves his girlfriend, he ran away from home with her, and he loves Conner. That’s not much of a personalty showcase like the other ones so far. That’s practically nothing.

Right now he is the most useless and boring part of the team.

So much so that his apparently new costume is brown and gray. Colors that stand for boring and dull, especially or at least together.

It’s starting to feel like a gag at Tim fans expense, because of all those antis that call Tim the boring one.

I’m aware it’s so soon in this comic’s run that it seems hasty to judge, but the signs aren’t lining up well for him. Already doing nothing even in his own spotlight, having his identity changed like it doesn’t matter, not adding a thing to the ongoing plot besides some lines, aren’t, good, signs.

If Tim gets to stay Robin/Red Robin and keep his current costume after all of this, I’m not gonna be upset I made this post complaining about what did not end up happening, because I’d be too focused on being happy that it turned out they did care about the character more than headlines and what practically only they wanted.

Like, Tim hasn’t even been out of character during any of this. The most out of character he’s been is kissing Stephanie so intensely, the rest he’s been fine.

It’s just a lack of care for him.

Even if they’d just left him with the identity he currently has with Robin/Red Robin, while he does nothing important, that’d be a lot more calming, because that at least means they won’t be messing with what got some fans excited. He’d at least be left alone to not be ruined with rushed not-thought-out decisions like they’re building up.

I remember Bendis saying Conner’s gonna be changing his identity too in some upcoming issue, or at least implied it by saying Conner’s gonna talk about Superboy with Jon (what ever that means).

If he messes with his costume too to go back to the T-shirt and jeans, then I’m gonna be even more upset because I know dang well that costume made a heckuva lot of Conner fans happy, to have that taken away from them so soon would be unfair too, and I’m pretty sure he was intended to wear his T-shirt and jeans look this whole time given that they refer to him wearing a shirt when he’s been wearing freaking tights in the actual comic, which been adding up to my fear of that.

Then there’s Bart and Teen Lantern who have been treated even with less respect. While Bart saved the day, he still hasn’t gotten a spotlight issue showing anything important about him, and Teen Lantern has done even less than Tim as far as the plots concerned (although she will be getting a spotlight issue here shortly).

But I understand that, there’s only so much page space, like I said, I’m not even upset Tim hasn’t contributed much to the plot, it’s understandable. It’s just, why couldn’t he have done anything interesting during his own flashback? Why are they messing with him so soon at such a random time when they were making so many fans happy? Why change what’s making a lot of fans feel safe and secure with this comic?

Why can’t Tim Drake be treated with respect?

#Tim Drake #Robin #Red Robin #Young Justice #Young Just Us #Wonder Comics #Brian Michael Bendis #DC Comics

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toughguywithbossygirlfriend · 6 years ago

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WonderBat vs BatCat: BatCat romance is “Timeless”or “80 years old”. Is that really the Truth ? which one is older ?

Lately I had to read again some comments about BacCat being the better ship because of how “Old” a romance it was. But when did BatCat really start to take a real romantic turn compared to the first WonderBat references ? If we check out the old comics from “Batman #1″ back in 1940, is BatCat really the winner ? or is there another truth ?

I definitively cannot ignore the chemistry DC tries to put into BatCat till the 80′s even if I’d prefer WonderBat. But to make that romance acceptable they had to change Catwoman into a Hero first, or at least an Anti-Hero. Strong changes similar to that time where Catwoman had been Brainwashed to become a Hero by Zatanna and the JL.

(The following is from DC Comics “JLA (1997)” - Issue 119)

MM:“A friend ?” - BM:“An Ally of sorts ...I thought she’d changed. but ... maybe it wasn’t her choice.”

Batman had his suspicions so there was never a lot of room for Love but with Selina on the “Good” side it was at least a possibility. This follows all the WonderBat stuff of the JLA’s “obsidian age” and “#90″ of course, so Batman’s heart is rather set on Diana then Selina. As a matter of fact it turns out Bats was right about Zatanna’s mind manipulation.

(The following is from DC Comics “Catwoman (2002)” - Issue 50)

Selina’s evolution from “Evil” to “Good”, isn’t a first and has been rebooted several times. The fact that it wasn’t her choice isn’t a first either. But how do we end up with the “belief” that BatCat is an “Old” story ? maybe even “80 years old” ?... Superman and Lois ? Yes no doubt... but Batman and Catwoman ? ... Not really

The “New 52″ with the disastrous SuperWonder pairing surely contributed to the illusion of a longer BatCat history. It just send 70 real years of “Lois and Clark” into the trash-bin just as it did to the slowly (but steadily growing) “Wonder woman/Batman” background romance. This helped to erase in the younger generation’s minds what had been slowly build up other several decades.

After the “New 52″ it wasn’t really possible to return to pre-flashpoint status ... DC had first to try to repair the damage done to the trinity and to the duo of the World’s Finest... You don’t do

After the “New 52″, I guess DC surely considered that the best way to heal the Trinity’s awkwardness from the SuperWonder “Injustice smell” was to first avoid any relationship within the Trinity and later (as it didn’t work) to erase SuperWonder from continuity, so ... back to : Lois and Clark, Wonder Woman and Trevor, ... Batman and ? ... yeah who? ... Bats had a lot of love interests over the last 80 years ..

Selina was surely one of the numerous candidates and as long as they didn’t restart her “Evil” in DC Rebirth she could even become a good and “spicy” choice. So they didn’t ... this time she was “Good” from the start : In jail but actually taking responsibility for crimes she didn’t commit and facing lethal injection only to protect a friend. A real Hero, Selflessness and Compassion raised to Diana’s level. Better fighting abilities than Talia and the stubbornness needed to stand the ground in front of Batman. DC boosted Diana’s power level to match Superman’s (to fit the needs of “SuperWonder”) and changed her from a magically animated clay figure (”less than human” just like Deilan and thus dreaming to become human) into the daughter of Zeus (who doesn’t really have any reason to lower herself to human status). I think DC doesn’t really know how, or lacks the courage of, to power Diana down again into something more suitable for a human World (Batman’s World) without enraging a legion of hardcore Feminists who need her to be equal with “the most powerful male Hero”... Catwoman, on the other hand, has been given most of Diana’s qualities and switched from “Evil” to “Good”...

Tom King surely did a great job at helping to model Selina for that romance and showed a great skill at fooling the younger readers about BatCat’s real history by “hand picking” just the right pictures out of old comics ... an impressive Work.

For example in DC Rebirth’s Batman (2016) #44 you get the false impression Batman is taking care of Selina’s hurting ankle ...

While in the real comic, back in 1940, he was just removing the bandage to check out for a precious stolen necklace ... nothing romantic there.

But the next references were not more accurate either as you will see it ...

Every sentence is just copied ... but the real comic tried to picture Selina Kyle/Catwoman as having two very different personalities ... some kind of schizophrenic heavy mental illness revealed through a memory loss.

With this Issue we have already gone from 1940 to January 1951 and to consider any romance in these early comics you’d have to ignore all the sweet pet names used to describe Catwoman : the Arch-enemy, the Princess of Plunder, the Queen of Crime, Batman’s Feline Foe and so on ... Nonetheless this is the first “Evil” to “Good” switch I know of ... Batman’s romantic interest from that time was more Vicky Vale, than Selina.

In this other “Pick Up” from “Detective Comics #203″ (January 1954), Selina reverts from “Good” to “Evil” just after he warned her of the consequences of resuming her past criminal life

... and she didn’t need any “hit to the head” this time ... was she faking her “Goodness” ? or is she just ready for Arkam’s Asylum ? ...

The next one in Batman (2016) #44 ? ... same deception again ...

As we can see, in the original comic, Batman answers Selina’s question even under the Torture with a “No” to both “Bride” and “Burglar” ... Selina was really a self delusional crazy chick back then, more like a female version of the Joker rather than a real romantic interest and it didn’t get any better in the following years.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Selina’s dominant stance in Batman #44 was a parallel to Diana’s Epic stance in Hiketeia ... of course you never really “dominate” Batman, just like he is never your “captive”, unless he wants you to believe you won.

Wonder Woman was always the perfect complement to Batman. “Wonder Woman was made to Protect the Innocent, and Batman to Punish the Guilty”. Without either of them there is No Justice. That’s why they work so well together ... So you just copy from Diana to Selina the things you can and worked for WonderBat.

Anyway no consistent BatCat until “Batman (1940) Issue 308″ during February 1979 ... a new evolution from “Evil” to “Good” starts with that Issue and a kiss in November 1979 ... but this time things are different, very different, Selina really wants too turn her back on her crime life ... the road is still long and bumpy but it is a start for a real romance. It is interesting to note that the current Rebirth “Wedding” arc with the Dark Knight enabled the starting of a new “Catwoman (2018)” series,just like the 80′s romance enabled Catwoman her own start. For a time the 80′s “Catwoman” series shared the “Batman(1940)” comic series with Bats. Later she got her own solo comic..

Now if you consider Batman and Wonder Woman’s first kiss of love:

Considering Wonder Woman is a rather serious Girl and that she already “Heroed” for several years side by side with Batman. If you consider that the owner of the Lasso of truth won’t lie if she says that she really did fall in love with Batman. Plus, two years later (1970) “Diana Prince” encountered billionaire “Bruce Wayne” and agreed to a Date with him ignoring he was Batman. Later again in 1978, Diana and Bruce know each others double identities and agree on a “Late night diner” ... We may consider that this kiss was the starting point of a complicated (secret identities and all) slowly growing romantic relationship between the two.

So a WonderBat romance started at least over a decade before any real BatCat romance.

I bet you didn't expect that ! ... You don’t have to believe me. Just check out the old comics for real ... and make your own opinion once you’ve read them.

Keep in mind that this doesn't really deny anything to the current Batman/Catwoman romance because DC Rebirth’s Selina Kyle is very different from the crazy Psycho of the old comics. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t use its Age as an Argument. You can surely find a lot of other reasons to love them. And of course, Bruce and Diana had both earlier Love interests, but this wasn’t the point of this Post.

This Post only goes thru the Batman (1940) series meaning i didn’t check out every comic series. But I had once a heated exchange about the “80 years old” theory with a Hardcore BatCat shipper whom I told to check out for himself the old comics. I know he checked out all 400 first “Batman” and “Detective Comics” Issues but he never got back to me to prove me wrong ... so I guess that he didn’t find anything useful either.

Hereafter you have a partial list of the early “Batman” comics Issues up to the time of the WonderBat kiss in 1968, with the names of notable or recurring females found in them, often being Batman’s real love interests. I didn’t mention the Issues if they had no interesting females in it.

Issue#1: Catwoman tries to seduce and bribe him, doesn't work, she flees and he lets her ! ;

Issue#2: the crime Cat flees again;

Issue#3: Cat's usual M.O. kiss (first) to flee, she wishes she could hook up with Bats;

Issue#5:Quennie kisses Bats and dies

Issue#6:Linda Page

Issue#7:Linda Page

Issue#9:Linda Page

Issue#10:Cat roots for Bats, another kiss and flee ...

Issue#11:Canary kisses Bats and leaves

Issue#15:Bruce Wayne is in love with Linda Page but still "proposes" to the "Arch ennemy" Catwoman and gets "engaged" with her ... Now that's funny, so it would'nt be a first ? thinking about Batman(2016) #39-#40 ...this time its Jail for the Cat

Issue#22:Cat goes to Jail again after flirting with Alfred ...

Issue#26:Future Bruce Wayne and Lora Hall

Issue#35:Catwoman tries to gun down Bats

Issue#39:Cat fights Bats then saves him, tries to seduce and bribe him again but goes to jail again ... nothing new...

Issue#42:Cat goes to Jail again

Issue#45:Cat tries to kill Bats and goes to Jail

Issue#47: a disguised Cat gets to kiss Bats, then ... Jail

Issue#49:Vicky Vale

Issue#50:Vicky Vale

Issue#52:Vicky Vale

Issue#56: Vicky Vale

Issue#61: Vicky Vale

Issue#62: Cat becomes amnesic and fights on the good side.

Issue#64: Vicky Vale

Issue#65: Amnesic Selina remains good but no romance

Issue#69: Amnesic Selina has a Brother no romance

Issue#79: Vicky Vale and Batman fake an engagement/wedding

... No Cat ... But during "Detective Comics"#203" Cat turns evil again without any head injury ...

Issue#81: Vicky Vale

Issue#84: Cat goes to Jail again

Issue#85: Vicky Vale

Issue#87: Vicky Vale gets jealous over the kiss Batman shares with Magda Luvescu

Issue#92: Susie Smith

Issue#98: Vicky Vale

Issue#105: Kathy Kane as Batwoman will become a rather constant love interest in the following years (This one is neither lesbian nor Bruce Wayne's cousin and later her niece Betty is gonna be the first BatGirl and fall for Dick Grayson’ Robin)

Issue#110: Vicky Vale

Issue#111: Vicky Vale

Issue#115: Susie Smith ?

Issue#116: Kathy Kane

Issue#119: Kathy Kane and Vicky Vale

Issue#122: The Wedding of Kathy Kane and Bruce Wayne ... ;)

Issue#125: Kathy Kane

Issue#126: Kathy Kane

Issue#128: Kathy Kane

Issue#129: Kathy Kane

Issue#131: Kathy Kane and Bruce Wayne married again ... ;)

Issue#133: Kathy Kane

Issue#135: Kathy Kane and Bruce Wayne married again ... ;)

Issue#139: Kathy Kane with her niece Betty (as BatGirl)

Issue#140: Kathy Kane

Issue#141: Kathy Kane with her niece Betty (as BatGirl)

Issue#144: Betty (as BatGirl) and Robin ... with Bruce and Kathy.

Issue#145: Kathy Kane and Bruce Wayne married again ... ;)

Issue#147: Kathy Kane

Issue#150: Kathy Kane vs "Elise"

Issue#151: Kathy Kane

Issue#154: Kathy Kane with her niece Betty (as BatGirl)

Issue#157: Kathy Kane and Vicky Vale

Issue#159: Kathy Kane and Bruce Wayne married again ... ;)

Issue#162: Kathy Kane

Issue#163: Kathy Kane and Bruce Wayne married again ... ;)

Issue#165: Patricia Powell

Issue#166: Patricia Powell

Issue#168: Kaye Daye

Issue#176: Cat goes to Jail again

Issue#181 : Poison Ivy and Kaye Daye

Issue#183 : Poison Ivy

Issue#184 : Viola Lance but it was rather Robin’s Interest

Issue#185 : Vera Lovely but again Robin’ Love Interest

Issue#187 : Vicky Vale and “the Sparrow” as Joker’s ennemy ?

Issue#193 : Vicky Vale

Issue#194 : Kaye Daye

Issue#197 (Dec 1967) : Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Catwoman fight for Batman but Batgirl isn’t in love with Batman - Containing the “Bride or Burglar” reference used in Batman#44 - Selina thinks she is in love and that you can torture a man into loving her (like I said a crazy psycho)

Issue#198 (Jan-Feb 1968) : Catwoman (still a crazy psycho in love who thinks that hurting him and Robin is the best way to charm Batman ) and Batwoman (Kathy Kane)

1968 : Batman and Wonder Woman first kiss (that I know of) - During that Issue of “the Brave and the Bold”, both Wonder Woman and Batgirl fall in love with Batman. Diana kisses him but it won’t be really revealed, or denied, if Batman had feelings other than Friendship for either one of the Women. But Batman was always kind of good at hiding his feelings for Diana. Based on later evolutions of their relationship, we can only imagine this must have been the beginning of a longtime slow-burner between the two.

I leave it to you to discover the rest for yourself ...

#Wonder woman #Diana Prince #batman #bruce wayne #wonderbat

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kitzatara · 6 years ago

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So this might be a me thing but I was so sad Zatanna only had friendship arcs with Artemis and Robin. Don’t get me wrong they were both fun and great but I really wanted to see her interact with the others. (She has a small story with Conner and M’gann and a slight buddy thing with Rockets but) can you imagine.

M’gann and Zee actually bonding over her genuine respect of Martian priests and priestesses? Like what an amazing conversation that would have been? And they talk about how different magic is on both their worlds or are surprised at the similarities. M’gann would even be a little nervous because the only other team member to talk to her about it was Wally and he didn’t even reaaallly care and Zee is like oh honey of course I care. I never even considered other planetary magic I can’t wait to ask my dad about it. And M’gann is like me too I’ll ask my uncle if he knows more specifics! Boom cute friendship born. Plus their powers are so similarly diverse the fighting combos they could pull off would’ve been phenomenal.

Wally and Zee obviously have to talk about it and he goes to her asking about the helmet of fate and the after life because he’s worried about Kent. Zatanna breaks it down for him and he’s all please don’t tell the others I believe in Magic now, I have to maintain my science rep. And Zatanna is like you do know magic works very similarly to science right? It has laws and forces and substances and behaviors that it follows. And he’s like whaaaAaaat??? Zee is like Jesus okay let me break it down for you. And Wally in return teaches her about the impossible science he and flash know. Like wow they would’ve had a deep connection too.

And then we have Kaldur, I mean just picture that she’s the only one he cracks jokes with. I mean come ON. They were the easiest to make friends, dead ass trading magical secrets with each other. Imagine Zatanna summoning a tidal wave and the team is like ??? She’s like oh yeah Kaldur showed me. Or Kaldur pulling off an underwater illusion spell or even a glamour and everyone’s like I didn’t know you could do that??? Oh Zee showed me, apparently water is perfect for illusion magic since it naturally disrupts the senses, who knew 💁🏻‍♂️. Kaldur hardly makes any jokes but Zatanna is so fun loving that she gets him to laugh and make some and everyone is like ?????? HeLLO? He comes back to visit Tula and Garth and does magic that they’ve never even heard of and he’s like yeah I’ve made some cool friends on the surface. They combine their magic to make their spells behave differently like come on that was such an easy one and they hardly talk. “Is that an order” should have definitely been their inside joke wtf. “Kaldur duck!” “Is that an order?” Limitless potential for corny jokes.

For Conner she’s like hey I picked up some rare meat for your Walt monster. He’s like um thanks? She’s like no biggie I have to get some forcmy white tiger anyway. He’s like ummm???? You have a white tiger? She’s like yeah why do you think I like Wolf so much? I have so many pets, mostly doves and rabbits but I totally get the appeal. Boom instant bonding over pets and animals and stray creatures. Maybe she teaches him to meditate to control his anger (maybe M’gann joins them? Not to give it a weird threesome vibe but I think the three of them meditating or doing fuckin yoga in the cave for others to walk in on would just be so funny).

Rocket of course is her buddy because they’re both the new girls, they’re the sassiest, and they have the best senses of fashion it’s a no brainer. They spill the tea all the time and just fuckin live their best lives. Omg can you imagine them shopping and having to save a whole god damn mall or getting facials and having to stop villains in their face masks. People are like why didn’t you clean that off? Bitch do you KNOW how much this cost???? It would’ve also made the wedding shower scene in season two even funnier because that’s the first time the other girls have been with them, like wow you two weren’t kidding this happens all the time to you guys. They just fist bump and kick Captain cold’s ass. God I’d love it. They make snide marks about villains “really those boots with that top?” “Oh my god they’re color scheme is the true evil”

So yeah idk that would’ve just been cool I think

#zatanna zatara #dc comics #young justice #m’gann m’orzz #conner kent #kaldur'ahm #raquel #wally west #nightwing #artemis crock #headcanon #long post

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kamamo1 · 5 years ago

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Ok so my Barry Allen relationship post blew up again, and thanks I guess, so I'm compelled to talk about this more. So here's more analysis on Barry's love interests from the comics that most people tend to forget.

Barry swings from kinda of being a dork/flustered/oblivious about flirting/relationships to being cool as a cucumber, calm, emotionally mature and knows what he wants... So his love interests are all over the place

Zatanna - often flirted with him, they kissed and had wild adventures during one of her shows, Barry was the first one she showed her new outfit too when she was trying to redefine herself, which lead them to make out in the Watchtower, Barry calls her Tanna, and Barry said once that when he looked at her he forgot the face of every girl he met before. They might have been lovers but they both hesitant on starting a full relationship, probably because the writer conveniently remembered Barry was seeing someone else in his personal comic. They need to interact again even if its strictly platonic because it was a fun dynamic

Daphne Dean - was a childhood sweetheart of Barry's and they used to play games as kids with Barry dressed up as the Flash. They were the talk of the town apparently and while they kept in touch, Daphne went on to be a famous actress and Barry headed off to Central City.

They have an on and off relationship, Daphne's PR tries to capitalize on the childhood romance for Daphne's image and she usually goes along with to a certain extent but only till it hits her that 'yeah I'm actually still in love with him' and puts her foot down, Barry usually remains oblivious to all this. Barry helps her out with kidnappers, and old stalker from their childhood, and she helped him out with an issue with Golden Glider. Their flirting ranged from remenicing 'the good old days' to later acknowledging that 'yes I am flirting with you and you are flirting with me' no hesitation

Dinah Lance - Mostly out of the JLA Year One run from Post Crisis. Pre-Crisis they were mostly just teammates, Barry knew her from Black Canary Golden Age comics, and called her pretty bird or bird lady-but then most of her teammates did.

They flirted back and forth in JLA Year One, but Dinah was hesitant to start anything because she didn't want to be like her mother and have an affair with another hero. They kissed before realizing Dinah loves being Black Canary too much and Barry loves being both Flash and Barry, but the romance was still there even though they kept it platonic. I just wish they would interact again because they had a fun friendship.

Meena Dhawan - I wish another writer would pick this character up because I have not liked anything out of the new Flash run, which is a shame bec I want to care about this character. Meena was one of the new speedsters out of the Joshua Williamson's first Flash arc where he tried to do what Manapul did but worse.

She is a scientist who is helps out the people who got caught in the SpeedForce storm and of course Barry gets all heart eyes about it. They offhandedly flirt and then kiss in a spam of two issues where Barry then reveals his identity which is kinda a big deal because his secret identity has always been super important to him in the past, and then Meena is seemingly killed by Godspeed, who callously says that Barry shouldn't even care because they barely knew each other. Meena comes back in a weird way, everyone's weary at first and then it revealed she is working for the bad guys and the last time I checked she is in prison so yeah...

Jessica Cruz - I didn't expect writer to try to go in a romantic direction with these two because they started out with a pretty solid friendship. Jessica is thrown into the superhero world due to the Power Ring and Barry helps her out in fights/control/ talks her down and gets ice cream. So it was like a mentor/student dynamic except not really because they're equal standing characters, kinda going back to when Barry had the same dynamic with Firestorm and Elongated Man.

Jessica saves Barry's life at the cost of her own, but dont worry she's fine! They dance around and then go on a date, and it's kinda cute before plot happens. An alternative reality reveals that they had three kids together, an older daughter named Nora, and twins Jason and Jenny. Nora takes after her father in regards to powers and the twin take after Jessica's powers as well, but their emotions connected to their powers overwhelms them sometimes. The kids are adorable and Barry/Jessica with the kids are even more adorable

Patty Spivot - originally just a friend and coworker, showed up around the late 70s, the time Barry has been married to Iris for awhile. They were just work buddies, and Barry mentioned once about her and a man named Daniel so it's not like she had a secret crush on him. They take turns buying donuts, complain about work, etc. <--And look a completely platonic relationship between a slightly older man and a younger woman with no weird undertones! Then Geoff Johns happens and he implies that Patty and Barry knew eachother when Barry started out at the lab, and that they danced around eachother before Barry and Iris started dating.

Then in New 52, Barry and Patty are dating, and it had it's cute moments but it felt like writers were spinning their wheels because they had to tease out the Barry/Iris relationship, and honestly if your heart isn't in it, you should have just kept it platonic.

Fiona Webb - <---Barry's fiancee and would have his second/third wife. Her real name was Beverly Lewis, and had to be put in witness protection after she learned too much about her former employer. Barry meets her a year after Iris' death when he is moving on with his life, and moving into Utopia Towers as her next door neighbor.

Their first meeting goes like this: Barry thinks about the lonely nights ahead of him and stops midthought when he sees her with a 'yiyiyi'. He says it looks like she walked out of a dream, flusteredly tried to introduce himself but she kinda brushed him off. Fiona acts cold to Barry at first but she eventually warms up to him after he helps her out with the issue of her former employer. They became friends and have a little friend group with their other neighbor Mack Nathan and his son. They dance around eachother a lot, but eventually go on a lot of romantic dates. Barry calls her 'Green Eyes' and she doesn't take any of his bs.

Their relationship is on and off due to Barry's relationship with Z and Daphne and Fiona relationship with the Senator she works for. The Senator is conveniently the new villain that's been targeting the criminals of Central City, so he kidnaps her and Barry has to rescues her. They're together again after that whole fiasco, but have to deal with drama of criminals coming after them because Fiona is still in witness protection and Barry makes enemies as part of CCPD. There was no big proposal scene, Barry casually asks her how she feels about June Weddings and she says why wait and they plan the wedding pretty quick. I think it was stated it was three years after they met?

So they have a quick wedding, Firestorm mentions he's upset that the Justice League wasn't invited but to be fair its all pretty sudden. Barry's friends from work come, Ralph also attends, Mack Nathan etc, Wally tries to sneak in late. Barry is determined not to be late like always so he heads out to the church, almost forgets the ring but has a good laugh about it until surprise!!! Eobard Thawne comes back from being missing for years.

Thawne has Barry chase him all over the world putting people in danger so Barry cant catch up to him, while he does his evil monologue. Fiona is getting extremely frustrated and embarrassed, thinks she's being stood up. Thawne reveals he planning on killing Fiona and Barry freaks out. Just as Fiona walks out the door crying Thawne races to put his hand through her head and Barry stops him by grabbing at his neck. Barry instantly goes over comfort Fiona, not realizing what happened.

Due to the audience of the whole scene he can't reveal he's actually Barry and Fiona is still super upset. Thawne is revealed to be dead, the Flash is put on Trial for murder, Barry Allen is missing/presumed dead, and Fiona has a breakdown due to all this trauma conga line. Barry just wants to take her away with him but with the upcoming Trial he realizes he can never have a normal life again after this.

The trial eventually takes a turn for the worse, Barry's lawyer Cecile tells him to reveal his identity so that the court knows that he was only trying to save his fiancee from the fate of his first wife, but Barry refuses, stating that if he goes to prison then at least Fiona won't be in more danger because of him. Its obvious through this arc that Barry and Fiona still love eachother but both are in a real bad place right now.

And I have to say this was some interesting drama that DC never resolved or followed through with, and just outright ignored, which is a shame because Barry and Fiona was another interesting relationship that fell to the wayside due to poor writing or just a general lack of interest in the Flash's supporting cast

#dc comics #dc #the flash #barry allen #flash #zatanna #daphne dean #fiona webb #dinah lance #jessica cruz #patty spivot #meena dwahne #bring back fiona you cowards #bring back barry's past relationships even if they're just platonic and stop filling the flash with you personal ocs #just use past supporting characters dear lord

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lycanhood · 6 years ago

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Best of My 2018 - Comics

Favorite Series:

Ms. Marvel (2015-) (Marvel Comics) (Issue #37 coming in January)

This book is just consistently good! I’m relatively new to comics, but Kamala’s 2014 debut series is one of the first I picked up and one of the first comics series that I’ve absolutely loved! It continued into a new run that’s on-going. It’s fun and thoughtful and relevant and relatable and so so smart. I’ve learned so much from Kamala and her friends, and I just really think this is a series anyone can enjoy and everyone should be reading.

X-Men: Red (2018) (Marvel Comics) (11 Issues, Cancelled)

This is actually my first official X-Men team read and it’s brilliant! Like I said, I’m a newcomer to comics, so most of my impressions about Jean Grey were unfortunately formed from Fox’s X-Men films. However, the Jean Grey of X-Men Red is an entirely different woman, for the better! She is shockingly grounded and level headed for someone who just came back from the dead and she assembles (no pun intended) a surprisingly ragtag team (including Wolverine & Honey Badger, Gambit, Nightcrawler, & some exciting new additions) to help her battle a rising cloud of hatred rushing over the world. The content hits a little too close to home, but I’m beginning to understand that the magic of the X-Men is their unwavering ability to fight the good fight against hatred for every new generation.

Hawkeye (2016-2018) (Marvel Comics) (16 Issues, Cancelled)

This is Kate Bishop, the female Hawkeye (it’s only a little confusing), in her very own solo book! She’s a fledgling P.I. on the West Coast (which is dangerously lacking in superheroes apparently). She’s witty and grumpy and I love her so fucking much! This series is honestly just so good. It’s fun and thrilling and silly and surprisingly heartbreaking at some points. With appearances by Jessica Jones and Clint Barton as Kate’s mentors! And colorful (both in character and diversity) new friends and allies. I’ll probably continue to follow Kelly Thompson (the brilliant writer) around after this one. This series is short but oh so sweet.

Saga (2012-) (Image Comics) (On Hiatus but returning)

I swear, I read more than just Marvel haha This masterpiece from Image has been happening for years, but I just recently discovered it and binged it like a crazy person. It’s just so fucking pretty! Fiona Staples (the artist) is simply incredible! But more than that this series isn’t just a pretty face, the story is amazing too! The writing is rich and builds a complex and colorful sci-fi world. The characters are deep and emotional and so real it hurts. Just wow, yeah, it’s about family, love, war, sacrifice, corruption, prejudice, bravery, etc (all the good stuff). A must read!

Legend of Korra: Turf Wars (2017-2018) (Dark Horse)

Well, this one is just a no-brainer for me. I love Korra, I love team Avatar, and I love Korrasami. These comics have triggered two rewatches this year, and were everything I needed out of a Korra continuation. My only complaint is that there aren’t more of them.

Favorite Individual Issues/Arcs:

Supergirl Rebirth (2016-) Issue #14

Kara Zor-el teams up with Superman of China, Kong Kenan and it’s totally awesome!

Supergirl Rebirth (2016-) Issue #19

Kara befriends a non-binary teenager struggling with their identity and finding acceptance from their family and peers. This is very much so a Kara Zor-El story, rather than a Supergirl adventure. Sometimes people just need a friend not a hero, and Kara finds a way to be both.

Ms. Marvel (2015-) “The Ratio” Issues #32-35

Kamala and Bruno finally start to work through their issues, but are promptly interrupted by The Shocker. It’s just nice to see Kamala and Bruno working together again. Ms. Marvel at it’s best!

Justice League Dark/Wonder Woman (2018) “The Witching Hour” Issues #1-4 of JL Dark and Issues #56-57 of Wonder Woman.

I thoroughly enjoyed this entire arc. It was awesome and totally worth juggling both series. I didn’t think I was going to care much for Dark, but I quickly fell in love with every single one of the characters. The team dynamic is glorious and it’s fun to watch Wonder Woman work with these less savory anti-heroes like John Constantine, Zatanna, & Detective Chimp. It’s got some really cool Wonder Woman moments, which is what I’m here for, but doesn’t let her completely overshadow the rest of the team.

Man of Steel (2018)

This is actually a mini series, just six issues, from Brian Michael Bendis that revamps both Superman and Supergirl’s current Rebirth runs. New information about the destruction of Krypton surfaces along with an unknown foe. Clark and Kara team up to defeat a villain hellbent of killing the last Kryptonians. I was hesitant to read this, because I’ve never actually read a Superman solo series, but I couldn’t resist. It’s a great story. Superman/Clark feels much more like a real person in this than I’ve ever seen him in comics (though once again I’m new and haven’t read much Superman). There are tons of great Super Cousins content and the new revelations about the destruction of Krypton are exciting for any fan of Kryptonian heroes.

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otakuminami · 3 years ago

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I felt like I went on an Odyssey with this arc (but not with Rocket)

Spoilers

So in all, I liked this arc.

But

Rocket was barely in it and I wasn’t completely invested in her beside the first and this last episode really, but I did like how her growth ended. I feel like it wasn’t completely earned because we didn’t see a lot of her, but I do like the message. In a way, the message had more to do with her than her son which I like. It’s about her seeing him and others. It’s not their problem. It’s hers.

Anyways, Metron

Why was he acting like he’s above them and not giving them an explanation? Like honestly I get it like “I am the smartest one here and you don’t need to know what’s happening in detail but you are heroes and something is in danger go save it.” That for me was too funny for no reason I think I’m loosing it

I love how Conner was like “I’ll save you” and Zod is like “bitch I’m already being saved”

Also sad that he tried yo take her partner with him. At least we know he really cares about her and is not completely heartless.

Possible weakness???

Tomar- Re

He sacrificed himself to save a planet because he didn’t want to fail saving a planet like Krypton again

I just can’t

I’m too busy crying

He didn’t have enough power to have a shield and the thing and so

He chose to save the planet instead of himself

Guys

Moving in before I cry, Forager is a green lantern.

Because Tomar- Re died

Anyways, with the whole Forager has to choose between earth and new genesis from last episode. I kinda like that Forager said she’ll leave her hive instead. I kinda like that they have no problems what so ever and are just simply in love. There’s like no drama and like that’s just the vibe with this ship.

Also the whole Forager is now a Green Lantern is great. I hope we get to see more of her as a Green Lantern.

Also I noticed that when she recited the Green Lantern Oath, she didn’t change her speaking pattern

I love it!

The adventures of Superboy in the Phantom Zone is coming to an end

Also Phantom girl finally is up and she can get Conner out but I got a feeling it’s not going to be that simple

Madame Xanadu at the beginning when she can’t get cell service in a swamp. I don’t know how to describe something that’s so funny and somewhat universally relatable

Zatanna bullying Nabu into help her proves she’s girl boss.

When she said she needs a detective I legit screamed

DICK GRAYSON YOU NEED DICK

Like that set up was brilliant

It was because we had really no kinda set up besides Conner’s death being the connecting thing which here it is too but it was a more pointing at the next arc thing

Unless I missed something

Another part I did scream at was when Jay said Bart I’m home

The No that ripped through my vocal cords shocked not only my cat but me as well

That was just

Bart’s being held hostage and his family is going to be worried about him because he thinks protecting the time stream is more important than him and I just want someone to go to him and tell him he is a part of their time now

Anyways, Rocket’s arc 6/10

Needs more Rocket but has good set up for the next arc (which is slightly messed up)

I’m so excited to see Dick

We haven’t seen him yet in this season and we still have Jason who might be revealed

#young justice phantoms #young justice season 4 #Roquel Ervin #forager #Green Lantern #tomar re #bart allen #conner kent #lor zod #madame xanadu

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renaramblesaboutcomics · 7 years ago

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Wednesday Roundup 8.8.2017

Okay quite a huge week for my pull list, though with a few sad farewells as a result of that. Will everything pass the muster? Or have we got some duds in waiting?

Just kidding everything’s wonderful and I’m going to explain why that is.

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine, DC’s Detective Comics, DC’s Gotham Academy: Second Semester, Marvel’s Immortal Iron Fists, Dark Horse’s The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars, Marvel’s Silk, DC’s Titans, IDW’s Transformers: Till All Are One

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine (2015-present) #23 Tom Taylor, Leonard Kirk, Michael Garland, Erick Arciniega

Probably my favorite Marvel book coming out right now is All-New Wolverine and I think nothing has helped my appreciation for Tom Taylor as a writer grow than this book. It’s everything I’ve always wanted for Laura and more, but I won’t waste time. Let’s just dig into the specifics~

Story: We’re in the midst of an arc that’s meant to completely avoid the stink of Secret Empire but also probably will limit exposure to Laura that will be given to the stupid asshole male Wolverine they replaced her with on the main team I meant that is meant to bring us into Laura and Gabby’s first big space opera adventure, which is a proud tradition for all Marvel A-listers, and especially familiar to the X-Men. But Laura’s not with the X-Men on this trip because a forced romance with Warren isn’t being shoved in our faces. She’s here with the Guardians of the Galaxy who are enjoying their rise in Marvel prominence quite a bit, I believe.

In any case, the Brood have kidnapped Gabby and this is pissing both of them off immensely because Laura’s protective of Gabby and Gabby’s protective of Jonathan their pet Wolverine, and everybody is trying to get in the way of the Wolverine ladies living a happy life that they deserve.

Now I don’t often give summaries but it’s difficult to really parse what this story gets right and why even as the crotchety woman that I am who usually doesn’t care for superheroes in space, I am enjoying the aliens and the epic giant crossover and the cast of thousands. And that’s because this story and this comic series is about Laura and Gabby. It’s about the sisterhood, the mother-daughter relationship, the friendship, and the just general goodness that they’ve provided for each other throughout the past 23 issues that makes all the dressing not matter nearly as much as the moments where Laura declares her commitment to getting Gabby back or Gabby’s stern rebuttal to the idea that any outcome would be possible besides Laura coming for her. That faith and trust has been earned for over 20 issues and it’s the thing that really makes this comic stand out from the majority of the comics I’m going over this week.

This is a comic that has always been about these two characters and the loving bond that they share for one another. And it is exactly why it works to the point that I can give a hilariously complex summary like the one above without it making a real difference, and it’s why the final page is so gut wrenching for a cliffhanger.

Art: Leonard Kirk, I believe, has done the majority of the artwork for this series so far, and I really appreciate the look he gives to the title and specifically to Laura. She’s treated with every ounce of power and intimidation that you expect of Wolverine and the sexy costumes or posing are brought down to a severe minimum. Really, his designs for everyone are great and service the action of the story well because with so many aliens and sceneries to be had, the precise and direct approach makes the comic easy to follow. And I like that it manages all that without sacrificing action scenes or Kirk’s own style.

It’s solid comic art through and through.

Characters & Dialogue: For the most part I’ve said everything that needs to be said in the story bit, but I need to again give accolades to Taylor here because of the subtle character growth he’s allowed for in the way Laura and Gabby’s world views are evolving.

The dialogue for the two of them is very specific to their characters, but now we’re starting to see the way that they talk is having an effect on the other. Laura has become more artfully expressive about her feelings and love of others, especially Gabby, which is a change that took a long time for her and also is something her father never quite learned as well. We are a long ways away from the Laura who was ready to give Gabby up to the Jean Grey school and not look back. Likewise, Gabby has become more stern, more encouraged. She relies on Laura and believes in her so much that she doesn’t fear, another far cry away from the Gabby who was abused and misused by the lab that created her.

Basically the characterization isn’t just good, it’s subtle and full of depth beyond what people would be expecting from a giant space opera adventure trying to avoid a storyline centered around Captain Fascism.

DC’s Detective Comics (2016-present) #962 James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson

So, I think my Roundups are a pretty fair record for how tumultuous my relationship has been over time with Detective Comics. It’s a comic and characters I love fiercely but it’s also often subject to fair criticism of being fairly unpolished, rushed, and just generally misses a mark from time to time that’s just difficult to overcome.

A mixed bag if you will.

And we’re coming to the close on this particular storyline “Intelligence” and I think it’s as good of a place as any to really get into the nitty gritty of what the pros and cons of this Detective Comics run is.

Story: I only recently have begun reading Jean Paul’s original solo series Azrael thanks to DC’s new campaign to volumize old comics and it’s been a surprising read. But I’ve always been familiar enough with him as a character to be fairly curious about what more stories centered around him -- and not Azabats him but him him -- would be like. And I’ve stated before that I enjoy seeing the development of his friendship with Luke and would love to see it feature more prominently.

And in all those respects, I feel like this conclusion and really this whole storyline paid very good tribute to Azrael and Jean Paul in ways that even contemporaries of Denny O’Neil tended to miss the mark on. The complexity of his relationship with religion while also dealing with the additional stress and pressure that has placed on him with his abusive past, the allusions to mental illness which serve throughout his stories. And really just Jean Paul getting a chance to be a character in a way he certainly wasn’t in his re-introduction through Batman and Robin Eternal worked out very well with me. And I’m grateful that his injury in this battle and his paralysis are not going to be immediately erased while they do acknowledge that in this universe that’s a possibility.

I don’t really like the state reasoning for the decision or the near certainty that his disability will eventually be “overcome” but it’s better than the nothing that DC has basically given us in the way of the major titles for a while now.

Plus, consequences! It’s nice to have consequences that matter.

The magic part... well I enjoy Zatanna as a character to an extreme degree so my ability to be completely unbiased here was always going to be difficult. But this is one story where the magical elements being blended in with the spiritual.. I’m not really sure if it worked for me. It’s nice to see Zee, but in an ensemble book I’m getting a little tired of all the excuses being fit into the narrative to excuse not ever actually being about the ensemble.

oh look tim’s alive and ra’s al ghul’s behind it all who saw this coming

At least we don’t have another new made up organization that secretly spans across the whole world and Batman didn’t know about it ever. At least they’re finally converging a bit because that shit was getting ridic.

Art: Of the rotating art teams that we have for Detective, I have to say that this is one of the best and most consistent. There’s a good variation between splash pages and regular paneled format, there’s a proper use of shifting and varying panel differing. And overall it’s just a pleasing comic to read with easy action to follow and a great use of color and inking despite being a literally dark comic.

It is not the most stylized comic for those who prefer styles that are Out of House as opposed to the Big Two’s normal aesthetic, but it is a good comic and easy to read without being redundant.

Characters & Dialogue: Detective Comics has way too many characters. Tynion gives all of them good voice, and everyone who’s featured gets quite a lot to do, but there is not enough balance for the ensemble and the constant addition of new characters, new villains, etc. makes even less room for development and especially for relationship building between characters.

Like I guess Cass is just the only kid in the Belfry period now. Alright.

Cass, Kate, Luke, and... *sigh* Clayface have very little to do in this issue, though I’d argue that their small parts are some of the best content when one’s reading. And while it’s more than okay to center different arcs on different characters and Jean Paul getting his long, long overdue dues is more than welcome, there’s still the problem of giving everyone something that pushes their own plots forward, or at the very least, let’s us see the progress that has been made as a culmination of the previous storylines.

Cassandra is still not even adopted by either Bruce or Kate yet for chrissake. Someone give Cass a family.

Zatanna was good and if I have to measure a Bruce this Bruce is good for my tastes, but again there’s just so many characters it’s very difficult to fully dive into their various developments, especially when it’s hard to tell if there is one.

At the very least, I can give this comic thanks for getting Cass’ speech pattern back to normal. I have to agree with some other fans who have contacted me and said that it’s not too terrible if from time to time Cass learns and memorizes a Shakespeare verse thanks to her time with Clayface, but not showing any of the characters working with Cass to teach her to read and speak and then giving her full sonnets or soliloquies is way too much and is painfully out of character to read.

DC’s Gotham Academy: Second Semester (2016-present) #12 Brenden Fletcher, Karl Kerschl, Becky Coloonan, Adam Archer, MSASSYK, Sandra Hope

After a few years of this fun, YA tale of mystery and friendship, we sadly come to a close on Gotham Academy with this final issue wrapping up the series that was very beloved by myself and a number of my comic reading friends here on the internet. It’s a different type of story in the landscape of DC’s Batbooks and it’s going to very much be missed, regardless of how well or not this last issue was going to do.

But, with this cancelation, did the finale manage to feel like it came to a conclusive resolution for all of our favorite Gotham Academy kids?

Story: Given that this is the finale of both this storyline and for the series as a whole, going into story is a much bigger deal than it has been before. I mean, we’re talking about a narrative that really started back with Gotham Academy (2014-2016) and has come to its end here, a reboot and a year later. And it all, as it should have, revolved around the titular friendship between Olive Silverlock and Maps Mizoguchi.

Of course all the friendships, all the support that has been built up for Olive throughout the series still play a fairly important role to her conclusion here, but it was always going to be the friendship that held Olive and Maps together that would be what drove the story at its core, and in that way this ending doesn’t feel forced or strained, but simply like a natural testing of friendship when both have made mistakes and are wrong for various reasons -- for Maps it was coming to terms with her treatment of Olive’s mental illness and accepting her for it rather than simply ignoring that it was a factor, and for Olive it was about relying on Maps and trusting her to be there for her whenever she should fall.

That is what affects the narrative the most and that’s what the resolution to this story got right the most here.

Still, the cancelation of GA has come at the cost of the resolution of a lot of other elements that had been built up over the series. An unfortunate affect of having spent so much of the bulk of the series building up the world, the supporting characters, and more for what was no doubt many more mysteries and subplots to come, but it’s ultimately a little lost here. Colton’s confession to Kyle doesn’t see some real focus in the finale due to time and that’s made all the more a painful thing to see cut short considering the confirmed LGBT+ elements of Gotham Academy never received direct attention in ways I know I wish I could have seen. And likewise some resolutions felt missed entirely or unnecessary, Tristan’s apparent comfort with his bat form by the end as an example of the former and Pomeline being in a romantic relationship again with oh-whats-his-beard in the final pages.

I would not have wanted any of the final issue’s focus to have left Maps and Olive at all, as I’ve said, they are the driving force of this comic, but as understandable as it is that these shortcomings happened under the circumstances, they’re still shortcomings nonetheless.

The one that’s the most glaring, however, is the way that Olive’s disdain and distrust of Batman ended up coming to an end here. This is a character trait that was built up with Olive since the first issue of the series, and that relationship complicated between her, her mother, Batman, and Bruce Wayne, began dropping off the radar the moment we came into Second Semester and became more and more lost only to give us this moment in the finale where she comes to terms somehow with the fact that Batman was just trying to save her mom? I don’t know.

Speaking of which, this all coming down to magic and a secret society using Olive’s ancestral blood to control her or whatever reminded me exactly of when I was watching Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated for the first time and I adored that first season SO much and loved how it stuck to the tried and true Scooby-Doo formula of skepticism winning over superstition and the paranormal, only for the second season to... make a 180 and everything was due to magic after all. That’s kinda how I felt about Gotham Academy, we spent the first series constantly solving mysteries of Gotham Academy through the eyes of the Mystery Club and time and time again the lesson seemed to be that the legends and tribulations of the people at the heart of these things were just that -- they were people and they were real, and their problems paralleled the cast’s for that reason.

Only for that to be somewhat wasted due to the fact that... it was all nobody’s fault and the strings were being pulled by the occult the first series had proved were false. And I suppose that’s okay, save for how it feels as though it tries to use this to wave off the genuine symptoms of mental illness Olive has shown throughout the series.

It’s something I’ll have to chew on for a while, honestly. It’s given me a lot of complicated feelings.

Art: Ah, the most contentious part of the series has been the massive shift in art. Karl Kerschl was the original artist for the first few volumes of Gotham Academy and his style remains a truly unique, very stylized, and very character driven style which was a huge contributing factor to launching Gotham Academy and getting it off its feet with a unique flare to draw in audiences that weren’t necessarily picking up other Batman books at the time. And his presence has been missed since he left the book, without a doubt. I’ve had people tell me personally that a big reason for dropping the book when they did had to do with the change up in art.

I’m not condemning Adam Archer here for not being Kerschl, make no mistake. What I think has truly hurt this book, however, is that Archer either chose or was directed to attempt Kerschl’s style as close as possible which comes off as not feeling natural to Adam Archer’s own talents. That’s unfair because Archer’s work is unique, fun, and lovely n its own without this attempt to mimmic a style that was less his own. I think we would have all appreciated the art more in that respect, since other guest artists between the two like Chen were better received for their issues.

That being said the art for this issue is not bad, but it’s not great, and missing that feeling of sincerity that was connected to by so many readers before.

Characters & Dialogue: Considering how character driven this series is, it’s fair to say that the characterization and dialogue of these new Gothamites is unquestionable. They were always well rounded, interesting, and full of intrigue, and all the way to this conclusion, that remains to be the case. The big difference here would be that because we needed to focus on Olive and Maps, the other members of the Mystery Club were less involved than I would have liked though they very much did at least get to play a part in stopping Calamity (pun intended).

The good thing about having a single team writing from the very start of the book is that we get very strong voices throughout for all of the characters, and that remained true to the very end as well. Really, the characters were the best part and it made this feel like a very deserving farewell to our Gotham Academy family.

Marvel’s Immortal Iron Fists (2017) #2 (of 6) Kaare Andrews, Afu Chan, Shelly Chen

Well, guys, never say that change isn’t real and tangible, because it almost looks like Marvel learned something from the reception of Immortal Iron Fist on Netflix and is creating a legacy from the title that shock of all shocks actually contains Asian characters for once. I know, I was stunned as well.

In all seriousness, I was super interested in this series when I first saw it with issue #1 but hadn’t bought it by the time I was doing my weekly reviews for that week. Obviously, that has since then been remedied and has left me open for a good ol’ review of the new Marvel Infinite series Immortal Iron Fists.

Story: We’re still very much in the early part set of this story, which is a combination of Danny trying to navigate the trials of adulthood while being a complete human disaster, Pei is attempting to fit in her new public school which is middle school and thus inherently filled with racist little sociopaths in training just like real life high school, and also about the two Iron Fists trying to harness all of these magic scrolls which are currently possessed by demons which increase in power each scroll before culminating into this Mega Awful Demon that is the mortal enemy of the Buddah.

So yes. Immortal Iron Fists is basically ripping off Jackie Chan Adventures and believe it or not I am absolutely fine with that, in fact I think it might be the most fine I have been with a Marvel concept in ages. It’s like making Laura Wolverine, creating Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and now this. There, I had my arm twisted and admitted there are positive things about Marvel this week.

The story itself is a very soft, even light narrative considering the complexity of Pei’s origins and even her connection to Danny, but it’s also at the same time so fitting for what I assume is the intended audience (children and YA) and especially fitting with the art that is positively adorable and awesome.

In this issue Pei makes her first friends, learns that there is a string of missing cases, and also decides that unlike everyone else in middle school she’s not going to be a “key to a single door” but keep all her doors open and try to bridge the gap between the various cliques, who were introduced to us Mean Girls style and it was hilarious.

It’s just a fun read overall, but it’s also a fairly quick read so given that ever high Marvel price tag it’s hard to argue with the assessment that this one could be a trade wait for a lot of you.

Art: As I mentioned before, the art is very soft, gentle, and light. The colors pop, everyone is incredibly stylized, and the action scenes are surprisingly varied and plentiful. While they’re still simple enough to read for beginning comic readers, there is a flow to them, such as the sequence where Pei gets some revenge on some bullies at school through one extended fight sequence across a panel.

I just really enjoyed the art and I’m glad to see so much variation in comic art lately. It’s been a long time coming.

Characters & Dialogue: Pei and Danny are the focus of the comic, obviously, and they play their roles incredibly well. Danny is ... I mean, he’s Danny Rand, he’s a complete disaster of a human being trying to Adult it with an inheritance he never cared about or really earned and as such everything rolls in and catches up with him. He literally can’t teach Pei how to clean the house without tripping on soap, and I feel like that is a perfect summation of everything anyone has ever needed to know about Danny Rand.

In contrast, Pei is a reserved little girl, fish out of water, and drowning in a culture she has no familiarity with while also harnessing power and skills beyond her years. What I find interesting and subversive about this, though, is that Pei neither yearns for normalcy nor does she completely rebel openly against Danny’s orders for her to restrain herself and act normal. It’s honestly a relief to have a character whose problems are so relatable and have her just... treat it with the actions of a kid in the moment: uncertain but trying to play everything out until she decides she doesn’t fit the necessary mold. And she’s pleased with herself for not fitting the mold. It’s honestly kind of inspiring to see that in a kid character these days.

But the big part of this issue was arguably building up the supporting cast, including the nanny Danny has hired for Pei and most of all the kids in Pei’s school. And how there’s apparently no point to her hiding her identity as the tiniest Iron Fist. It’s well paced and all the kids, right down to their overwhelming cruelty to their surprising generosity, are definitely acting like kids.

Dark Horse’s The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars (2017-present) Part One Michael Dante DiMartino, Irene Koh, Vivian Ng

Ah, at long last!

While I was not in on the hype for The Legend of Korra as it was airing, my appreciation for what it’s become has grown over time, and more importantly, I fnd that it provides more possibilities and more opportunity to the world of Avatar, which is always a good thing.

As such, I’ve been waiting for this comic series to come out for quite some time! ... and then had to wait longer because for Reasons we don’t get the comiXology release at the same time as the regular issue’s release in stores. Oh, Dark Horse.

But now to get into the specifics.

Story: It’s always difficult to gage story with just the first issue, but in all honesty I think that the fact that the TV series ended on such an open note really helps the comic in this matter. “Turf War” is an interesting name for the story, but at the same time it’s oddly blunt and fitting. There is a war erupting between the Spirit World, the human lands and property settlement, and with the ever present Republic City triad gang wars. We follow all of these through the Krew members who are exactly where we last left off with them.

Some of the stuff that deserves a lot of attention is the cementation of Korra and Asami’s romantic relationship, which is given a good amount of page time for the first half of the book. They confess true feelings for each other, share a first kiss, have a beautiful vacation together, and we ultimately get to see Korra’s blunt and protective nature play out accordingly. She rushes in to Asami’s aid and frets over her pretty consistently, which could be seen as a callback to the series itself when, as Korra was most down, Asami cared for and nurtured her.

We also get to see Mako and Bolin working together as partners in the Republic City police. They deal with the triads and the general unrest that has come about as a result of Spirits and Humans openly interacting again for the first time in centuries. And this honestly felt like some greatly due development for the brothers’ relationship since in the series it felt like they had grown apart without it ever being explicitly addressed in the text.

And while all this turf grabbing is happening, we also see a parallel drama being played out. And that would be the story of how Korra and Asami choose to come out to their friends, family, and even the world. As usual, Korra barrels in half cocked and not thinking of repercussions, figuring “damned if anyone judges me” whereas Asami is more thoughtful, planning, and reserved. She’s nervous about coming out to people, and she’s nervous about how boisterous Korra is being about it.

But they haven’t communicated this detachment between their processing of the situation yet. It’s fairly obvious that a portion of Turf Wars is going to come to a head with Asami and Korra having to address being respectful of each other’s needs to come out in their own ways first.

In any case, it was a real great start and had lots of little moments to help explain the world without acting as though the intended audience wouldn’t have some more than passing knowledge about what was coming up.

Art: One of the most widely praised and beloved aspects of The Legend of Korra from the very start had been the beauty of its animation, so much so that the same animation house got to move on to other passion projects like the current reboot of Voltron. And one of the things that makes the world of Avatar so unique is that aspect of Eastern philosophy combined with different disciplines which inspire the forms of bending in the series. And, as was pretty clearly seen before in the Avatar: The Last Airbender comics, that is not something that is easy to translate into a more still and less fluid medium like comics.

And that mostly goes the same here. There’s a distinct lack of bending compared to what you would see in an episode of the show, but at the same time that isn’t to say that there isn’t a lot more than I thought there was. It simply did not have that many creative takes on what to do with the bending. No splash shots into the next panels, no using the elements to transition. The sort of things you’d expect from a comic inspired by a show which was all about the uniqueness of bending.

Still, the comic did a fair job of keeping to the style of the series without the character art seeming stagnant and stationary which is usually a problem with cartoons that are adapted into comics. Hair in particular was treated with much more fluidity than I remember the show being able to give it. And the styles of the various nations and cultures were well designed while also fitting.

Everything was well compositioned and especially the events which took place within the Spirit World were beautifully colored, though that came at the seeming cost of a duller color pattern used in the “normal” world.

It’s a good start, and I’d argue it’s better than if it had tried to strictly stay to only the style of the series and not rely on the personal style of the artist.

Characters & Dialogue: Given that this is an ensemble story and there was a limited amount of time to dedicate to each of the characters, we did not get as much individual development for the wider cast. But Korra and Asami got relatively large roles and since they and their relationship seems to be the driving force of the narrative, it worked out well for this issue.

Korra was brash to a fault, but as always it is her conflict and emotions and her validity that moved the plot forward. For a character it is always important that her purpose and her growth be the defining force. And I think we definitely got that.

Asami on the other hand was the quieter personality, yes, but her hesitation and temperance also did a lot to build suspicion for future conflict in the relationship between her and Korra and also in just the world itself. Her perspective and her concerns are as real and as valid as Korra’s which means that our concerns for their coming out narrative are validated here, too.

The dialogue is a bit harder to pin here, as again there aren’t many characters with specific inflections that really pop out, so we’ll have to wait for more issues to get a larger grasp on how the dialogue changes between characters.

Marvel’s Silk (2015-2017) Vol. 3: The Clone Conspiracy Robbie Thompson, Irene Strychalski, Tana Ford, Ian Herring

I can’t believe I’m having to say goodbye to so many books this week. It’s like my personal Cancellation Day, and the only prize is disappointment that more series I enjoyed aren’t coming my way. I’m supremely sad to see Silk go, as Cindy Moon is a hugely inspirational and important character both for being an Asian-American superhero with her own book and for narratively dealing with anxiety in depression.

And it’s also extremely sad to see her go on what was mostly tie-ins to yet another endless Spider Event. I won’t be going into a full review for that reason, it just doesn’t seem fair to recap the end of the series knowing that a lot of the context for The Clone Conspiracy is not included in this book, nor should it really have been, but I do want to say to fellow Silk fans that there’s enough of Cindy and enough closure to her narrative that it will be worth your collection and time, but yeah there will be some lackluster stuff in the majority of the issues in this since it is a tie-in.

And I hate that, I hate how much endless tie-ins have felt like they’re killing books lately.

But Robbie Thompson was a fantastic, thoughtful, and well articulated writer throughout this series and for Silk before this series, really making her a real character where her initial introduction was... not that... ugh pheromones and gross twitter trolls. Anyway, Robbie Thompson truly made a character to love in Cindy Moon, and the two artists who contributed throughout the series -- Irene Strychalski and Tana Ford did amazing very stylized work and weren’t afraid to experiment with style and page correlation.

It was a great read and I’m going to miss it a whole lot.

DC’s Titans (2016-present) #14 Dan Abnett, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, Andrew Dalhouse

Hello, world, it’s me, the Titans fan who wished upon the monkey’s paw that her favorite heroes would be restored to their former glory and that their friendship would be allowed to flourish on the page once again. And in return I got Roy’s stupid hat.

But in truth, I’ve been fairly pleased with Titans since the very first issue in Rebirth and have felt taken aback by just how much the creative team seems to love the characters, their relationships, and their history. But now we’ve got to answer that ultimate question: a year later with those rosy tinted glasses still firmly on my face, am I starting to eep out of the honeymoon phase? Or it this book still living up to unrealistic expectations?

Story: We’re in the middle of the sleeper agent storyline and it’s probably more difficult to gage how good a story is doing by its middle than it is by its start, in all honesty. All the same, the distrust running through the Titans, the pain of conflict and second guessing each other’s friendships and so on. It’s not a bad way to flesh out the arc, and I wouldn’t say that like a lot of storylines’ mid-issues this one felt useless or flat.

There is a definite escalation throughout the issue of how the Titans are beginning to fold in on each other, how HIVE’s master plan to destroy them from the inside may be working before we ever get confirmation about a betrayer. And the testing of the relationships among the Titans in that delicate web they weave cause everyone to trip over each other once they’re really put to the test.

That being said, it’s still not hitting all those points perfectly. While you can see an organic build to the relationship of Lilith and Garth that’s been pretty fun and true to the characters so far, the love triangle between Wally, Donna, and Roy is something I’m pretty confident in saying no one wanted. I have seen no one say they wanted this. And weirdly it continues to put all the female characters in romantic relationships as the crux of their developments while we still have at least Dick and Gnarrk on the men’s side who don’t have to be motivated by this bull. The best part of the love triangle so far has been Donna throwing Roy and Wally both when she realizes what’s going on.

As for Dick being the sleeper agent well, I guess it’s one of those... shoulda seen it coming because of course we have Dick involved with another covert secret underground all powerful world corrupting group in another book. I don’t know why I was expecting different. But at least in the defense of Titans, it does feel like a good call back to the original New Teen Titans storyline with the cult of Brother Blood where similar happened and it was Dick again.

People just really like mindfucking with Dick, there’s not really much else to say about it.

Art: Ever since Brett Booth first appeared on my radar I’ve been fairly critical of him as an artist. His style was never really my taste, but he’s proven again and again on Titans to really pull some variation in body types and physicality that I hadn’t seen on his previous works. I like that the guys all have different body types and that the girls’ costumes and personality are reflections of themselves.

That being said, we still have a problem of Sameface with the girls at the very least, where honestly some panels the only difference between Donna and Lilith is hair color. But the colors are vibrant and the panels are all full of details, no space wasted.

Which is both a compliment and a criticism since, to be frank, the absolute refusal to have any normal panels basically gives us the opposite of my criticism of Turf Wars which is that there seems to be no real complexity because of the constant unstable panel work.

This is the comic book equivalent of shooting every scene in a movie with dutch angles. There’s no dramatic or narrative reason to have these panels slanted and all over the place, but every panel will be that way. Even panels where we’re literally reading the characters talking about pizza.

It gives us no real change between action sequences and normal sequences so it’s just kind of boring in spite of the dynamic panels. Which I’m pretty sure is the opposite of what they wanted.

Characters & Dialogue: If it wasn’t clear in the story portion, I’m not a fan of how when it comes to individual character development, we have conveniently gotten all three of our female heroes into romantic subplots with at least one (now possibly two? if we’re hinting at Tula like I think we are) love triangles in the mix. It just feels like it’s 2017 and we should be beyond that sort of “what kind of subplot do we give the girls? love I guess”

That being said, it’s really been amazing to me, personally, to see just how good this comic continues to be at making these characters feel like the ones we knew and loved prior to the New52. Not exact, not perfect, but pretty close to the preferences for each of the characters as we can get with the current character histories being what they are. Like, personally, I’m much more enthusiastic about Dick and Wally in this book than I am about them in Nightwing and The Flash because it just feels like them, Wally’s current romantic entanglements aside.

Still, it’s a fun book and for what it lacks with some characterization quirks it always tends to make up for later in the story so for the current storyline I’m willing to wait a touch longer.

IDW’s Transformers: Till All Are One (2016-2017) #12 Mairghread Scott, Sara Pitre-Durocher, Joana Lafuente

Wow. Another one of my favorite ongoings is ending today and I’m starting to worry it’s me. I hope I’m not actually the kiss of death to these comics because, full stop, Windblade and Till All Are One have been some of the most enjoyable comics I’ve read in the last several years and there’s probably no comic getting canceled this year that makes me sadder than this one.

So, how does Till All Are One leave us?

Story: Mairghread Scott has absolutely blown me away over the last year with her comics and just her obvious, obvious love and understanding of the expansive Transformers universe. Her world building has spanned over several series now and her character work has truly been put to task by having to stand up against fan favorite TF writers like John Barber and James Roberts. And I think nothing has proved her talents more than Till All Are One, where all that build up and all that character work is allowed to at long las come to fruition.

This conclusion could have been use to tease us with the ideas and storylines that Scott obviously had planned (and if people are curious I really encourage you to look up the storylines she had planned and posted to her tumblr), but Scott instead made this a solid ending and a celebration of the comic she was allowed to make. And much like Gotham Academy, she did so by bringing it back home to the characters which have driven the series the most: Windblade and Starscream.

The tumultuous relationship between the two same yet so very different jets has been something that I’ve adored watching play out. Their distrust of each other, their manipulations, their political games, and ultimately their teamwork for the greater good. It’s been fascinating and also has put me on the edge of my seat.

There is nothing more uncharacteristic, nothing more selfless than what Starscream did by putting his own life at risk in order to save Windblade, and the fact that Windblade at last got the confirmation she’s desired about Starscream’s true self feels like a great resolution to all the buildup over the years. This is a very triumphant ending, to the point that 80s Business Woman style Windblade ended by strutting out the door.

I sincerely hope we are going to be blessed with more of Scott’s signature Transformers writing in the IDW’verse and I desperately hope that this is not the end of Windblade who has quickly risen as one of my favorite Transformers.

Art: The majority of the artists on the Transformers titles for IDW are honestly so good and so amazing that I barely know what even to say about the art. The art standard for bringing these robotic transforming cars with heart is so high that it leaves one baffled when it comes to what’s left to say about them, any of them. And even with that standard, Sara Pitre-Durocher manages to amaze me.

Of the Transformers artists I would say her style serves to be the most sleak and the most expressive. Theres not necessarily any time where you think of the Transformers as being “soft” or “pliable” -- they’re still metal and wires with all the complexity therein -- but there’s a believability to the phrase “living metal” that doesn’t always come across in some other artist’s work where the bulk and construction of the Transformers seems more prominent than their expressionism and agility.

The fact that this book gets to at least end with having had consistently amazing art throughout is a highlight and why I think it’s going to be one of the titles returned to the most fondly of the IDW’verse.

Characters & Dialogue: Starscream’s duplicity is his most iconic character trait, of course, and I’ll be the first to say I’m sort of worn out with classic villains being “reexamined” and given redemptions and whatnot these days, but I love how malicious and cruel Starscream has remained in this series while simultaneously showing us and himself through Windblade and Till All Are One the kind of character he could aspire to be (hello Armada allusions) and therefore making it more frustrating and even tragic when he boldly makes the decision to be the opposite of his own potential.

Windblade on the other hand has grown as a character since we first met her. Her naivety and pure intentions have been warped and she now understands how to play the game of politics, but also what it costs -- her honesty, her friends, her belief system. And she was willing to sacrifice herself despite learning all of that -- she was willing to put herself in mortal danger knowing that it wasn’t a perfect, harmonious society she was doing it for but a deeply flawed one. And the fact that she ultimately survived and is now capable of moving forward for herself with the new ambition of being open and speaking for herself more than being a figuehead or politician feels like an arc that was built up to through all this time and yet at the same time was something surprising and unexpected.

Other characters didn’t really play much of a significant role in this ending, which puts it like a lot of the other story bookends this week where a large cast doesn’t really get to close out with homage to the majority of those characters. But this felt more solid, at least to me, because of the wisdom Scott had in using the last several issues to bring the focus in particular to Starscream’s POV and then building up to Windblade’s. It feels like what loose ends for other characters are left are left in ways that are going to be easily picked up by another book or by another creative team entirely rather than everything simply being cut off.

Just an awesome book and I’m so sorry to see it come to an end.

It’s another difficult pick of the week but for me, I absolutely have to give this one to Transformers: Till All Are One. It’s one of my favorite series in a long time and it ended on a resolution that made me honestly puff up with pride for the main characters. It’s a comic which embraces history of its franchise while growing it, a comic that embraces questions of politics, identity, gender, sexuality, and more. It’s been a beautiful ride and I wish the best to the entire creative team.

But I thought all the comics were great this week and highly recommend you check them out! Of course I’d love to hear back from you -- agree with me? Disagree? Think I missed any comics I should’ve picked up? I’d love to hear from you.

Before you go, however, I need to share that I am in a bit of a financial crunch for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which being the medical bills I’m paying for my dog, Eve, who experienced a catastrophic dog fight and underwent surgery just yesterday actually.

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.

RenaRoo Patreon

RenaRoo PayPal

#Wednesday Spoilers #Rena Roundups #SPOILERS #The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars #Titans (2016 )#Gotham Academy: Second Semester (2016 2017)#Detective Comics (2016 )#Transformers: Till All Are One (2016 2017)#All New Wolverine (2015 )#Immortal Iron Fists (2017)#Silk (2016 2017)

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renaroo · 7 years ago

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Wednesday Roundup 11.7.2017

It’s DC week, fellow comic fans! and believe it or not, it was not planned. These things just… happen about once a month. It’s always a surprise to me, too, it’s weird.

Now there’s a lot of good comics out today but I do want to just take the time here to thank DC for memorializing two men I feel never got enough credit from the company for their vast contributions toward DC and its properties, those being the 100th birthday of Jack Kirby, and the passing of Adam West. I wish that more had been done during their lives to credit them the way they deserved rather than for DC to have spent the better part of the past forty years trying desperately to undermine those contributions, but it feels good knowing that the current atmosphere at the company is one of more gratefulness toward these men and what they meant for DC. And seeing the tributes toward them in all of my issues this week made me pretty emotional. I hope more and more exposure to these men’s legacies helps more fans look them up and expose themselves to how great their work was.

That all out of the way, let’s just get right into the comics this week.

DC’s Detective Comics, DC’s Gotham Academy: Second Semester, DC’s Superwoman, DC’s Titans, DC’s Wonder Woman

DC’s Detective Comics (2016-present) #960 James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson

I have to take a star from this comic’s official score because it had an opportunity of Cass without ever delivering on the Cass, and as we all know from this blog that is considered an inconceivable sin.

One of the reasons I’ve always been attracted to comics as a medium is because part of the fun of them is that you have this weird almost constant shift back and forth from what one creator considers canon to what another doesn’t, so I can say sentences like “I appreciate that this issue retconned back in the retcon that Bruce and Zatanna had a long history growing up together in the retcon that was brought about by the non-continuity animated series that was inspired by a writer’s love for their relationship back in the Bronze Age comics.”

And if you’re in the Know you understand that this is actually something that makes total sense. And if you don’t... hell, I have no idea. It’s been so long since I was ever a layperson in comic book terms that I can’t even accurately tell you whether or not Zatanna is a character known by non-comic fans or not.

In any case I appreciate this issue a lot as a Zatanna fan because I’ve felt like, since the 2011 reboot and Zee’s reintroduction through Justice League Dark (which I was pretty famously not a fan of) there’s been a weird need to have Bruce and Zatanna more separate from each other and make Zee in particular younger and more... I don’t know. It’s been a weird couple of years for Zatanna fans, honestly.

I loved Kate and Luke throughout this comic, they both had a great chemistry with each other and I appreciate that we’re getting more different combinations of various members of the Belfry to sort of flesh out character and, more importantly, provide insight to how they work as a team from multiple angles.

Just wish they’d give me more of Cass from this angle since the Belfry was originally designed to train younger members and she’s the only youth left c’mon.

Jean Paul’s stuff... I’ll have to wait for the story to wrap up fully because I have conflicted Catholic feelings and usually, for me, it’s just better to let that play out as it may.

DC’s Gotham Academy: Second Semester (2016-2017) #11 Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan, Karl Kerschl, Adam Archer, Sandra Hope, MASSYK

The relationship between Maps and Olive is truly the driving force of this series, so it is extremely fitting in a way that the driving force behind the plot to its ultimate story, and really its ultimate resolution, is challenging the foundations of that friendship to begin with.

Everything is coming together slowly but surely, and it’s interesting that Maps gets to live her dream -- to be Robin, a hero, and put on the mask -- but only really by confronting her own biases and misconceptions of her best friend and what mental illness really means for the situation they find themselves in.

I love that Maps is allowed to be flawed and figure this out on her own -- she’s only a child, after all, while the world around her and the voices of reason from all the other children and adults constantly reminds her and us that these are not okay prejudices to have, and that her only way to save everything she’s shown to love in Gotham Academy will rely on her learning that.

I remember two years ago when I was giving some pretty harsh criticisms of Batman and Robin Eternal and it’s pretty epically bad handling of disabilities and people were attempting to defend it with the idea that they were a bunch of teenagers being thoughtless, but issues like this -- really, series like this -- proves how these things should be done. It’s real to life without losing sight of the morally correct position.

I’m missing this series and the unique voice it provides to the DC Universe already.

DC’s Superwoman (2016-present) #12 K. Perkins, Stephen Segovia, Art Thibert, HI-FI

Remember how I used to be very very concerned about whether or not this comic was going to find its stride at the end of the day? Well, consider the concern taken care of because this issue absolutely helped me fee like Perkins knows exactly what Superwoman is doing and how to get us all there because this was tight, it was dramatic, and it was absolutely emotionally worthwhile the whole way through.

I love that the tension of this relationship and the tension of Lana never truly feeling as though she’s found her place even in a family she loves and respects as much as the Irons family comes through without necessitating that anyone is really the bad guy.

They are in a difficult situation involving loss, complicated dynamics, and just a general sense of losing touch with each other after the first arc really made them question how reliable each other’s abilities are. Especially Lana’s.

And I love that Nat can continue to be the good voice of reason and that the relationships between women overall are the most solid and most positive in the comic. Especially women in STEM positions.

I just loved this issue though I’m really hoping we get more Traci 13 sooner rather than later and that she and Nat’s relationship continues to bloom.

DC’s Titans (2016-present) #13 Dan Abnett, V. Ken Marion, Norm Rapmund, Andrew Dalhouse

While I wouldn’t exactly consider Abnett’s Titans a leading and daring change in the industry or anything, I’m kind of sad that we don’t see more of the Rebirth titles at DC attempting to do the very thing that has been so masterfully managed in the Titans comic. There’s this comfortable merger between what history of these characters and relationships we know and love from their extensive pasts with an honestly much needed upgrade and change up in the exact team components and their personal lives.

And yes I could totally do without stupid love triangles we’ve seen before on a team that’s had them for arguably far longer than can be excused, especially when it comes at the expense of either the very important plot of a black woman’s identity and growth or the interesting subplot being brought to the forefront of a traitor in the midst. But I feel, at least for this issue, that it’s not nearly as terrible as it could have been. Especially since most of the issue and its narration was handled through Wally’s perspective and he didn’t seem all that focused on his supposed romance with Donna.

I think it’s telling that in a few issues with far less focus, Lilith and Garth’s budding feelings for each other feels far more organic and interesting than what’s going on with the Obvious Breeding Pairs.

I also love how Dick is characterized in this series. It’s very much the Dick Grayson I remember and love and would like to see it in more current comics’ writing.

DC’s Wonder Woman (2016-present) #26 Shea Fontana, Mirka Andolfo, Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Anticipating this new run of Wonder Woman has had me both excited and utterly terrified all at once, but the thing that has concerned me the most is that we would be met with a run of Wonder Woman that would seemingly undo all the good will that was built up over the course of Greg Rucka’s amazing recent run. I was worried about the Amazons, I was worried about how Diana’s supporting cast would be adjusted, I was worried about her history, about her villains, about the freaking Bechdel Test of all things. I was just, like, a bottle full of worry until this issue came out.

And it came out and it… seems okay!

I know that doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement but please believe me when I assure you that it is. I mean, the amount of hugs that are in this comic alone are deserving of remark. And I love that we’re diving right into the political statements with opening a brand new run with the defiant and important image of Diana defending Muslim refugees in a Greek camp. Like oh my gosh this is exactly the kind of empowerment and political statements we need from a Wonder Woman in the world right now.

I love that we’re going to concentrate more on Diana’s occupation outside of being Wonder Woman, getting to meet more of the military group she works with and seeing her interact with Etta even more than she does with Steve. And having Steve saving refugees alongside Diana! Diana dealing with her past! Diana struggling to put into words the things she sees on a daily basis! This is all good, humanizing stuff. And while I’m not the biggest fan of the art style, it does a good job of keeping the characters true to form and I love that Diana is still tall and towering over everyone.

I’m optimistic about this run and am hooping for the best to follow.

So. There’s not really a clear victor here in my eyes this week. There’s just a lot of flavors of ice cream mixed together and I’m kinda overwhelmed because my go-to flavor to pick is chocolate and there’s not really a chocolate so it’s basically left to me tallying up nonsense points in my head arbitrarily and then playing a very festive game of eeny menny miny toe. but that didn’t seem scientific enough so I picked Superwoman. It felt like it moved the plot forward the most without being utterly weighed down by being either the new start of a storyline or the issue right before a big finale. It felt like a lot happened and yet it gave me a lot to look forward to. And also I think the art for it and Detective Comics were by far the most consistently good.

In any case that’s just my pick of the week and as you can probably tell I’m not entirely committed to the method by which I chose! So I’m curious to hear some other people’s opinions. Agree with me? Disagree? Think I should pick up something else this week that I missed? I’d love to hear from you.

Now, I’m going to take a moment to also ask something a little strange for those who maybe have been following me for a while. I’m a laboratory technician by day and a comic reviewer and aspiring writer/artist by night. And as a result, the pinch for creating content of any sort — but especially for these personal projects in regards to eventually building the time + materials for producing my own comic including being able to hire a line artist and colorist (who I already have in mind and a verbal agreement with), I will need additional funds to keep things up. I plan on keeping people tuned in as we build closer to more announcements, but I want to start the ball rolling now. So if you’re interested in my opinions on comics and would be interested in supporting what would come of me taking the opportunity to be behind the helm, please help me out by contributing to my Patreon! I’m still figuring out the kinks but I’m hoping that with some of your help I’ll be up and running sooner than expected!

Please become my patron on patreon for more alliterative begging like this!

#Rena Roundups #SPOILERS #Wednesday Spoilers #Detective Comics (2016 )#Gotham Academy: Second Semester #Superwoman (2016 )#Titans (2016 )#Wonder Woman (2016 )

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avengerofiron · 4 years ago

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a new kind of love || self para

Summary: Tony gives a very long winded, off the cuff speech from the back of a napkin at Danny and Colleen’s wedding. He holds back tears. He’s very proud of himself. Word Count: 1940 Characters Mentioned: Danny Rand @immortalweapon, Colleen Rand @colleenrand Trigger Warnings: mention of past addictions

When Danny asked Tony to be his best man, his first response was to ask if he was sure. Ward had been shooting him looks throughout the day, clearly warning him to play nice, and if someone wanted a civilised ceremony and party afterwards … Well, Tony wasn’t exactly famous for being civilised. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He was known for a good time, and that didn’t correlate to trusting someone to show up for suit fittings, to organise your bachelor party, to stand up at your wedding and give a speech about the love you and your new wife shared. It implied a certain level of trust that Tony didn’t truly think he deserved, but Danny had given it to him nonetheless.

It was just another testament to how good of a person Danny was, how little Tony deserved to have him in his life -- but if he was going to be in all the wedding photos, and if his voice was going to be broadcast as everyone laughed and clinked champagne glasses, then he was going to do something amazing. He was going to pull himself together, and he was going to swallow any kind of panic that rose in him at the concept of that four letter word, and most importantly, right before he stood up and cleared his throat, he was going to look across the crowd at her.

(Zatanna smiled, and he pulled at the knot of his tie, and he could breathe. He used to love public speaking, could pull it off even now with only a moment of preparation -- and today was happy. He was happier than he had been in months.)

“Okay, okay,” Tony said, tapping the side of his glass. The murmurs started to quiet, but not completely. “If you don’t all shut up in the next five seconds, I’m blasting the roof and paying for damages.”

SIlence, apart from a few hints of laughter. Tony let out a breath, moving to set his drink down, and then deciding to keep it in his hand while the other one took the microphone. (Less shifting involved, that way. Less sign of nerves, less chance that his hand would twitch when his voice catched, less opportunity for people to see him falter -- even if today, he had permission to. Even if today, he could.) “My speeches are usually varied and provocative,” he started off, “but the man of the hour asked me to stand by his side today, and he’s already shown he’s capable of good choices by choosing Colleen to spend the rest of his life with. Let’s show him he can make bad ones too, huh?” he asked, punctuated by a quick wiggle of his eyebrows in the direction of the crowd.

Laughter, again. Nerves bolstered, Tony set down the drink for only a moment, reaching into his back pocket to unfold a napkin and set it on the table in front of him. “Growing up, my dad made it a point to prepare me for a world that most kids could never even imagine,” Tony said. “For me, being a public face wasn’t just highly likely. It was a certainty. It meant that I needed to be prepared in any circumstance, and it meant I needed an image. My father never quite managed to hit casual in front of a crowd, so that’s what I aimed for. In a fit of teenage determination, fuelled by enough angst to power a continent, I decided I’d make up for where he failed.” He looked back up. “Speech writing is for presidents and pussies. All you need is a theme on a piece of paper, and you make up the rest as you go along. Themes and research -- those are enough to take you forward.”

He cleared his throat. “I only wrote two things on this napkin, four weeks ago: history, and love. Pretty broad topics to get into, and I know you’re all just dying to get in front of the band and start the embarrassing dad dances of wedding past, so I’ll keep it brief.” Tony waited a beat, then shrugged a shoulder. “Relatively brief. I’m a super genius, you should all feel honoured that I’m bestowing advice. I know Danny is.

“That’s where I wanted to start, actually. Because when I think about history, Danny Rand is a part of mine. Even when he was gone, he was in my head, asking questions, pulling me apart. He was a kid never afraid to say what he thought -- a kid that always looked up to me like something special, like I was worth fighting for. There’s no point pretending you don’t all know what I have been-” what he was, “-so I’ll just speak bluntly. I couldn’t get through the day without snorting something, or shooting up, or drinking so much I couldn’t remember what I said to those crowds until headlines popped up the next day, or I woke up in cuffs. Everyone who ever loved me had given up, but Danny?”

Tony turned to the side where Danny was sitting at the top table, reaching to squeeze his shoulder. “Danny didn’t care where I ended up on a Saturday night,” he said. “Danny didn’t care about my money, or my reputation, or what I needed to do to get through the day. He didn’t judge. And I thought for the longest time that was something specific to my cousin -- something that he had in spades and the rest of the world simply lacked. But then I met Colleen.

“Perfect matches are cliche -- and as far as I’m concerned, they don’t exist. That would imply that two people fit seamlessly together, that they don’t even have to try, and from what I’ve learned in the past fifty years … that doesn’t mean jack shit.”

More laughter, louder this time. “People who choose to work together, who promise to be there even when the going is tough for years at a time, those are the people I admire. Those are the couples I take inspiration from. And if I had to choose two people to look to, it would be Danny and Colleen. They don’t judge. They open up their home, their hearts, their lives to the less fortunate, every single day -- myself included. They provide warmth, and safety. Instead of using what they didn’t have as an excuse, they used it to give all of those things and more to people who asked for them, and those who don’t.

“Good people come rarely. They deserve to be respected and appreciated when they do. More than that, they deserve to be loved.”

And then came the hardest part. Tony looked back down at the napkin, allowing it to bolster him instead of the crowd listening attentively until his words sped up to a point where he could stand on his own once again. “Love has always been a difficult concept, for me,” he said. “The word was never particularly correlated with anything good. But I loved Danny, undoubtedly, from the day he was born -- and I know Danny loves Colleen. I know he has for a long time, know that he always will. But I wanted to unpack, for just a moment, what that means.

“I did a lot of reading, before I spoke today -- like I said, research -- and there were a lot of very long, corny speeches about love being quiet days on the beach, or someone bringing you back a milkshake from Burger King when you were sad. That’s part of it, I’m sure, but a thousand people have done that for me in my life and they’re not standing here today. The ones who stick around, the ones who truly show what love means … There’s something special in that, something intangible. Something unexplainable.

“But I’m a scientist, so I tried out a few hypotheses. The first -- love is a chemical reaction. You meet someone, and for whatever reason, the unique make-up of their cells, their thoughts, their reactions, their feelings, they combine with yours and create something cataclysmic, the Big Bang in reverse -- everything narrows down to that one person. But I look at Danny and Colleen, and that theory’s bullshit. Sure, they see each other. They look at each other, and they don’t look away. But they see the world, too. They see other people, they care for each and every person in that community centre. Their love for each other doesn’t make them blind -- it gives them perspective. It makes everything else, every other relationship, stronger because of it.

“So I refined the theory a little more, and I thought -- love isn’t a chemical reaction, so it must be a choice. If it cannot be defined by physical means, we have to go down the route of psychological. Not exactly my forte, granted, but I’m a quick study. And yes, like I said before, they choose to be with each other. They chose to be here today. Instead of looking at Danny and Colleen for this one, I looked at myself.”

Tony sucked in a breath, and looked back up at the crowd, at carefully attentive faces.

“There are people I would’ve chosen to be with forever,” he said, “and they told me they felt the same. I trusted them enough to believe it was the truth, and it may have been -- but choice isn’t enough, either. Not exclusively. Choice involves walking away, sometimes. Coming back … that has to be a force of nature. It has to be a red string of fate, pulling you back. So I came to my final, steel-clad conclusion: love must be magic.”

He set the drink down, finally feeling that familiarity that came when he was on stage long enough to remove himself from what he was saying and simply imagine what was going through the minds of the crowd, instead. Tony Stark had always sold things he believed in, but this was perhaps the closest to the chest: the thing that made the arc reactor speed up the most. He wouldn’t do it for anyone but them. (Well, maybe for one.)

“Love must be a combination of choice and fate. Love must be greater than what you put in, and what you get out must be cosmic. To risk the heartbreak and the devastation over and over again, to put your heart in someone’s hands and trust that they won’t crush it at a moment’s notice … it has to be the best damn drug out there.”

More laughter, and Tony squeezed Danny’s shoulder once more, reaching past him then to touch Colleen’s arm. “You two gave me faith that love, whatever the hell the word means, doesn’t have to end. You showed me that even if it does, the ride will be worth it. And if I had to think of someone I trusted with my cousin, the list is very short -- it’s just your name, Colleen, right at the top, highlighted and in bold.”

Tony held out his drink to the crowd. “To love,” he said, “and how it can rewrite history.”

The wedding guests held up their own drinks, echoing his sentiment. As everyone else took a drink, Tony was looking at his cousin.

“You guys did good,” he said to the couple. “Don’t get big heads about it.”

#self para #char: danny rand #char: colleen wing #(( gotta change colleen's tag now YES ))

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