#i need to read more comics and get into more superman things in general

[loverboybrightsideghost]

I have another Clark HC since I put my thoughts about Clark’s glasses in your notes (so glad to see someone with such good Superman opinions 🫡) - if you have Krypto in the story and maybe in Clark’s escape pod with him, he would have heard his parents say the word Krypton a lot, so even if he wasn’t old enough to talk he may have tried to repeat the sound. then when he landed on Earth he’s saying “krypto-krypton” and Ma and Pa name the dog that (if Krypto had a collar and dog tag, they can’t read it). Clark forgets about the word Krypton as he grows up, then he tears up when he sets up the Fortress of Solitude and realizes his dog is named after his home planet

awwwwww 🥺🥺🥺

[jesncin]

A Failure of Asian Lois Lane: Pt 2: My Adventures with Superman, an honest discussion

If I had to pinpoint the fundamental problem with My Adventures with Superman's depiction of Asian Lois Lane it's in their attempt to subvert the classic two person love triangle: Lois loves Superman but is indifferent to Clark Kent. In MAWS, Lois insta-crushes on Clark Kent and hates Superman. In the show's attempt to make sense of this dynamic, Lois' Asian identity becomes at odds with a story meant to touch on xenophobia and immigrant themes.

Let's have an honest discussion about a show that made fandom cheer as an Asian character removed the one thing that made her most visibly Asian.

Disclaimer: While I am of East Asian descent, I am not Korean. I'll be discussing general Asian diasporic experiences but the specifics of Korean culture are outside of my knowledge (as usual I can't and don't speak for every Asian person ever, I am 1 opinion). Secondly, I'll be pulling from my personal experiences every now and then particularly pertaining to being a butch Asian person watching this show. It'll be a mix of formal analysis and personal anecdotes. Thirdly, this isn't an exhaustive analysis of MAWS Lois' character. We'll be sticking to what I consider is relevant to themes of Asian identity and immigration. Lastly once more, I do not believe the MAWS crew had malicious intent in any (of what I consider) poor writing decisions. We're here to analyze and challenge these writing decisions.

Please read Pt 1 of Asian Lois analysis that covers the comics, as it provides the groundwork for the ideas expanded on in this essay.

We need to talk about Lois' design. In the follow up to MAWS' release, people have been speculating on Lois' ethnicity. CBR writes that the show has "some fans believing that she's at least part Asian" and other articles have the show crew confirm Lois Korean heritage via her hanbok outfit in episode 4. The existence of these articles, my own anecdotal experience of streaming MAWS with Asian friends, and comments I receive from people asserting Lois' Asian identity was never explored in the show ("you'd only know she was Asian if you searched up articles about it"), tells me we have a case of an ambiguously designed Asian woman. Tangentially many people had no idea Livewire, the white haired and blue eyed woman, was meant to be South Asian.

There's a lot to be said about art styles that don't properly stylize ethnic features, but for the purposes of our analysis that means the writing has to deliver the heavy lifting where the design fails. This is the opposite case of American Alien: a comic that relied on the art to portray Asian Lois.

Let's start at episode 3. In it, Lois finally manages to conduct a private interview with the elusive Superman. When she asks where Superman comes from, how his powers work, etc- Superman comes up empty. In this version, Superman can't talk to his Kryptonian father (Jor-El)'s hologram because of a language barrier, so he knows very little about his alien heritage. He leaves Lois, assuring her he's here to help the people of Metropolis. When Clark Kent congratulates her for interviewing Superman, Lois rebuffs him. "Oh, he's [Superman's] a liar." smirking as she says it. This is the start of the Lois Hates Superman For Being a Liar arc.

I'd like you to consider the optics of an Asian American woman interviewing an alien immigrant who honestly told her he doesn't know where he comes from and is still figuring out who he is, only for her to think he's lying. Because she didn't get the answers she wanted. I can't help but think about my own experiences, where I was asked "but where do you really come from?" or "okay but what's your real name?" I think of my Asian American peers who would honestly say they're from Texas or Atlanta and get a vindictive "you're lying" as a response. People want to hear you're from China. They want their biases confirmed. I think about how I honestly can't tell you where my elders hailed from, because of cultural genocide and language barriers. This scene makes me uncomfortable, but let's press on.

Episode 4 is where Lois is most visibly Korean. In this episode the trio of Lois, Clark, and Jimmy are tasked with interviewing rich techbro Prof. Ivo of Amazo tech at an investor event. It's a prom episode. Lois wears a "hanbok inspired gala outfit" designed by Dou Hong and Jane Bak in a deliberate move to showcase Lois' Korean heritage. Bak comments "I remember feeling strongly about wanting to inject some aspect of her Korean heritage without disrupting her characteristic as a spunky and resourceful intern/reporter." while the wording poorly implies that Korean heritage is at odds with Lois' spunky personality- I do want to challenge a couple of the decisions that went into this design.

I want to acknowledge as an Asian butch that there are many ways to sport traditional garments and it's okay to mix and match to figure out what reclaiming culture (and your comfort) mean to you. However we're talking about the opportunity to showcase culture in an episode of a fictional animated show. I also encourage cultural gender expression that thinks outside of western white people's idea of gender (in both fiction and real life).

Whenever artists try to do a non-conforming spin on a cultural outfit, I always have to ask: "what standard of masculinity are we basing this on?" It's clear that MAWS is pushing for a "tomboy" Lois, and this gala outfit is an extension of that. But what's the standards of masculinity in a Korean lens? Men wear hanbok too, so why can't Lois imitate how Korean men wear hanbok, by traditionally accompanying her look with baji (baggy and loose pants)? This design notably has tight pants that hug the form, instead. I know the hanbok look has been modernized in and out of Korea in many ways, but in a show where you have the opportunity to showcase cultural non-conformity, I feel more thought should be put into the outfit outside of a potentially western lens- or the idea that cultural heritage of any sort "disrupts" a character's personality.

Now that we've discussed the design of the outfit, let's look into the narrative role it plays in episode 4. While we can celebrate cultural representation in media, I consider it important to ask "what is this media's relationship with the cultures it represents?" and the answer for Lois' hanbok in this episode is: nothing! It's an aesthetic acknowledgement of culture. "Hanbok" or "Korea" are not terms explicitly mentioned in the show. When Prof Ivo offers beautiful women as compensation for Clark to keep quiet about his company's corruption, Ivo looks over to Lois- who spills food on her clothes, and remarks that she's unclassy. She's not judged for wearing othering cultural clothes- which would have tied nicely into Clark choosing to be silent on issues of Ivo displacing a neighborhood, making Clark realize his complacency actively hurts marginalized people. Despite wearing cultural outfits being a political statement in America, nobody reacts to it. It's clear what the actual goal of this scene is: Clark looks cool for defending his "tomboy" crush.

In a scene blatantly made for fanservice, Lois offers to sew up Clark's ripped tuxedo by undressing her hanbok so she can reach her little sewing kit. Lois never wears her hanbok again afterwards. This scene haunts me. It's a scene that tells you that fanservice is more important than cultural representation. It's a scene meant to set up that Clark gives his tuxedo to Lois later on for warmth. Lois removing her hanbok is meant for not one, but two fanservice scenes.

Lois talks to Clark at the stairwell. She opens up about her estranged relationship with her father, how her mom has passed away, and how she's been an intern at the Daily Planet for a year with no sign of being hired. This makes the narrative decision for Lois to lose her hanbok far more tragic. Lois being a diasporic child with so few familial ties to her culture would mean garments like her hanbok would hold a lot of sentimental value! It's hard enough finding a cultural outfit that fits with your butchess (many of my cultural outfits are hand made to fit my form and gender expression), and yet Lois unceremoniously loses her hanbok. You would think in Lois opening up about being distant from her parents that Clark would be able to culturally relate with the distance he has with his Kryptonian parents. But the narrative opportunity to link their immigrant experiences is not taken, because the show simply doesn't recognize the parallel between the two.

Instead MAWS pushes for the Lois Thinks Superman is A Liar thing again. A far less narratively substantial and fundamentally flawed arc. This episode starts with Lois calling Superman a liar and has Lois ranting about him "dodging her questions" (remember, he was honest with her about not knowing his heritage) thereby rendering her interview unpublishable. She resorts to conspiracy tabloids giddily provided by Jimmy for information. She rather cruelly says "nobody normal believes in aliens". We are uncomfortably seeing the build up of Lois being allegorically xenophobic towards alien immigrants- a Lois on a quest to out an alien before he's ready. This is their justification for flipping the love triangle. Lois loves cuteboy Clark from work, and hates Superman for not confirming her biases that would help her publish an interview that would promote her at work. What a love story.

To wrap this episode up: Prof Ivo ends up challenging Superman to a fight so he can flex his Parasite suit to investors, only for it to backfire, destroy his reputation, and greatly damage the Amazo building (remember this it'll come back later). The episode ends with Lois discovering Superman is Clark Kent. Anecdotally, I was so frustrated with the treatment of Lois' hanbok in this episode, that I went online to search if anyone else felt similarly. All I was met with was fandom thirsting over the stairwell scene where Clark and Lois were undressing. Consider the optics of an Asian character who removed the most visible signifier of her heritage (the outfit far more culturally specific where her character design was racially ambiguous) and how people cheered because that meant they could see her in her undergarments. They can happily thirst over the body they desired now that the othering cultural garment was out of the way. It's just clothes after all. Diversity clothes. This show continues to be very uncomfortable, and a little too real.

In episode 5 Lois is passive aggressive to Clark and Superman, trying to get Clark to admit he's Superman and vice versa. She eventually confronts Clark by jumping off the roof of the Daily Planet, causing Clark to fly down and save her. She proclaims she doesn't want to be friends with him anymore for "lying" to her. This episode caused a huge ruckus online as people were divisive over Lois' actions. Some defended Lois, saying that "women should be messy" and "it's not Lois Lane if she doesn't do something crazy for journalism!". Ignoring that opinion's very flandarized view of Lois' character for a second, let's thoroughly discuss how this relates to themes of immigration and Asian identity.

By this episode, Lois had known Clark for 5 days. In that time she's entitled and angry to the point of friend-breaking-up with him because he wouldn't disclose his marginalized identity to her within less than a week. "A secret is another type of lie!" Lois says, regardless of her lying on sight to both Jimmy and Clark upon meeting them at work, and continued to lie in episode 3 (after promising not to in ep 1) about her intentions to interview Superman. Only Lois gets to lie in this relationship. The hypocrisy of her character is never recognized. Clark calls out Lois for having previously admitted to him that she wanted to dox Superman and "publish all his secrets. MY secrets!". Keep in mind that when Clark brings up Superman feeling uncomfortable about his secrets being published by Lois in episode 3, Lois' response was "yeah, but HE doesn't know that's my plan!". She explicitly admits that she would publish private information about Superman without his permission. But when she's confronted by Clark in episode 5 about that, her response is "I would never do that to you, I didn't know it was you until after the gala. How could you think that?" It's only through conflict of interest that Lois spares Superman of being doxed. He's supposed to magically know this. Extremely cool of Asian American Lois to be entitled to an alien immigrant's identity within four business days.

Episode 6 wraps up the Lois Hates Superman For Being A Liar arc, so let's quickly summarize what happens. Lois and Clark set aside their fight to find Jimmy in an abandoned scientific facility (he's being cared for by Mallah and the Brain). Jimmy admits (very smugly) to having known Clark was Superman all along because he kept breaking stuff. As the trio are chased by killer robots, they emotionally confront Clark for not trusting them with his alien secret- despite neither Lois or Jimmy creating a safe environment for Clark to come out to either of them (Jimmy outed Superman as an alien on his video channel). The moral of the story is Clark should have trusted his friends anyway, because lying is bad. Not once does the narrative hold Jimmy or Lois accountable.

We have Black Jimmy Olsen and Asian American Lois Lane being entitled to their white passing friend Clark Kent's marginalized alien identity. A joke is made at Jimmy's expense that he doesn't understand bigotry, and Lois clearly doesn't understand why an immigrant wouldn't be forthcoming about his identity to his hostile friends at work. This is how that arc ends.

I'd like to quickly compare this Lois Hates Superman For Being A Liar arc to my favorite scene in Superman Smashes the Klan. In this story, Superman debuts as a strongman superhero instead of an alien, suppressing his more othering powers to pass as human. He jumps instead of flying. Roberta, the Chinese American girl targeted by the Klan, calls Superman out for not using his full abilities to save people who could've gotten hurt. Yet, as she's calling him out, Roberta understands Superman's fear of not wanting to be othered. She sees the way her father dresses up to pass as an accomplished scientist, how he tells her mom to speak in English, how her brother makes racist jokes at their family's expense to fit in. She's not mad at Superman, she's mad at the world that would be scared of Superman if he flew.

"I wish it were okay for you to fly!" Roberta yells. This is a beautifully empathetic scene that shows a marginalized person frustrated at a systemic problem, instead of blaming the marginalized for being marginalized. It's the empathy and perspective we're missing from MAWS.

Episode 7 is a metatextual episode where MAWS addresses how their Lois isn't like the other Loises you've seen before. Lois and Jimmy are brought on to a team of alternate dimension Loises to find interdimensional troublemaker Mxy. In seeing the other more accomplished Loises in the multiverses, Lois ends up feeling inadequate about her self worth...in connection to being Superman's girlfriend, of course. Because Superman only loves Lois Lane after she wins a couple of Pulitzers, right?

I'm open to a version of Lois Lane that isn't as accomplished as she's historically known to be. I can like a Lois that's young and idealistic, like in Girl Taking Over. It's hard not to compare this episode to 2022's Everything Everywhere All At Once, another multiverse story about an Asian American woman who is the "greatest failure" version of all the parallel iterations of herself. But while that movie talks in depth about themes of generational trauma, expectations, and self potential within Asian immigrant families, MAWS uses the multiverse to say that while their Lois is less accomplished, she's still a good girlfriend to Superman! Why should I bother giving grace to a different take on Lois only to get such a superficial story out of it. This is metatextual-ly frustrating.

Why is it, the minute we get an adaptation of an Asian Lois in something as prominent as an animated show, we get "the worst Lois in the multiverse"? Lois is historically depicted as excelling in her field. She's an award winning journalist, jaded and mean from having to work her way to the top. She owns her sexuality, she's the experienced city girl. Instead of taking the opportunity to inform Lois' jadedness and excellence with her Asian American identity like in Girl Taking Over, instead we have an Asian Lois that's simply incompetent at her job. Why are we now adapting historically accomplished women into adorkable quirky screw ups? She went from being sexually confident to being insecure over sending a text to Clark. Is it more relateable to see an Asian woman that way? Is it too intimidating to see a butch Asian woman who excels at her job? Who's romantically confident? This is what MAWS would rather do than humanize her excellence or her failures.

Are you tired of an ambiguously designed Asian American woman reporter being xenophobic to Superman in MAWS? Well too bad because episode 8 introduces us to Vicki Vale, voiced by Andromeda Dunker (an Asian actress), with explicit notes in leaked concept art to design this character as "Indian American or Asian American" (as if those are mutually exclusive...) inspired off of real Asian reporter Connie Chung. Vicki wants to write a hit piece on Superman and interviews Prof Ivo's assistant, Alex, for a negative biased opinion on Superman (to Lois and Jimmy's dismay).

This episode is where it's abundantly clear the writers don't know how to talk about xenophobia. They'll make nods to xenophobic rhetoric, but they don't know what the rhetoric means. In response to Alex's derisive opinion on Superman destroying Amazo tower thereby bankrupting the company and putting "thousands out of work", Vicki responds "Superman wiped out good American jobs". This is a misplaced nod to Replacement Theory: the fear white people have over people of color, but particularly immigrants, coming to "their" country to "steal" jobs they're entitled to, ultimately becoming demographically replaced by non-white cultures and people. This rhetoric is also commonly applied to Jewish people.

The problem is, that's not what Superman did in the show. Amazo tech was going to go bankrupt because of Prof Ivo's poor business decisions. Prof Ivo made the mistake of antagonizing Superman and ruining his own image. Superman damaging the building came from his fight with Prof Ivo, not a deliberate attempt to get hired (if anything don't the building repair people have new jobs now?). No one's job is tangibly being taken by Superman. None of this is called out by Lois or Jimmy, who know the full story and were even the ones to attack Alex for helping Prof Ivo (let's be real the writers forgot this happened). In fact, Lois and Jimmy don't react to Vicki's Replacement Theory remark at all! It's like they don't even recognize she said something with racist implications!

Jimmy and Lois meet up with Superman who learns the people of Metropolis are becoming scared of him (from causing some recent property damage in an attempt to hunt a criminal down) and writing mean comments on social media. A user writes "he should go back to where he came from." This is a transparently xenophobic comment. It doesn't work in the context of the show because of a huge plot hole: Superman never publicly came out as an alien to Metropolis. No verified newspaper has explicitly made this fact known. The only source that mentions this is Jimmy's conspiracy channel, which the citizens of Metropolis are apparently treating as fact- therefore (if we're to believe this is how people knew) this means Jimmy absolutely outed Superman as an alien without Clark's consent.

So how does Asian American Lois respond to seeing her alien boyfriend go through xenophobia? She says "Take a break from being Superman and just try being normal." To be fair, the narrative does portray Lois saying the word "normal" as charged (only here at least, not in episode 4), and when she tells Superman to "take a break" it's because he had been overworking himself after suddenly unlocking the ability to hear when someone's in trouble. But was this really the response Asian American Lois thought to say? To her boyfriend going through such explicit xenophobia? At this point it's abundantly clear that racism doesn't exist in the world of MAWS. Being "normal" is to be human. And to be marginalized- or as the show likes to call it "different" is only reserved for white passing alien man Clark (along with gorilla and robot that was once a white man). Any hope of an immigrant parallel between Asian American Lois and Superman should be fully discarded at this point.

After the events of the previous episode where Superman is kidnapped by Task Force X, in episode 9 Lois regrets being allegorically xenophobic to Clark. At least I think that's what's happening. I often describe MAWS as a show that's extremely squeamish with getting political- and I believe the vagueness of Lois' Dark Night of the Soul moment reflects that. "I said awful things to Clark. I doubted him when he needed us most. I was wrong and now he's gone..." Lois says as she cries to Jimmy. Is this dialogue implying she shouldn't have told a sleep deprived Superman to take a break? What did she doubt about him? This dialogue is purposefully vague about Lois being xenophobic. They've universalized Clark's immigrant identity to such a point that they can't keep their argument consistent. Was Lois in the wrong for telling her overworked superhero boyfriend to take a break? Or was she being xenophobic for telling him to lay low for a while? Or is she regretful for hating Superman for Being A Liar? How is that possible when the narrative sided with her and Jimmy in episode 6? It's woefully non-committal. Regardless, the intent of this scene is to pay off in the climax of the episode.

In the end Superman has a showdown with Prof Ivo Parasite, who has grown into a large godzilla-esque kaiju creature. In typical MAWS fashion, the show is more interested in a surface level nod to Asian media instead of engaging with the specific themes of nature and post-war trauma kaijus and godzilla serve in Japanese culture. I digress. Using Jimmy's massive social media platform, Lois delivers a hope speech that instantly heals Metropolis of its xenophobia towards Superman.

Lois says to the people of Metropolis.: "People have told you to fear Superman because he's different from us. But we humans are capable of causing hurt and pain too. [...] Because we want to punish those who don't look or act like us." I mean this in the most polite way possible, but who on Earth thought this line was a good idea for Asian American Lois Lane to deliver when talking about white passing man Superman?? Why did the writers feel the need to specify Superman not looking like us. I simply don't understand how nobody considered the terrible optics of this.

After Superman defeats Parasite, episode 10 is about Clark, Lois, and Jimmy celebrating Thanksgiving at the Kents' house. At the Daily Planet, the trio of interns are promoted to finally being reporters. It only took Clark and Jimmy a few weeks while it took Lois a whole year! Now feels like a good time to remind you that Lois as a character was historically frustrated at sexism in the industry and despised how men were treated better than her (including Clark Kent). Well in MAWS episode 4, Lois has no idea why she isn't getting picked up to be a reporter. According to the narrative, and Perry White's dialogue ("you're terrible interns, so the only thing to do was to make you reporters")- she simply didn't break enough rules yet! Thank goodness she had the help of two men to show her how it's done! This is a pretty clear case of character regression. Keep in mind that in American Alien, at the very least that Asian Lois still underwent sexism, and I gave it the grace that the story could eventually expand to talking about both sexism and racism if it were to continue. But in MAWS? I don't think even sexism exists, let alone racism. Somehow Thanksgiving does, though.

Half the final episode is spent on Thanksgiving shenanigans where everyone's trying to be polite but they dislike Lois' stoic dad (Sam Lane)- who Clark recognizes as the Asian American xenophobic man who tortured him in Task Force X's government bunkers. A parallel is pulled between Sam and Jor-El, two fathers with different ideals when it comes to protecting their kids. There's a huge missed opportunity to have Lois and Sam speak in Korean with each other, to create a parallel in the language barrier between Clark and Jor-El. Maybe Lois isn't as fluent in Korean as Sam is depending on how culturally connected she is. Oh, but the existence of non-English human languages would imply some sort of minority, who would be marginalized, and we can't have anyone outside of aliens and a gorilla be marginalized in MAWS. Non-English languages in America are political, after all. Oh, but they also got a Filipino actor to voice Sam. Generously Lois could be Filipino-Korean but if we're being truly honest it's clear the MAWS crew think Asians are interchangeable.

Let's talk about Sam. In terms of optics, it's already not great that the main villains who represent the face of America's secret government xenophobia are Amanda Waller and Sam Lane- a Black woman and an Asian man. What's doubly notable is that of the antagonistic villains, Sam and Vicki are the most xenophobic. When Sam tortures Superman, he shouts "When is the invasion? How many of your kind will come through this time?" without a hint of irony. Reminder that historically, Asian immigrants were (and still are) considered invaders in America. They are the perpetual foreigner. MAWS loves making nods to Superman being an immigrant allegory, and yet they can't fathom the human beings that allegory is inspired by.

It's not impossible to portray people of color or even Asian American characters specifically being xenophobic. In Superman Smashes the Klan, Dr. Lee is initially antagonistic towards Superman but we understand why. We see him trying desperately to assimilate into whiteness, to the point he rejects assistance from his Black neighbors who help put out a fire in their backyard (that the Klan started as a threat). We understand why he's a character who would turn on fellow people of color, or fellow immigrants, in order to fit in. For MAWS, if we had a flashback scene where Sam was serving in the military and fought against Asian soldiers, showcasing his loyalty to America over his own people- that would narratively explain why an Asian American character would be xenophobic. Writing bigotry from within marginalized communities requires specificity. Otherwise, you've just got a diverse villain. In the end, Lois defends her immigrant alien boyfriend from her xenophobic Asian American dad.

Whenever I bring up how MAWS fails its characters of color but especially Asian Lois, I'm met with people telling me that "hopefully they'll make Lois more Asian in S2" or "they'll just retcon the bad writing in S1" and I hope this thorough analysis on the treatment of Lois' Asian American identity can help enlighten why I personally think that's impossible. The entire concept is flawed from the very beginning. The story MAWS wants to tell is at odds with Lois' Asian identity. In trying to justify an Asian Lois that loves Clark but hates Superman, they never considered what it means to hate Superman. To hate the alien immigrant. The alien other. What it means for an Asian American character to do all that. MAWS is a show that wants to have its cake and eat it too, they want a diverse world without racism or sexism but still want to reap the clout of lightly portraying Superman as "different".

They'll make the most surface level nods to Lois' Korean heritage- but remove all of the cultural context from them. They can't be bothered to acknowledge the inherit political identity being a person of color means in America, they're too busy doing that with Clark. I'm told "MAWS didn't have the time to go over Lois' Asian identity, it's a 10-episode series that focuses on Clark's alienation", and to that I say the potential of an immigrant love story and time frame was there, they simply chose to go another direction.

When I bring up things like Superman Smashes the Klan, Girl Taking Over, and Everything Everywhere All At Once, it's not to say MAWS should have used those stories as reference when crafting their allegory. All of those specific media were released while MAWS was deep in production already. Girl Taking Over was released the same year MAWS premiered. What I am saying is that we, as the audience, should have higher standards. Because better media portraying Asian American characters already exist. Better media portraying Asian characters relating to Superman mythos already exists. What we're doing when we celebrate the breadcrumbs of representation that is MAWS, is allowing mediocrity to exist uncritically.

Shows like Wednesday are known in the discourse for their portrayal of Black characters as being functionally white, yet that kind of scrutiny doesn't seem known for MAWS. The diverse reimagining of Lois and Jimmy is so poorly handled in MAWS that it would honestly make more sense if Jimmy and Lois were white here. The joke made at Jimmy's expense that he doesn't understand bigotry would be actually funny if it was calling out his white privilege. If, for whatever reason, the writers are compelled to write a xenophobic Lois that unlearns her bigotry and falls for Superman, I'd rather she be white for that kind of story. I wouldn't personally root for that kind of couple, but at least it'd make sense. It's a common joke among DCAU fans of color that we like to headcanon Lex Luthor as Black, or Lois Lane and Terry Mcginnis as Asian. It's a cruel irony that the one time we finally have a canonized Asian Lois in an animated show, she honestly feels and acts whiter than actual white Lois ever was.

I mentioned in Pt 1 of my essay that Asian Lois and Superman has the potential to be a definitive love story. One that considers both their backgrounds as immigrants, othered in different ways by American society. The story of a jaded but accomplished Asian city girl who finds hope to be herself again in an alien immigrant superhero. One where she gets the courage to wear traditional clothes again, to practice languages she once suppressed. The story of Superman, an alien immigrant, finding hope in someone with a painfully similar experience.

As of writing, we have yet to see this dynamic in any canon DC media. A second season of MAWS will not give us that story.

[androxys]

Over on Reddit, I've been seeing an increasing number of posts along the general tune of "what background reading to I need in order to get to [story I actually want to read]?" Some answers are more generous than others, suggesting long runs that provide you with The Most Context Possible for whatever story the person is interested in. I'm just going to say, with genuinely as much kindness possible, just start wherever. Starting is the hard part, and the rest unfolds from there.

Feeling like you have to have read "enough" to be allowed to read a comic is a losing game because there are simply so many. In my opinion, the best way to get into reading comics is to start with collected trades, because they're specifically slices of a much longer canon that are able to stand on their own! From there, all the stories ask is for you to be able to nod along and allow the story to unfold before you. If it engages you and you really want to learn more about the character, great! Now you have a toehold and can start jumping into the larger run of comics, either by following along what comes next or by jumping back and catching up on what happened before.

Because another secret is, even if you did your best effort to try to prepare well for the thing you want to read, that still doesn't completely prevent the writer from throwing in a completely different character or group into the mix. For example, let's say you wanted to read the Death of Superman story. You did a deep dive on Superman stories to prepare. You feel ready for this! ...And then there's a whole issue of Justice League America with characters you've never encountered before. But that's okay! I promise it's okay. You don't need to know Bloodwynd's character history to understand what the Justice League is doing in this story. You just have to nod along and let the story run its course. Trust the storyteller.

If you're worried that you're going to pick the "wrong" starting place, and that you're going to read bad writing or poor characterization or some AU that hasn't been relevant in 30 years... it's still okay. I promise. If you find that you're not enjoying the comic you're reading, put it down and find a different one. The thing about comics as a medium is that there are as many genres and writers and artists and styles as you could possibly want. Reading a bad comic does not permanently stain you, and in fact will make the next, better comic you read even sweeter.

And who knows? After you've started, and done more reading and know more context, you might return to that original story and now be able to read it and think about it in an entirely new light! And you wouldn't have been able to have the experience of recognizing your own growth if you had waited until you were "ready" before.

[pumpkinstrawbrew]

.batcrow feat. the owl.

or a situation, which is stuck somewhere between existential threat an’ scuffle between barn animals.

...

(it’s one of those underdeveloped, raw-ish concepts that i indulge in just for funzies. it all started very simply. i was thinking about what kind of person might make bruce jealous. the topic was kinda challenging, considering that bruce in the comics *at least in the ones, i read* or even btas is rarely express this emotion if at all. in fact, at one point, he literally said to the woman, who he supposedly was in love with, that she should stay with the other man, who also liked her, bc he needed her more *he got disfigured an' such* an’ she was like ‘wtf is wrong with you. to paw me to the other man like that’, clearly outraged. but bruce didn’t seem to fully grasp what her issue was lol.

still, what if he somehow got jealous of another man, when it comes to crane, anyways? and who that man could possibly be? my first thought was superman, bc bruce generally can be kinda petty, when it comes to him. but clark is such a puppy-like character. he wouldn’t have been mean about it, or even be someone who could potentially like jon in such a manner. at worst, bruce might have got annoyed at crane *not clark*, if he said smth about superman’s strong arms in front of him. some jealousy there, but not quite what i was looking for, when pondering on that set up.

an' then, i recalled the owlman! i only know the version of him from the cartoon, an’ honestly after seeing glimpses of what they do with him in comics, i’d say this is the only owlman for me. from the crisis on 2 earths ‘toon. gotta admire a character, who is SO nihilistic an’ SO sure in his own worldview, that he literally does nothing an’ dies, just bc it doesn’t matter to him. he even smiles a bit, if i remember correctly. kinda both chillin’ an’ sad. the owlman had an ego, but he also just kinda….wanted everything to die an’ that’s it. he is what might have happened, if bruce went full blown doctor strangelove, after his parents death. which is funny, bc owlman isn’t bruce wayne at all, but he is the one who ‘takes’ his place in his own universe. i don’t remember if it was ever revealed in the cartoon, who the owlman was or if they left it ambiguous. i'm pretty sure, that they made him bruce’s brother in the comics, specifically. but i might be wrong, bc there was a few owlman in batman's ran, i think...?

either way, this version here is devoid of backstory. the main thing for him is that there was never a bruce wayne in his universe, an’ coincidently enough, no jonathan crane, either. as result, owlman knows nothing about scarecrow. he had analogs of other batman’s rogue gallery, who were either heroes or anti-heroes, but he never had professor of fear of his own. an' that’s part of the reason why he gets slightly curious about him. at the begining, it's very casual on his part. i guess, he might have wondered why it's those two *jon an' bruce* specifically, who never existed in his reality. everybody else, clearly did. so he looks a bit closer into it, still mostly for the sport. only to find out about strange relationships that crane has with the bat.

the owlman is an isolated kind of character. he doesn’t care for his own teammates. nor he's able to reciprocate their affection. i mean, he didn’t really react to the villain version of wonder woman kissing him. he was surprised, sure, but not hurrying to return the gesture or even seemingly knowing what to do about this situation. which led me to believe, that at least in the frames of that toon’s worldbuilding, he had no alt alfred or robin or anyone, who he was close with. kinda an opposite of batman, who does to a degree surrenders himself with people, even if he keeps them at *emotional* distance, more often than not. but the point is, that bruce still wants a connections an’ not devoid of hope to see the things sorta/kinda working up. in comparison, owlman is as nihilistic as a person can get, so it makes zero sense for him to have close ties with anyone. or even see it smth that he needs. but i imagine that witnessing how batman acts with his enemies, jon esp, be a very confusing experience for him. like, why pity such a person? why even show some small signs of kinship with him? an' what’s so different about this one, if anything at all? 

so after some more pondering, he approaches crane just to see for himself, if he is worth all that effort *sympathy* or not. an’ hey, scarecrow is kinda fun. reactive an’ jerky, an’ surprisingly aggressive for such a coward. owlman's usual enemies are the good guys. they're heroic an' noble. but jonathan isn’t that. not even close. his worldview is bitter an' twisted. whatever wrongs were done to him, didn't mold him into a hero like with any other owlman's enemy. the scarecrow is a villain to the boot an' it's...new. his use of fear is interesting too. none of his enemies had this gimmick. this makes the owlman wanna play around with him for a bit longer. or owlman experience unknown emotions for the first time in years an’ kinda not fully certain what to do about it, other than indulge in it. his end goal still the same. it won’t change for/or bc of anything, but he can have a small distraction, before the curtains call. it's not everyday, when he can find a person, who is kinda interesting to him, even if bc of pure novelity that he can hang out with a man, who had never existed in his own timeline.

then, he learns about the scarecrow’s life. how it went downhill or rather, how it was sorta doomed from the start almost. an’ oh. here it is. that’s what batman feels too, isn't it? that silver of kinship. the owlman never had this before. an’ it’s not a bad feeling, either. he was never able to relate to the others. it’s like ‘everything sucks so much. everything just sucks forever’ an’ he has found someone who understands the meaning of this sentiment, an' not just being an emo about life. at least, the owl would assume that jon understand it in the exact same way he does *but jon doesn’t lol* 

meanwhile, bruce is concerned. owlman is a very bad, bad kind of man to have around crane for many different reasons. one of which is that it doesn't sound like a hard thing to convince someone like crane, that destroying everything is the only 'right' way to go about things. jonathan's life is generally was an' still is awful, so why not end it all, but with a huge, literal bang?

it’s like a nihilistic doom an’ gloomy buddy club. sounds hella corky, but in reality, it’s dark stuff, actually. jon be beyond depressed in this case. him getting all buddy-buddy with people, who are more unhinged an’ dangerous than him isn’t a new thing. but in this case, it’s like an extra salt on batman’s open wound. the bat himself states in comics at least twice, how crane is one of those villains, who don’t just stay the same, but who progressively gets more an’ more insane an’ deranged each time he breaks out of arkham. him hanging out with the person, whose worldview is basically ‘it would have been so much better, if we all were dead’ an' who literally an' genunily means this, isn’t smth that is good for jonathan's *already declined* mental health. esp if owlman is also rather problematic in other ways too. not to meantion, that him dragging crane along is also kinda personal. in this way, he might be showing bruce, that no matter how much he wants his rogues to change or how much good will he shows them, they're all just human, therefore they're all hopeless an' bad. bc all humas are bad in owlman's understanding. it's like 'aw, you want to believe that this one isn't a lost cause? what if i will make him help me to murder everybody? still think he worthy of your delusions?' owlman might have an end goal, but he's also arrogant an' petty too.

on main, i have two rough-ish concepts for their uhhh, trio shippy thing. in PG-ish version, it’s just that owlman influencing jon in an awful ways, an’ since he kinda/sorta resembles batman, crane subconsciously rely on him, bc he's somewhat familiar. besides, the owl hints that his own life was bad too, an’ it’s like finally someone gets on the same level of despair as crane does. an' also, maybe...this what could have been, if the bat was a villain too. they could have been on the same team. so in a way, it's kinda more of jonathan playing into this weird fantasy of himself an' bad batman, than him fully understanding the real level of 'oof' that owlman tries to acomplish with 'the plan'.

*funny enough tho, where it really counts, jon isn’t like owlman. he, for one isn’t someone who would just give up. after every fail an’ each kick an’ shove, he still gets up. the thing about jonathan is that he wouldn’t just lie down an’ die no matter how much pain an' humilation an' despair, he felt. an’ he also wouldn’t *in the end* commit to the idea of murdering countless people just bc his life sucked. even if, it doesn’t mean, that he won’t go through motions an’ nearly, truly consider going along with it. he isn’t alright in the head, an’ his negative emotions tend to get the best of him. still, i feel like most versions of jonathan would in the end, decide that no, it's not what he wants or ready to take responsibility for.*

it all would resolve in comic book fashion, where jon would help the bat in the end, an’ not that other man, who had his allure an’ had almost seduced crane into doing one last evil act any human being in existence could have ever done. still, there always be longing on scarecrow’s part for this odd, wrong ‘batman’, even if he sticks with his own, regardless. 

*an’ yeah, the bat is kinda jealous throughout all of this lol. the world can be hanging by a thread, but no one said, that he cannot be a tad possessive, while he’s saving it *an’ crane* too. owlman will have fun with this knowledge, while it will go completely over jonathan’s head. mister ‘i can pin-point everyone’s fear from one conversation’ would have a really hard time understanding that batman’s beef with the owl not strictly hero vs villain thing*

then, in more mature version, it's kinda the same-ish plot, but owlman prob would do way more messed up things, which might put crane into a position, where he’s afraid to not comply, but also not actually willing to do it. an’ naturally, there bruce won’t be jealous, more so angry. really struggling with idea, if he should let just this one man *or an owl, whichever rings more true* die. an’ then, if this is a reflection of him, what kind of person, he really is. so it’s more of moral dilemma an’ a character study of a nihilistic sociopath, who just might have wanted to have a lil chew-toy, as he prepares his biggest scheme.

anyways, it’s not like an otp3 or anything. i’m a very bond/pair oriented fella. so when i’m dabbing into 3 way dynamics, it usually has more situational/reactive undertones. but i won't deny, that it’s fun to think about 'what if' or even about some situation in the void, where the bat an’ the owl double teame the crow. which in any plot-included or a somewhat coherent narrative just wouldn’t have happened bc of how all 3 of them function / react to things. it just not in their character to do it this...randomly. but if i will ever make a superhero pwp ficlet collection, i might try to do smth with this idea.)

[kyliafanfiction]

Victoria Dallon and Righteousness: An Incomplete Deconstruction

From everything I've heard and read, there was a lot of negative response to Victoria Dallon being the main character of Ward, when that was revealed. Lots of people obviously wanted Taylor, but even more, Victoria as MC didn't really resonate with a lot of the people who loved Worm so much - very different sort of MC.

Now, obviously, I wasn't in the fandom when Ward came out, I was still just loosely aware Worm existed and that the MC was a villain protagonist named Taylor Hebert. I wasn't even aware Amy Dallon existed, let alone Victoria!

So I don't know how I would have felt about it, but I'm willing to bet I wouldn't have been a huge fan. One, because I probably would have wanted Amy as the MC, because I'm willing to bet Amy still would have been my blorbo (though I don't believe the term blorbo existed when Ward was started) even coming into Worm blind, by the time I was done.

But two, because... even though I like Victoria (a lot), and would presumably still like her in this hypothetical scenario, I don't like her as Main character material. Because at the end of the day, the sort of archetype she represents is not one that I tend to care for.

It is not breaking new ground to say that Victoria Dallon, Glory Girl, is, in large part, a deconstruction of the Flying Brick/Superman type character. Worm has several deconstructions of that type of character, and Vicky is one of them. Her invulnerability is an illusion, and indeed, her whole schtick is the illusion, the 'Aura' (heh) of perfection and untouchability.

But the thing is... I don't, as a general rule, actually like the superman-type characters, in fiction. Your Captain Americas, your Supermans, your CW Supergirls - they're not really my type of character. Not because of their strength or 'invulnerability' or whatever, but because of their sense of self-righteousness, their righteousness, and the way the narrative tends to support and build up that righteousness. Obviously the wide world of comics is full of exceptions, but in the comics-adapted media I've seen, the 'Superman Type' character still tends to get away with always being right, with their moral rectitude being unquestioned in the end, with them getting to be the 'moral heart'. Whenever their code clashes with someone else's, theirs always gets to be right.

Once in a while the narrative will let them be wrong, but even then it's usually brought back around to them being right.

And Victoria Dallon has that righteousness in spades, in Worm. Her first introduction, of course, immediately exposes that this is at least somewhat an illusion. Interlude 2 has her do a police brutality and nearly kill a guy. Sure it's a Nazi, but police brutality is bad even if it's done to 'acceptable targets'. That shouldn't be a controversial opinion. And then Amy is called in to help Victoria maintain that illusion by healing the guy and leaving it his word against Glory Girl's and Panacea's. Again, another case that her righteousness is, in the Wormverse, a bit of an illusion.

And then in Arc 3, she arguably threatens some pretty disproportionate retribution for bank robbery. Again, the illusion of righteousness. And her insistence 'New Wave Doesn't Have Secrets' when we know full well from Interlude 2 that she sure as shit does have secrets from (most of) the rest of New Wave.

But for a deconstruction of a self-righteous character to be complete, that sense of self-righteousness needs to get the character in trouble. And that doesn't really happen for Vicky in Worm.* And everything I know about Ward suggests that her sense of 'I know what's right, my moral code is the Correct™ one all the time, I'm the good guy and that makes what I believe correct ipso facto' doesn't really go away or get questioned or undermined.

But notice that asterisk? Because the thing is, in a way, in Worm, her sense of 'I know what's right, I'll do what I think is right damn anyone else's idea of it, I'm the hero, those who oppose me are the villains, the monsters, and it's cut and dry' does actually get her in trouble cause her major problems.

But it's hard to talk about, because it happens in Interlude 11h. And talking about it risks looking like you're victim-blaming Victoria.

Now, I shouldn't have to say this, but I'm pretty sure if I don't, there's going to be people believing I think otherwise, but Victoria 113% did not deserve to have her brain altered, or to have what happens to her when Amy wretches her.

(Whether you agree with Wildbow's dubious insistence that rape was the intended reading all along, or think that it was meant to just be nonconsensual body modification/etc as a metaphor for sexual assault or whatever else, what happens is a horrific violation of Victoria's bodily autonomy ontop of the previous violation of her mind. It was bad. Victoria is a victim and Amy her victimizer here)

But, Victoria's sense of her own righteousness does sort of lead to both.

In Interlude 11h, Amy makes it very clear she wants Victoria to stay away from her, to not touch her. Now, Amy doesn't communicate what's going to happen because it's not like she, before the critical moment, was actively planning it to happen, so despite what some people have said, it's not a case of 'Fuck Around, Find Out', and people who unironically say that definitely need to get smacked around the head with a metaphorical two-by-four a few times, because that's a fucked up POV.

But, Amy still laid a boundary very clearly. 'Don't Touch Me!'. Tumblr, correctly, is very much a fan of the notion that 'no' is a complete sentence, that people are absolutely allowed to refuse hugs, that that all is part of bodily autonomy. That 'don't touch me' is an acceptable boundary, even with close family members.

Vicky, without hesitation, violates that boundary. She decides that her belief that it's okay to hug Amy, because she loves her (as a sister), because they're family, because she knows better than Amy what's right for her (as the whole first half of the scene is her trying to convince Amy to do what she manifestly does not want to do) takes precedence over Amy's boundary. Over Amy's belief about what's best for her. Over Amy's own wants and wishes.

Now this is entirely understandable - she loves her sister, she's afraid for her, she wants her sister to come back home, her sister is being chased by fucking serial killers, it's entirely understandable she doesn't want Amy running around on her own. And if she'd just stuck to trying to convince Amy with words, then that wouldn't be an issue. And... her brain wouldn't have been changed. At least not then. Maybe Amy snaps more completely later and does something, but that's a pretty deep hypothetical.

Now again, Vicky does not deserve this. This is not 'earned'. This is not 'FAFO'. But her sense of self-righteousness does indeed get her into trouble here. The one (hugging Amy) is a necessary antecedent to the other (Amy changing her brain).

Until the critical moment it happened, Amy did not want to do this. Hence the 'don't touch me'. Whether it was an errant impulse, an intrusive thought or her shard deciding to act on it's own to push her towards doing it, it happens. Amy does a very bad thing, and she has to own that.

To Amy's (perhaps minimal) credit, she immediately is horrified by what she did, and tries to fix it. To undo it. Understandably, Vicky says no. Her sister just violated her on a fundamental level, and her entire view of her sister has just been destroyed, because she's also finding out that her sister has been in love with her this whole time, and that of course makes her question everything else she thought she knew.

So she doesn't trust Amy enough to give her the chance to fix it.

Now, I'd like to believe that under other circumstances, say Scion suddenly shows up and turns S9 into paste, aborting the entire arc or something, that Victoria, once she has a few days to reflect, will decide to trust her years of knowing Amy, of loving Amy (as a sister) and trust her sister enough to give her the chance to fix it. Probably with some backup (trust but verify and all that), but still. Maybe that's wishful thinking on my part, but either way, that opportunity doesn't happen.

And in 11h, there's another place where her self-righteousness, her 'I'm the hero, anyone who opposes me is pure evil' mentality also ends up contributing, in a small way, to something else bad happening to her.

In her entirely justifiable anger at Amy, she says that Amy never deserved any of the defense, the benefit of the doubt, etc that Vicky gave her, vis-a-vis her father. That she 'exceeded' him in awfulness. This is of course manifestly not true - Marquis may not have meddled with minds, but his plethora of murders is still much worse - but Victoria isn't exactly speaking from a place of rational analysis here. She's beyond angry, and wants to say a thing she knows will hurt Amy the most. And, given her mental state in that moment, she might even believe it. I certainly doubt she has a firm understanding of Marquis's criminal career.

But, understandable, justifiable or not, it is another blow to Amy's incredibly fragile psyche. Another piece of 'proof' to Amy that she really is the monster she always thought she was. And confirmation of that fear of hers, and her surrender to it, is critical to the wretchification and rape/sexual assault metaphor (see above).

In Interlude 11h, Amy was ready, willing and psychologically able to undo what she did to Victoria. By the time she has the opportunity, she is in a very different mental state, and isn't willing to. Isn't really able to. Amy, rightly, gets shit for this from fans and from characters in-universe, and it was wrong of her to not fix Vicky, let alone what she actually does to her. But there was a moment when she could have fixed Vicky, and in part, the reason it doesn't happen is directly linked to Victoria's sense of righteousness.

Now, a good character beat to have when a righteous/self-righteous character suffers or otherwise gets into trouble because of that aspect of their personality, is for them to reflect on their mistake, to realize what they did was wrong (or at least, the incorrect choice), and to resolve to not let themselves always be so sure that their sense of moral rectitude is always... well, correct in the future. Not to the extent that they just forget they were hurt or betrayed or whatever, but at least understanding it was wrong and they should do better in the future.

But that doesn't really happen. Not in Worm, because Vicky has no story arc after being wretched. Even her being fixed at the end is entirely bound up with it being a conclusion to Amy's story arc.

Now, that could have happened in Ward, but it is rather hard to do when you're insisting that rape happened. Because IRL, there's a lot of baggage around anything that even smacks or looks like you're victim-blaming someone who was raped. Even suggesting that people shouldn't walk alone in dangerous places at night, or don't accept drinks from people you don't trust, for instance, is often met with 'no, just teach people not to rape' from some quarters. (Which is true but... exceedingly unhelpful).

Anything that even kind of sounds like you're saying the victim 'deserved' it, or that they 'brought it on themselves' or whatever is 'rape culture', and to be fair, there is a fuck of a hell of a lot of that IRL. There's a lot of people who really would rather blame the victim, IRL. And even for fictional characters.

But saying that the victim did things they probably shouldn't have done, that they made mistakes, that certain choices of theirs led to what happened to them is not victim blaming. Not inherently. The ultimate choice to victimize is with the perpetrator. Whatever else, it's Amy's fault what happened to Vicky, not Victoria's.

And if it hadn't been full on actual rape, it might have been possible to actually see that deconstruction of Victoria's righteousness through to it's conclusion. But once you make it rape, and decide to make that a centerpiece of the character's narrative, it's rather hard to discuss how the character's own flaws and mistakes led to it, at least not without looking like you're doing a bit of victim blaming, doing rape culture apologia or the like.

And so, even in the most charitable reading of Wildbow (which I am at this point never inclined to give him as a first choice, personally, but), it's fair that he might not want to deal with that and just... drops that little notion that he built in 11h.

Of course, it's entirely plausible that my reading of 11h isn't even remotely what he intended because at this point I'm almost inclined to believe that anything good about Worm was an accident. This is of course, unfair, but Wildbow's own patterns of behavior make it hard to believe him about his authorial intent, anytime, ever.

Regardless, to bring it back to the start of the post - this reality, this incomplete (to me) deconstruction, this failure to properly explore the failings of Victoria's sense of righteousness and belief in her own moral rectitude is why, Victoria Dallon, as she exists, is not a character I can really like as a main POV character.

There's a reason why Captain America is the MCU character that annoys me the most. Why Supergirl, on the CW show of the same name, is my least favorite of the main cast, generally (I do like Kara Danvers, but still, least favorite). Characters who are possessed of their own sense of righteousness, and with him the core narrative tends to agree with, are always the sort of characters that are going to rub me the wrong way.

People who fervently, unquestioningly believe they are the hero of the story, the good guy in the narrative, without ever asking 'am I in the wrong here, not just a little, but completely', who don't have doubts not about specific moral choices, but their entire moral standing, don't tend to be very appealing to me.

There's a lot of problems I have with Ward, and that I would have had with Ward as it unfolded if I'd been reading it life (presumably), and in the interest of full honesty, the biggest is and would have always been the handling of Amy, above all else, but this lack of correction of Victoria's sense of her own righteousness and the fact that by all accounts the narrative tends to support and agree with this sense she has, would definitely have been and indeed is, another factor that means I'd probably have ended up one of those people saying "Victoria was a poor choice for the MC of the 'sequel' to Worm."

And again, I understand why, once rape is settled on and made 'clear', why it doesn't happen, why the examination, the 'I fucked up' moment doesn't happen, but... still. I can't help but think that, and all that could have flowed from it, really should have happened. That it would have been more interesting. And why, to my mind, even if to no one else's, the real promise, the best possibilities of Victoria's character, will always be incomplete. Why she's never going to be 'Main Character' material to me personally.

[generallemarc]

Just when I think I'm out, they pull me right back in

This shouldn't work. I'm too cynical, too over it. Seeing all these comparatively-lesser-known characters should make me start speculating about garbage-ass spinoff tv shows, not excite me. This shouldn't work. And yet...and yet @apintofguinness talked me into watching Guardians 3, a movie that actively went against Endgame by making the assumption that "hey, Gamorra's back" into a plot point that was the fault of the crew in general and Peter in particular for treating a separate version of her with massively different experiences(almost a different person entirely) as if she were "their Gamorra" simply because she had identical DNA. And I saw three things that I hadn't then, and still haven't(barring Deadpool & Wolverine) seen in any Marvel movie for well over half a decade: jokes that were actually funny, a story that was actually compelling, and most importantly of all, heart. Guardians 3 was made by people who cared about telling a good story and who cared about the characters they were telling it with.

So when I see Hawkgirl and Mr. Terrific, I don't see cynical attempts to set up spinoff shows, I see the creators drawing on less-prominent JLA members and, for the first time ever, the JSA, the Justice Society of America. Yeah, it's obviously not the original Mr. Terrific, but we're to the point where the original JSA members either need to all be dead or have a different backstory than "they were the WW2-era League", because even if Marvel hadn't laid claim to the easiest way to transplant a character from WW2 into the present it'd still be impossible to do that on all of 'em(I think I saw something about Jay Garrick having the Speed Force slow his aging, but " his powers conveniently stop aging!" won't work on anyone else except maybe Hourman, and after that you'd be unable to do it anymore without it being an obvious attempt to keep them going forever with that backstory). Also, I read some of the second-generation JSA comics, and Mr. Terrific was a damn cool hero, being the Society's tech guy in the same way Batman is for the League, but using and relying on his tech to a much greater extent, to the point where while he can absolutely still fight on his own, the shot we see here of him letting his tech do the fighting for him is usually how he prefers to operate. And that's great! That lets him be "the group's tech guy" in a way that provides all the plot-support of Batman's tech while not making him as a hero just some Batman derivative. Listen to me, I'm already going into mini-essays on this shit!

The only thing I can think of that's an issue is "Luthorcorp"-that's just dumb. It's called Lexcorp for a damn good reason, and that reason is because that name sounds both more intimidating and overall better, even if it does make less sense to name a company after your first name instead of your last name. But yeah, besides that I'm hyped as hell. One question though: who's the guy in the black suit? The one punching through the wall and tackling Superman into the stadium? For some reason my brain is saying it's Mr. Terrific, but that makes zero sense for any number of reasons(his tech doesn't let him fly or give him enhanced strength, he's too smart to misunderstand things in a Batman v Superman way and James Gunn is too smart to write that, and also we're clearly getting more villains than just Lex so this will be the one who matches Superman in raw power).

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Two Sides of the Coin (You Can't Have One Without the Other)

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ZBbqwgH by Nation_Ustria Nightwing has to bite back a laugh. “Gotham is a no-fly zone for more than just the JL, Supes. But, from what Blud knows, chances are that whatever you’ve heard is probably true.” Superman pales, which is anything but unexpected. Pretty much all of Gotham tends to be horrifying to Outsiders, as Nightwing is well aware. The question here is which rumors Superman decided were concerning enough to actually look into, the answer to which could be literally anything from the pollution levels to the regularity of the city-wide Fear Toxin gas attacks. Or something entirely outside of the usual spectrum of Things That Outsiders Need To Stop Freaking Out About, Nightwing discovers when Superman blurts, “But the Waynes aren’t actually possessed, right?” …Ah. Well, crap.   Or, in Gotham, it’s been common knowledge since the very beginning that the Waynes are playing host to the parasitic Bats, who protect Gotham and its people from threats both internal and external in turn. There’s nothing anyone can do about it now, even if they wanted to. (That’s... not actually what’s happening, but nobody needs to know that. The Batfam is too committed to the bit to pull out now.) Words: 2701, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Clark Kent, Jim Gordon, Other Character Tags to Be Added Relationships: Batfamily Members & Justice League, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Batfamily Members & Barbara Gordon, There are too many people to put everything, Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent & Cassie Sandsmark, Dick Grayson & Teen Titans, The Outlaws & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Clark Kent Additional Tags: Cryptid Batfamily (DCU), POV Outsider, Not entirely though, Isolated Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily Meets the Justice League (DCU), Meet the Batfamily (DCU), Batfamily Shenanigans (DCU), Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Alternative names for like half of everyone else, Good Sibling Dick Grayson, Good Sibling Jason Todd, Good Sibling Tim Drake, Good Sibling Stephanie Brown, Good Sibling Cassandra Cain, Good Sibling Damian Wayne, I might add Duke, we'll see, Good Parent Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd is a Batfamily Member, Stephanie Brown is a Batfamily Member, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Gothamites be Like That, Protective Bruce Wayne, #onlyingotham, Bruce "task failed successfully"s his secret ID, Everybody assumed he was possessed and he just went with it, Wingfic, Sort Of, the Robins get mechanical wings, Scary Batfamily (DCU), the Bats don't kill, but sometimes they do disappear people, Dick Jason and Tim all have outside superhero IDs, no one else does, The Waynes aren't actually magic, or are they, either way they're absolutely nuts, Secret Identity, Secret Identity Fail, Batfamily Fluff (DCU), depending on your definition of fluff, Crack Treated Seriously read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ZBbqwgH

[daresplaining]

An Interview with Christine Hanefalk

Christine Hanefalk created her blog, The Other Murdock Papers, in 2007 as a place to discuss and share her interest in Matt Murdock and his world. Over the years, she has become one of the most compelling and influential voices within the Daredevil fan community, even making a cameo appearance in the comic itself in Daredevil volume 3 #31. In 2022 she published Being Matt Murdock, a passion project centered around an area of particular fascination: Matt's legendary hypersenses. The book weaves real-world science into the vast Daredevil canon to explore the notion that Daredevil's powers, though superhuman, are not – and do not need to be – as divorced from reality as one might think.

Christine was kind enough to answer my questions about the book, and about her nearly twenty-year-long fascination with the Man Without Fear. Read the interview below...

Daresplaining: I know many people will be familiar with your blog and your longtime interest in Matt Murdock's sensory world, but could you say a little about how Being Matt Murdock first came about, and how you approached writing and researching it?

Christine Hanefalk: I started The Other Murdock Papers in late 2007 and gradually allowed myself to start writing more about the scientific and sensory aspects of Daredevil as time went on. I was really worried it might turn people off, but the opposite was true and people really seemed to dig my deep dives. And so as far back as around 2012 I decided that, one of these days, I was going to try to write a whole book on the subject. 

Despite the fact that it took me ten years to complete it, with most of the work being concentrated to the final 12-18 months before publication, I had actually done some writing early-on. I think I had about half of chapters one (on the literary history) and seven (on the sense of smell) written several years ago, along with various snippets and notes that I had filed away and was able to work into some of the other chapters. I had also consistently been keeping an eye out for anything new and interesting in the peer reviewed academic literature, and managed to amass – and read through – quite a collection of books on sensory neuroscience over the years.

When that “now or never” moment finally arrived, it lined up well with a period of time in my life where I was able to cut back on regular work and devote most of my time and energy to the book. I went over all of the stuff I’d already looked at before but with more focus, and got myself reacquainted with subjects I hadn’t really touched since college, such as thermodynamics. I also reread nearly all of the comics, taking very detailed notes on how and when Daredevil used his senses to get a better idea of the overall pattern. It’s not an understatement to say that I’ve spent upwards of 2,000 hours on this project over the years.

D: I understand that you were introduced to Daredevil through the 2003 movie. What drew you so strongly to Matt as a character? How much of a role has your fascination with his powers played in your continuing interest over the years?

CH: I grew up reading comics and enjoying sci-fi and superhero movies as a kid. I was born in 1977, so both the original Star Wars trilogy and the Superman franchise loomed large in my life when I got old enough to watch them. And while I eventually stopped reading superhero comics, I always had a special place in my heart for the genre and had a certain fascination with the general idea of superheroes. That eventually steered me in the direction of the Daredevil movie when it was released in video stores (I don’t think it even went up in theaters in my native Sweden). 

The specifics of Matt Murdock’s power set was definitely one thing that gave this character an unusual kind of appeal to me. I had always been interested in the science of the senses – and what happens when one is missing – and had even written a paper on sensory compensation for my neuroscience class while I was an exchange student at the University of Rochester around the turn of the millennium. 

There were additional things that made Daredevil interesting of course, such as his career as a lawyer, his overall personality, and the general mood of the world he inhabited, but the combination of his power set and my already having a soft spot for superheroes definitely piqued my interest right away. Within a few months of learning that Daredevil even existed, I had read pretty much everything he had ever appeared in.

D: Do you have a favorite sense, both in terms of your own research and as a Daredevil fan?

CH: I think I probably enjoyed researching hearing the most since there’s so much to cover. It’s also fascinating to me how hearing can be called on to perform spatial functions despite having this deceptively simple, linear, time-dependent form in terms of how it is received by the ear. The fact that it’s possible, even for quite ordinary humans, to sort of “see-hear” silent objects is fascinating to me.

However, if we look at Daredevil, I’d say that hearing has tended to be overused compared to both smell and touch. While hearing is often called on to perform near transcendental duties, smell tends to be forgotten by a lot of writers, probably in large part due to the fact that we humans seem to be less conscious of smells than we are of other sensory input. For the entire history of the comic, Daredevil has often gone several issues without any reference to smell, and the things he’s been smelling have often tended to not be very interesting. It’s always a treat to see smell being used in creative ways.

Still, the sense I would be even more interested in seeing more of in Daredevil is probably touch, which I also think is used less than it could be. Sure, there’s plenty of reading by touch (print or braille), but I still think we might be underestimating the importance of touch in Matt’s life, due in part to the high expectations of the radar sense (whatever we make of it). I view the “radar” as absolutely vital to everything Matt does as Daredevil, but I also see a much greater potential role for touch to work synergistically with such an ability.

D: Do you have a favorite new fact that you learned over the course of researching this book?

CH: Yes. I do think my coming across Jacob Twersky’s writing helped solidify the idea I had about how the concept of the radar sense may have originated. Blinded in childhood, Twersky would go on to become a champion collegiate wrestler, and later a historian and author. I read both his 1954 novel The Face of the Deep and his 1959 autobiography The Sound of the Walls while working on my own book. The way Twersky describes his sense of the obstacles around him in The Sound of the Walls struck me as shockingly similar to early descriptions of Daredevil’s radar sense, including the use of the term “radar” itself. 

While I can’t know for sure whether anyone at Marvel was familiar with Twersky’s writing, it’s worth noting that he was a New Yorker and a contemporary of Stan Lee and many of the others in the Marvel bullpen back in the day. Whatever the case may be, it’s clear that the Marvel creators were not the first to use the word “radar” to describe the “obstacle sense of the blind,” as it was often known at the time. Over the years, and especially after having studied the early issues in great detail, I’ve definitely come to favor the idea that the “radar sense” wasn’t meant to be understood as a literal (electromagnetic) radar, though I should add that the understanding of the radar seems to have been all over the place for most of Daredevil history. Reading Twersky definitely added considerable weight to my interpretation of the early radar sense.

I also had some favorite epiphanies connected to the radar sense, one in particular which I think explains why Daredevil’s very particular way of being blind is often so difficult to make sense of for writers and fans alike. I recently wrote a rather lengthy post covering much of that stuff.

D: While taking a renewed deep dive into the source material, did you find yourself changing your opinion on anything?

CH: I should preface this by saying that there are definitely things I’ve changed my mind about over the years, even before I started most of the work on the book. I mentioned above that my understanding of the radar sense has shifted gradually, away from the more literal take the name suggests. Looking at the comics very carefully gives you even more of a sense that pinning down anything concrete here is going to be really difficult.

Revisting the comics has also given me a new appreciation for certain runs, such as the pre-Miller Bronze Age issues. This process has also led me to reassess my earlier assumptions that Daredevil’s senses have gone through some kind of steady evolution from Silver Age goofy to modern and grounded. This really isn’t the case, especially when you exclude some of the early outliers. You can find plenty of examples of both nonsensical and absolutely brilliant “senses writing” throughout the history of the comic, but I wouldn’t say that the treatment of the senses, or Matt’s blindness, have necessarily become more grounded on average.

D: You go into great detail about how much of Matt's sensory world has not been explored yet on the page. Is there any particular, specific experience that you would love to see depicted in future runs or adaptations? 

CH: Contrary to what people might expect of me given my priors, I don’t necessarily think that there needs to be more stories about his senses, blindness and so on. However, I think these aspects of the character should be viewed as absolutely essential to how Daredevil is written, no matter what the particular storyline happens to be. I make a point in the book about how Daredevil is an amazingly interesting thought experiment, and I really believe that. So I’d really just wish for writers to be more comfortable running their scenes and stories through whatever their own version of this thought experiment happens to be and making sure that what’s on the page makes sense in light of that.

D: While researching other superpowered blind characters from the comics world and beyond, did you discover any new favorites? Can we expect a spin-off blog about Doctor Mid-Nite?

CH: Ha ha, no. It’s enough of a challenge keeping up with The Other Murdock Papers these days. As regular readers have undoubtedly noticed, I’ve been considerably less active there in recent years, having to do with work on the book as well as other real life stuff that’s competing for my time and attention. I do expect it to live on for many more years though, and I do update every once in a while. I’m definitely looking forward to writing about Daredevil: Born Again when that comes out, and we also have Echo coming out in early 2024.

D: What is your biggest Daredevil sensory pet peeve?

CH: To be honest, what bothers me more than all of the silly things put together is the suggestion that Daredevil can “see better than all of us,” is “not really blind,” and so on. As much as this might sound like the whole point of the character, it also takes much of the complexity out of what Daredevil does and how he does it. As blanket statements go, it just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, unless we radically redefine what sight is, and what the other senses – even when heightened – actually do. 

D: I love the scene in volume 3 #26 when Matt evades Ikari by changing his heart rate, even though logic would suggest that Ikari could still track him using his other senses, or even just other sounds. Do you have any favorite DD moments where you let sensory weirdnesses slide just because the scene is so compelling? 

CH: While it’s a whole issue rather than a single scene, I really enjoyed what Mark Waid and Chris Samnee were attempting to do with the story that sees Matt attempt to escape Latveria while losing all of his senses. The scene I’m choosing to let slide here is when Matt seems to develop some kind of heat vision (it’s frankly unclear what it’s supposed to be) as his body tries to compensate. Whenever you see hints of thermal imaging in Daredevil, that’s an indication that he’s doing something that’s much further removed from how his senses should work than most people realize. It’s not something that follows naturally from heightened senses and is more like an entirely different kind of superpower. 

I definitely tend to give a writer much more slack when 1) I'm enjoying the writing overall, and 2) said writer compensates to some degree by doing a good job of exploring, or at the very least remembering, that Matt is in fact blind.

D: What are your hopes for this book in regards to the impact it might have on how Daredevil is written in the future? What are the key takeaways that you hope fans and/or potential future Daredevil creators pull from it? 

CH: If people reading this interview haven’t read Being Matt Murdock they may get the impression that it’s all a long list of “don’ts” or “can’ts,” but that’s a far cry from what I’ve attempted to do. I remember reading another superhero science book a few years ago that seemed to have as its central premise that “superpowers are stupid,” which didn’t feel particularly gratifying. I don’t see it that way at all. Sure, there are certainly characters whose powers read more like magic than anything else, but I don’t necessarily mind that. We don’t have to hold every character to any kind of scientific standard, and there definitely comes a point when taking this too far just takes the fun out of it. 

When it comes to a character like Daredevil, however, I feel very strongly that bringing science into the picture has the potential to aid in the creative process rather than hinder it. Daredevil is relatively unusual in that he can exist comfortably in a kind of “reality next door.” His powers are not possible in our own universe, but they are not so far removed from our normal understanding of things that we can’t attempt to make sense of them and imagine what life would be like from his perspective. Because while no one has super hearing, most of us do have regular human hearing which detects the measurable and explainable phenomenon of sound. 

There are naturally things about Daredevil that not even loosening the reins of biology will address – for instance, even a science-minded writer is likely going to have to break some of the laws of the physics of sound – but understanding how these phenomena unfold in the real world helps create a good structure for how Daredevil might operate. And I feel like I’ve come pretty close to presenting a coherent “view” of the world from Daredevil’s perspective in this book.

It would definitely be a dream come true to have this book inspire future Daredevil writers, but I obviously don’t have much control over that kind of stuff. I’ve been able to give out plenty of copies to past writers and artists though, ha ha. I would want incoming writers to know that science is their friend. And that understanding some of the science makes Daredevil even more fascinating.

D: If you were given the opportunity to actually experience the world the way Matt does for a day, would you take it?

CH: Absolutely! Mind you, I probably wouldn’t want to do it for longer than a day or two and I very much appreciate my standard issue eyesight, but I think it would be fascinating to explore his world. Though in this thought experiment, I would assume that I could experience things the way he does after years of getting used to it so it’s not too much of a shock to the system. Unlike what happened in the delightfully ridiculous story where Daredevil switched bodies with Doctor Doom, and Doom appeared to adjust on the spot and couldn’t even figure out that he was now blind, I would expect it to take months or even years to learn to navigate the world the way Matt does (superhero acrobatics not included). And it’s not just about being able to integrate different amounts and kinds of sensory information. It’s also a matter of acquiring the strategies that allow for combining this sensory information with real-world knowledge in order to handle the many ambiguities which remain in a world organized around people with a more standard set of human senses.

D: Do you have any book/article/etc. recommendations for someone wanting to expand their reading on the topics explored in the book?

CH: Among the books I’ve read that I would recommend for general audiences is David Eagleman’s The Brain: The Story of You as a good introduction to the brain. If people want to progress from there I also recommend Brainscapes by Rebecca Schwarzlose. I don’t make any explicit references to Brainscapes in my book, but it’s a very solid read for anyone who wants to learn more about the role of “brain maps” in guiding our experiences. For the senses themselves, there’s The Universal Sense by Seth S. Horowitz (about hearing), and What the Nose Knows by Avery Gilbert.

Another book I read years ago that is sort of “on-topic” is A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History’s Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts. It’s not one I reference in my own book, but I guess it’s “Daredevil adjacent.” It tells the absolutely fascinating true story of James Holman (1786-1857).

D: Beyond Being Matt Murdock and your blog, is there anything else you would like to promote/mention here?

CH: Not for the time being. Maybe there’ll be a second edition of Being Matt Murdock one day, but I don’t have any such plans for the foreseeable future. What I would like to do is take the opportunity to encourage people to tackle their own passion projects. For me, finalizing this project came down to realizing that if I were to be told I only had a year to live, I would want to prioritize finishing this book. That’s how much it meant to me. And when you feel that way about something, try to do whatever you can – as much as your current circumstances will allow – to give yourself that gift. Tackling something like this can be very daunting, and I definitely had to get over my fears of making mistakes and putting myself out there in order to do this. But I’m really glad that I finally did.

For more fun facts and information on Being Matt Murdock, and to purchase your own copy, visit www.scienceofdaredevil.com

For more of Christine Hanefalk's writing, visit www.theothermurdockpapers.com

[paullovescomics]

DC round-up for this week! I did not get Absolute Superman because it was already sold out when I got to the comic shop. It was noon or even slightly early, but it was still sold out. So i'll have to wait for the next printing.

Batgirl #1 is a solid start. Lady Shiva shows up in Gotham to tell Batgirl that some evil super ninjas are out to kill them, and they need to work together to survive. Cass is understandably reticent about teaming up with her evil mom. They have a well written back-and-forth about it. Batgirl's taciturn nature is conveyed very well. Mom and daughter are at an impasse, but nothing ends an argument like a bunch of sword-wielding mfers crashing through the window. This was very good. The characters are on point. The fight scenes are exactly what you want in a martial arts inspired superhero comic. I first noticed Takeshi Miyazawa's art like twenty years ago when it was much more manga-like. That influence is still there, but the line weights and types are a lot more varied now. Poses, storytelling, and facial expressions are excellent.

Birds of Prey #15 also prominently features Batgirl. She's undercover here, infiltrating an evil company that has abducted several Amazons. Things don't go well for Cass' mission, but she badasses her way through it. There's a line where Black Canary says that Cass is everyone's favorite in every scenario, and I was like, you're fucking right she is. All of the character stuff in this issue is aces. Barda's big lovable violent scary self, Dinah showing top tier leadership chops, Onyx and Grace's instant camaraderie, all great. Onyx is a cool deep cut. I don't know if she's shown up somewhere else recently, but it's cool to see her featured more prominently. The villains in this arc are well done, too. They are smarmy and full of shit in a very big corporate way that rings true. You really want to see them get what's coming to them. Heels are hard to book in 2024, so congrats to Kelly Thompson for that. Consistently one of the comics I most enjoy.

JSA #1 -- I wasn't sure if I'd dig this one or not, but I did. The mix of generations is not new to Justice Society series, but the inclusion of the Infinity, Inc. versions of Wildcat and Doctor Mid-Nite is very welcome. Those two should have been back a long time ago. Plot-wise, this hits the ground running. Many members of the team are missing or in the hospital after a mysterious attack. It's unclear whether this happened in some earlier comic (maybe in the Absolute Power event?) or if the story is just being very in media res about things. Regardless, it wasn't hard to follow. There's a good opportunity here for some of these characters to get more fleshed out, contemporary character development. The team is having a lot of conflict, some of which might seem a bit too ordinary, except that it's due to an imposter in their midst. The last page is out here on tumblr, but I won't give away the details. I'll just say that a conspiracy of villains that is several steps ahead of the good guys is a trope that I will always pop for. Don't believe I've seen artist Diego Olortegui's work before, but I like it. All of the characters look great, the faces are very expressive, everything is clearly told, and dude does not skimp on the backgrounds. Loads of cool stuff here.

I also picked up Jamie McKelvie's One For Sorrow #1, but I haven't read it yet. It looks very cool.

[whywoulditho]

ough... sorry for jumping in when you said you're still reading stuff, i hope this doesn't come off annoying or anything! but that thing the prev anon said about timkon is... a WILD take.

tim wasn't trying to "replace" kon, he was having a grief-induced mental health spiral and was doing anything and everything to get a chance of getting his best friend back. (the "resurrection of ra's al ghul" event goes over this too - tim and dick have a short fight that ends in tim crying in dick's arms because tim was tempted to use a lazarus pit to try and bring back his dad, steph brown, and/or kon.) it's an unhealthy coping mechanism he exhibits during a period of his life where he's experienced several catastrophic losses back to back, and he's coping poorly. moreover he literally apologized to kon for trying to clone him in adventure comics (2009) #3.

also saying that kon is created as a replacement for superman is true, but acting like he never has an established character outside of "replacement for superman" or that other characters treat him as just a replacement superman, is not. in world's finest three (tim and kon's first meeting) we literally see tim initially turn to kon for backup with metallo, a superman villain, and at first he's dismayed that kon doesn't have all of superman's abilities, but over the course of the two issues, he admires kon's use of his ttk and they establish a mutual respect with each other (they both save each other's lives at the end).

and generally, kon & clark have a very positive relationship in postcrisis comics (aka the continuity that the cloning stuff with tim happens in) - if you want to see more of it, i'd rec "adventures of superman" #506 and superboy (1994) #59 and #70. kon definitely has plenty of issues, but his identity and relationship to superman aren't really the ones in question. (although i'll admit there is the caveat that kon's [lack of] superman-related identity issues is kind of soft retconned in teen titans (2003), which is where the lex luthor retcon is introduced - fun fact, luthor has nothing to do with kon initially!)

this got long i'm SO sorry - it just gets my goat when people tell straight up lies about comics to people who are just getting into reading comics 😭😭 i hope i didn't come off aggressive bc thats def not my intention but i'm sorry if i did!! and i hope you enjoy your comic journey and have fun with it overall!!!

do NOT apologize! i really appreciate this!!

i have a couple more people on my inbox yelling things like "how dare you even entertain the thought of them together!!!" i wasnt expecting to see so much passion on this subject when i first talked about it but it seems like DC comics fans have very strong opinions about that pairing hahaa

as i said in my previous reply to that anon, i really need to do my own reading before i form an opinion on the ship but your reflections seem very fair and i really appreciate the comic recommendations! and honestly, the whole reason i was interested in timkon was that their relationship seemed very complicated, and therefore very angsty, which is what i live for. so i do really understand why some people like it and some hate the idea of it. from what i've seen so far.... i like it. but i can't really speak on whether or not it is compatible with the canon dynamic of the characters. does that make sense?

also like on another note. HOW do you guys give such specific references when talking about these things?? 😭 DC universe seems HUGE and i have no clue where to start and then i see people giving like the exact issue number of events and stuff and i'm like.....HOW?? and also like. teach me. guide me. i'm lost 😭 HQJSKFKCJDJ

[devine-fem]

I wanna hear you talk about JonJay. I just need to hear someone else’s dislike for it from someone that also actually reads comics and I’ve noticed you had JonJay DNI in ur bio.

WHEW. Listen disclaimer: If you like Jonjay. Do not read this. Also, do not interact with me because if you like Jonjay, you will not like me.

My issue is that I kind of like Jay’s fight against colonization but that is it. THAT IS IT. My problem is that it came about in such an awful way… like it’s like Representation 101 that you don’t do what Tom Taylor did with Jonjay… he created a character for another character to be queer and not only that made the characters boring…

The thing about Jonjay shippers is that a lot of the time the shippers enjoy the racist/bad writing version of Damian… they always weirdly speak like they hate Damian… Also, people who are an apologist for older!Jon… HAVE TO BE ILLITERATE… like there’s no way…

My friend was telling me that they’ve never met a Jonjay shipper who had good takes and good taste in media… it just doesn’t exist… and how hostile they are with young jon and damijon in general… I’m not going to lie… hating damijon and liking jonjay never made mathmatical sense to me… even if its not damijon… I’d prefer ANYTHING over jonjay… I trust that any other ship has plenty more substance… and no, it just… jay’s character exists to put down Jon’s… as long as Jay exists… Jon will never be able to grow and shine… read SSOKE and take a second to realize that the focus there is Jay and not Jon!! THAT IS WHY SSOKE IS SO BORING! like jonjay shippers only really care about jay anyway which makes no sense ???! thank you for telling me to rant because i dont get those people at all

AND PEOPLE WHO SHIP JONJAY AND HATE JON? it just makes no sense like wtf?? i guess it kinda makes sense because theres no way you like jonjay and actually gaf about jons character… you probably just like gay superman and thats it like… tom taylor hates good romance… its like dickbabs hurting babs… jonjay hurts jon…

im rambling but yeah, i hate jonjay… its the only ship i hate besides like obviously incest ships or tim x anyone LMAO but like its not about getting in the way of my ship, its about being a bad ship that is associated with the character assassination of my favorite character… i guess i kind of think of it the same way roy fans think of jayroy but also i like daminika (or my idea of daminika) so like its really not about “getting in the way of my ship” i really could care less… ships are fanon

dude. dude. listen. i saw a jonjay shipper say that damijon has no chemistry because they barely have chemistry as friends… talking about chemistry and bring a jonjay shipper is crazy? CHEMISTRY SALES BABE? adventures of jon kent couldn’t break 6 issues and you wanna talk about chemistry? the proof is in the pudding… the people dont like mid. dude. listen. jonjay shippers are just idiots… they have to be 😭 your brain cant be braining in order to like that bro. they be like “i love you 😐” LMAO LIKE JUST NO EMOTION LIKE WHO CAN ENJOY THAT. thank you jonjay for reminding us youre dating because honestly we could NOT tell. cant wait for you to disappear all year then reappear during june 😭

[bi-bats]

Imagine that due to Things and Circumstances DC has handed you the power to make 3 things canon for the rest of time and comics writers afterwards will have to actually abide by them!

What would you pick?

Okay after thinking long and hard about this, I have come to my conclusion. Also this is SUCH a good ask holy shit thankyousomuch this was SO fun to think about:

1. Jason cannot compromise his morals or stance on killing or guns.

Reasoning: the writers are using this to get Jason back in the batfam and I hate it. The WHOLE POINT IS THAT BRUCE CARES MORE ABOUT HIS MORALS THAN HIS SON AND I HATE THAT THEY'RE MAKING JASON COMPROMISE SO THAT HE CAN RECEIVE BRUCE'S LOVE. IT'S A BAD MESSAGE. THE POINT IS THAT BRUCE IS CHOOSING HIS MISSION OVER HIS SON AND THAT SUCKS, AND I FUCKING HATE WATCHING WRITERS BE LIKE "WELL HE'S RIGHT SO JASON SHOULD REALIZE THAT SO HE CAN BE A PART OF THE FAMILY AGAIN" LIKE NO THE OTHER POINT IS THAT THEY'RE BOTH RIGHT! THAT'S WHY ITS SO HARD. BRUCE IS RIGHT THAT ONE PERSON SHOULD NOT GET TO BE JUDGE JURY AND EXECUTIONER AND JASON IS RIGHT THAT THE PEOPLE WHOSE LIVES THEY'RE SAVING ARE USING THAT LIFE TO CAUSE MORE HARM ITS. ITS THE POINT. Its the point. And the fact that they're throwing out these two important conversations (bruce allowing his morals to define his love for Jason, which would be an incredible thing for him to work through, and the really legitimate conversation about how there is no right way to do what they're trying to do) because they want Bruce and Jason to hug is SUCH a disservice to BOTH of their characters. Woof sorry I went off about that one

2. They need to age all the young justice characters to college age and they aren't allowed to go back.

Reasoning: What the fuck is even going on with DC rn? The last comics I was reading, Tim was like 18ish, Kon was reading as like. 16 in one issue and early twenties in the other, and Bart was reading like a 17 year old. They're writing Jon as older than both Kon and Bart right now and I just. What the fuck is even going on? I know he was aged up but like. Theyre writing Damian as like 15/16 and Tim is BARELY reading as older than him rn. Meanwhile, they basically have Dick running the Titans like the Justice League. Wally has kids who are heroes.

Young justice should be in their early twenties. College aged kids. It's really frustrating watching them not age up at all while they age up every other generation. Age those kids up and let your teenage characters be Damian’s generation.

3. Batman should not be allowed to show up in more than 18 comics per year if he is not part of that team. (This isn't technically a canon decision, but it is a rule I would impose)

Reasoning: JL, Nightwing, Detective Comics, Batman (obviously), World's Finest - all of those or fine. But shit like the Flash?? WHY ARE YOU HERE? GO HOME!!!

That said, I'm okay with it if like there's a 6 issue arc of the Superman where he's operating in Gotham. That's fine. That makes sense. And those would come out monthly, so they'd be able to do a comic with him once a month for 6 months of the year and twice a month for 6 months. But they need limits on how often they're allowed to have him show up where he doesn't belong because without it they're just dropping him in everything!! I was SHOCKED he wasn't somehow a part of one minute war!! And like, I love the guy but get the hell out of my flash comics okay you DON'T need to be here. Bye boy

Anyways thank you SO MUCH FOR THE ASK THIS WAS SO FUN ILY 💚💚

[jesncin]

Evening! I'm a young chinese/indo american and plan on reading your comic soon, but beyond that I've frankly just been desperate for any decent rep in DC/Marvel - are y'all aware of any comics / comic characters / runs that handle an asian character's background well? I feel like I'm slugging through quagmires braving search results. All of them are just talking about racism but I want the good, and process of elimination feels like a bad strategy. Thank you

Hello fellow Chindo! Thank you for planning to read my book (which obviously I recommend for great Indonesian representation, heheh)! :) They're probably pretty mainstream choices, but regardless! I have a couple of recommendations:

New Super-man: Kong Kenan, written by Gene Luen Yang

This comic run has a bit of a typical start before jumping into some truly refreshing and fun wider worldbuilding! My biggest criticism to Superman legacy characters is that they should expand on his inherently political themes, and they mostly just stay stuck in science fiction silliness. But not Kong Kenan! His world, cast and even powers are steeped in politics and culture, just an absolute treat.

2. Girl Taking Over: A Lois Lane Story written by Sarah Kuhn with art by Arielle Jovellanos

My all time favorite canon reimagining of Lois as Asian (she's specifically Japanese American in this version)! A perfect marriage of Lois' character as a hard working, career-focused, jaded girlie with the struggles of model minority as an Asian American woman. She stands out on her own here without Superman and has a fantastic cast system that builds her character wonderfully. I especially recommend this graphic novel if you were disappointed with the wasted potential of Asian Lois Lane in MAWS.

3. Superman Smashes the Klan written by Gene Luen Yang with art by Gurihiru

Need I say more? I will anyway. This is the best Superman story of all time, to the point it will actively ruin your enjoyment of other Superman stories for you. It seems so obvious to pair Superman's inherently immigrant allegory with that of actual immigrant struggles, especially with an Asian American family- who are perceived as the perpetual foreigner- and yet this is the first time that story really commits to that comparison. A fantastic reimagining of the original radio show arc that actually centers the Chinese American family being harassed by the Klan. My perpetual recommendation to anyone looking for their next favorite superhero story.

4. Shadow of the Batgirl written by Sarah Kuhn with art by Nicole Goux

Okay I haven't read this one yet, but I keep hearing good things about it! And It's written by Sarah Kuhn, who delivered for Girl Taking Over, so I don't doubt she did great here too. I do generally wish Cassandra will get to be written by a Chinese woman specifically since so far she's been written by Japanese writers. No shade to them of course, but I want cultural specifically. Cassandra tends to be in the vaguesian void and that's a disservice to her character.

The way this list is switching between Gene Yang and Sarah Kuhn is telling of the writers I trust haha.

I've got a heavy DC bias so I can't recommend much of Marvel, but I do remember enjoying Kamala Kahn's Ms. Marvel 2014 series under G. Willow Wilson's writing. Kamala is an endlessly charming character, and I don't think the MCU did her justice tbh!

Those are my reccs that I feel pretty confident recommending! I know there's other prominent Asian characters and writers in DC/Marvel, but they're a hit and miss for me.

[zahri-melitor]

Okay a loose Recent Reads roundup:

Birds of Prey: Sirens of Justice: so I was lured (tricked) into reading this as Gail Simone wrote one of the stories, even though it, sigh, contains far too much Harley Quinn due to movie synergy. The Dinah and Helena banter is decent, but otherwise this felt...aggressively fine. The Helena story is very pat in terms of how people tend to write Huntress shorts, though I guess it wasn't 'Helena worries about a student' this time.

The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage: very much in conversation with O'Neil's run, of course, and also clearly reacting to contemporaneous US racial discussions. Shifting Myra to be the Mayor's sister not wife definitely alters her position in the narrative, particularly in terms of her obligations and response to situations. It is incredibly bleak in places, but that simply reflects the run it is based on and is a tribute to.

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen: This is definitely for the Silver Age fan. Matt Fraction manages to string together solving a complex assassination plot over 12 issues by telling the story in short, 2-4 page sections that wildly jump around the timeline and are framed by 'the many ridiculous things that have happened to Jimmy Olsen'. I have absolutely no handle on the canonicity of some of this, particularly the extended Olsen family, and not knowing probably makes this read more easily. Looking at it as a whole, I'm impressed how well Fraction stitched what was effectively episodic 2 page fills into a complete narrative. The energy of the story is relentless. Best read in small doses.

Batman: Pennyworth R.I.P: god this comic could have been so much better than it was. It’s fine and accomplishes exactly what it was intended to do - tell a story of how Alfred influenced and looked out for each of Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian and Barbara - and sets everyone up to be mildly pissed at Bruce. But just for one example, it would have been HUGELY more powerful if they’d been able to use Dick, with his memories just restored, facing the fact he wasn’t there when Alfred needed him and his last interactions were so impersonal and spent pushing Alfred away.

Catwoman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular: again, underwhelming. Tom King played shipper and wrote his version of how the Helena Wayne story should work; the Dixon story felt 90s appropriate but the art was dire; Brubaker’s felt like a missing scene to his run; Dini’s honestly wasn’t up to the standard I’d hope for from Dini. The art pieces were great though; a lot of good commissions.

Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular: I cannot work out who chose the covers used in the issue, which swing between 'iconic' and 'reminding everyone ASBAR exists was unnecessary, DC'.

Generally: they did manage to round up fairly iconic lineups for most of the stories, with some chopping and changing for a few.

Wolfman got another run at trying to frame the 'Dick quits v Bruce fires him' debate; Dixon and Grayson both submitted literal fills (Dixon's is a scene immediately after Nightwing #19 1996 and before #20; Grayson's is at least just an extra story that fits into #1-12 of her Titans 1999 run on a day all the second stringers didn't come to work). I don't actually have a problem with any of these - they're nice additional material, but mostly more of the same. Seeley & King's suffers from the usual Seeley problem for me where it would be vastly improved by having a different focus; but it does feel straight out of his Grayson run, with everything that implies (down to the St Hadrian's student I wish was not present). All of the Dick stories are basically "we got the team back together" creative line ups.

Jason, in contrast, makes it really obvious that nobody can define a definitive Jason run, and so gets the tiniest story with Winick and Dustin Nguyen. I checked, and Nguyen did draw part of UTRH, but I wouldn't have associated him as a character-defining artist for Jason. The story's cute. Winick sidestepped having to commit to anything about his opinions on post-Flashpoint Jason direction.

Tim got Adam Beechen (which honestly makes me happy, I don't care about anyone else's opinion) and luxuriates in Tim having to play civilian; Tynion gets a Rebirth story that I can't quite work out his timing on (it's supposed to be a prequel, but Dick is already back in costume as Nightwing and talking to Tim, suggesting that several issues of the Rebirth Nightwing take place significantly before 'Tec #934) that is a classic 'Tim tells everyone how he feels about his brothers' story. I realise everyone boring has complained about Tim calling Damian a 'horrible gremlin' but the thing is you see I can only read nicknames like that as full of affection. The back and forth is an important part of their relationship, as shown by Damian snapping 'you're only listening to the insults'.

Steph gets her 71 days as Robin slightly padded out and Amy Wolfram manages to pick up Willingham's tone pretty well; I suspect she liaised with Damion Scott quite a bit on this piece.

Damian has a Super Sons piece from Tomasi, because it's the most lighthearted option available and it sells very well (it's sickly sweet). Which was probably the right call as the other piece is clearly written by Robbie Thompson to accompany his Teen Titans run and for the downward spiral going on there. Which is honestly a bit of a pity for Damian, given everyone else got feature pieces from favourite runs, and he got the 'this slots into your current story' piece.

[lexcellence]

What is it about Western comics as a medium that enables them to tell specific stories--or be types of art--that other media can't replicate? It feels like it'd be so easy to translate a comic to a film, but we've also seen how outrageously difficult it really is. What, to you, makes comics so worth it all?

This is gonna be long and hella cynical, and I'm going to specifically focus on the big two (Marvel and DC) here, but I think a big part of it comes down to money, and the fact that comics are largely considered to be disposable media by the companies creating them.

See, there isn't a ton invested into the actual creation of comics. Creators are freelancers, so no need to worry about pesky things like "paying a reasonable wage," or "offering health insurance" — every few months or so you'll see people who shaped and revolutionized the medium setting up gofundme's because they never got a safety net, and they aren't taken care of by the companies they put all that work into. IP rights and royalties largely aren't a thing, and the nature of capeshit is that you're always going to find some fan who is honored to have the opportunity to write for them, even as the creators they grew up reading are torn up and spit back out. Couple that with an inherently built in marketbase of nerds, and, more often than not, not "wasting" money advertising actual comics to anyone who doesn't buy them already, and to a large extent it doesn't really matter what risks a comic takes. Warner and Disney don't really have to give a shit —a "bad" superman comic, by any definition of bad, might piss off a few nerds, but isn't gonna do a damn thing to the cultural perception of Superman™️, the Brand™️, available on everything from t-shirts to truck nutz at your local Walmart. And hell, 99 times out of 100 the nerds will keep buying the book anyway, and who cares if they don't, because the comic shops will.

Movies, on the other hand, are a pretty significant investment! You've got actors, hundreds of people in cast and crew, and *actual marketing.* They've gotta make that money back and then some, while appealing to an audience of people who might own a Batman wallet, but couldn't tell you the difference between Joe Chill and Victor Fries. It's harder to take risks with movies, because suddenly you might actually taint the image of a seventy year old brand, and that terrifies all of the investors. You throw too much Comic Book Bullshit™️ at general audiences who haven't already devoted their personalities to caring about who Batman is fucking that week (Hal Jordan), and it gets messy. This isn't even some "general audiences wouldn't understand*" gatekeepy shit, either - if you pick up literally any random comic issue and you don't like it, worst case scenario you've spent like four bucks and fifteen minutes of your life, and you've got anything from dozens to thousands of other issues to try.

*that being said, I still maintain that Batman & Robin is better than any Batman comic that came out that year, and everyone who says otherwise is a fucking coward.

And so, comics end up in a weird, probably ultimately untenable position of being able to take more risks, and being made largely by people who love comics, and grew up speaking their bullshit language. They're self-obsessed and masturbatory, sure, but the thing about saying that derogatorily is that it ignores the fact that masturbation is fun? The worst comics I've read, and I've read a lot of bad comics, are still almost always labors of love, be that for better or for worse. As exhausted as I get sometimes, it's hard for me to write that off entirely.

And, ultimately, I'm just way too invested in who's fucking Batman (Superman).

[thenixkat]

superheroes well known for being easily lead or inspired by a singular person

its not like they're famous for popping up largely independently and doing their own thing for years before even running into another superhero even if there's multiple running around the same city

so the writer has made Superman's second coming the second coming of Christ and thus the kickstarter to the end of the world b/c… that says great things about superheroes in yer superhero book

again very heavy Christian themes that i dont care for and don't mean anything good for this lackluster story

are we gonna pretend that there arent superheroes like Praxis running around in teh main DC universe at the time who was just as openly racist as this ultra patriotic 'superhero' here?

like, just, Superman and the like dont give a shit mostly about the dark edgy superheroes in teh mainstream DC universe except for stories not unlike this where the main thing is criticizing the fuckers.

oh no the bystanders! It not like I've read a story featuring SUperman being perfectly fine with demolishing peoples' homes on account of he can just rebuild shit later

i think this writer might be unaware of all the fuckers who died or got maimed or injured in normal superhero fights back in the day just cause the artists and writers never showed the collateral because superman was neccessary for all these heroes who started independently of him to get off their asses and protect more than just one small area

b/c we all know that SUperman is the bestest best boy in the universe and every hero needs him as inspiration to be heroic Fascinating how Red Robin is shown as one of the good heroes of yester year when he's rightfully contemporary of Lightning, Black Lightning's daughter shown as one of these reckless youthful metas with no morals

it's not escaped me that all of our great heroes of yesteryear are white. And a good chunk of our amoral young metas are notwhite, and also the majority of heroes that were aquired from other companies. Strange that~ Totally a coincidence and not something to look into

I just kinda hate this story. I dont think its good. It's giving 'the good old days'/Make DC Great Again vibes. The only reason I picked it up is to get more info on Ted in this universe b/c the wording on his beetle armor has me unclear if its actually armor made by Khaji Da or just powered by it

and of course fuckers pulling a Batman and acting like fuckers need to be sanctioned by them to be allowed to be superheroes b/c that's how superheroes work

Batman's mansion is run down. His identity got exposed a while ago. The Batcave is half flooded

actions to disparage the amoral youthful heroes for: Blowing up the torture prisons where supervillains get turned into slaves with bombs implanted in their heads and normal criminals get lobotomized

sure they should not have also killed the prisoners. But destroying the prisons? go for it

also love how stories of this type always play the superheroes as the problem. Due to wro

ng methods and shit when superheroes are largely just a symptom of the issues plaguing society as much as the crime they fight

less crime would mean less superheroing of all regards, less poverty and war and shit would mean less crime but also just saying that more metahumans is just going to lead to shit going to shit is just such a bad message for a superhero comic given how much of folks becoming metas is a stress response and/or saying that superheroes shouldn't breed b/c their superhuman offspring will fuck shit up

yeah Batman generally seems inclined to turn shit into a police state in his brand of superheroing like that's good

helpful or desirable and Bruce calling Clark out for his tendency to turn totalitarian when shit goes sour

like both of you are terrible in yer own ways

i feel like Green Arrow and Blue Beetle should not get along as well as they keep being shown too in shit like this just cause they're teh same type of superhero. Especially Mr. Problems with authority Blue Beetle

why are yall relying on Batman's plans yall are just as smart if not smarter and way better with people

I hate this story so much. Both Superman AND Batman were the bestest of the best the pinnacle of superheroing. Makes me want fucking vomit

also I love how often Wonder Woman is just fucking chopped liver in the stories like this that ride Batman and Superman's dicks they're getting paid for it Dr. Mid-Nite can fly??

like for some reason Diana isn't allowed to be the pinnacle of paragon or truth or justice and has to try convincing Superman to lead them all into a better future and how she just dips into bloodlust when things go poorly like…

Also none of the younger new heroes are allowed to be viewpoint characters yet b/c this is a propaganda piece an we cant humanize the fuckers we wish to disparage

we get supervillains, the old guard supervillains of course, as viewpoints b4 we get any of the youth that's being disparaged

It's also 90% white in this old guard important villain's meeting.

so a good chunk of these amoral young metas are villains

a group of mostly white elderly villains actively making shit worse, to provoke a war between regular people and super people b/c sure people will somehow benefit