#i think lane would be fun too but the main gist for her is that she is a he/she pronoun user

[primordial0riginator]

I have such a fun time exploring gender with my oc Them tbh I love seeing those varying joke posts that go into many different identities and just going “oh yea they’re all of them” and that is literally just true

[cryptoriawebb]

"you’re the school outcast and my friends are jerks who were going to humiliate you Carrie-style at prom so I kidnapped you in a limo before the dance started to save you and now I’m going to give you a proper prom" + SuperBats

Oh you know this is totally going to turn into Bruce taking notice of the socially awkward Clark Kent–a young freshman who’s got the build every wannabe athlete dreams of but who looks as comfortable among the student body as a spider stuck in a web. He’s got some charm under that farm boy look, but the flashy and fast-pace atmosphere of Gotham U fails to notice it among short-sleaved flannels and jeans with one-too-many grass stains. It’s a wonder at all, Bruce thinks from time to time, that the board accepted him at all must mean there’s something exceptional about him. (My guess is he won some kind of intellectual scholarship: Clark’s family doesn’t have the most money in the world but he’s been raised to believe hard work pays off. That, and he may or may not be a subject of interest for certain Luthor family alumni…)

Bruce isn’t particularly social himself, but he does lurk among the more popular students (rather, they lurk around him.) Oliver Queen, Jon Stewart and Selina Kyle, to name a few. Clark, in contrast, has a few and smaller circle of friends, primarily made up of aspiring journalist Lois lane and fish-out-of-water Arthur Curry. Both boys share a mutual (though unknowing) acquaintance through senior RA Diana Prince. She generally stays out of underclassmen drama but keeps an eye out for any trouble when she can. 

Anyway, freshman year is hard on Clark, especially when his father’s health takes a turn for the worse. While unaware of the underlying cause, Bruce begins to notice subtle changes in Clark’s behavior and appearance: they remind him all too well of his teenage years–darker days he still grapples with from time to time. He begins paying more attention to Clark–the two of them share at least one class. Probably science of some kind. 

Bruce’s friends aren’t so concerned; they’re not necessarily bad people, they’re just caught up in the thrill of college independence and living in the “now.” Overcoming who they were in high school (and in Oliver’s case, maintaining it.) Clark is different. Clark is weak under all that muscle, muscle he’s wasting, and he’s an easy ego boost. At least Oliver thinks so. Selina doesn’t stop him. 

I’d like to say Bruce overhears them talking or walks in on them planning, but because I love Jon and can’t see him as a bully I’d like to think he and Bruce exchange eye contact during a group conversation or something that clearly states “this isn’t right, I know you’re worried, what are you going to do?”  (Oh, Oliver’s family are big donors to the school so I think a lot of people go along with what he wants.) 

…I’m also thinking maybe Jon and Lois have a thing. Not sure if it’s related to what’s going on but they seem like they’d get along a little. As an alternative, it’s possible Jon actually hinted at Lois something was going to happen and she should tell the RA, while Bruce took matters into his own hands through his uncanny skill of eavesdropping in shadow. 

Either way…come the night of the prom–a special dance that isn’t really a prom but something fun thrown together for the new class at school, to celebrate the end of the year–a dance Clark wasn’t going to go to until his parents convinced him to relax for once, reward himself for working hard, date or no–Bruce pulls up in a limo beside Clark on the curb (his scholarship allows him to live on-campus but the dorms are far enough from the main building clusters it’s a bit of a walk.) He’s dressed in a tux and looks more urgent than handsome but Clark harbors confused feelings for Bruce (because they have worked together in class and there’s something oddly intelligent and driven in this alleged popular boy) that he slows his step, however skeptical. 

Bruce is all “hey, you want a ride.” 

Clark looks at him, eyebrow up and clearly hesitant. His cheeks flush slightly. “Why?” He asks, and despite keeping his parents gentle chiding in mind he doesn’t trust Bruce. I’m not sure if Clark is an alien or not…

Either way, Bruce manages to convince him to get into the car but instead of driving to the dance, he tells the driver to keep going. Clark almost immediately freaks out and all his paranoid mistrust floods forth. This exasperates Bruce and finally he tells Clark to shut up and pulls out his phone. While initially a distraction, Jon sends him a message that falls oddly on-point.  “You want to know why, Clark? Have a look.” 

It’s a video taken by Lois, her triumphant to-be reporter’s voice narrating handheld footage of Oliver and Selina being carted off in handcuffs. RA Diana stands off to the side, chatting with a public safety officer. The video ends with Diana spotting Lois filming and telling her rather sternly to stop. 

Clark just looks at Bruce, dumbfounded. ‘Why?’ He wants to ask, but his heart’s in his throat and he continues staring. Bruce shrugs, a bit uncomfortable, and gives Clark the gist. I think Clark would wonder why no one told him earlier and Bruce would mention–as gently as he could–that Clark wasn’t really making himself available to listening, stuck in his own world and all. This leads to another conversation that begins rather tersely but ends in confession: Clark’s father has been sick but insists Clark stick to college which causes a lot of stress and…then he sighs and rubs the back of his neck: his dad would kill him if he saw him worrying about this at the dance. Although he’s not actually at the dance and it wouldn’t have gone well, anyway.

For a time, it’s quiet.Then Bruce says something like the night isn’t over yet. 

I’m not entirely sure where they’d go. Maybe Bruce would drive to his home and let Clark in. It’s quiet and (at least he thinks) Alfred’s gone to bed. Clark, beginning to feel better, kind of stares up at the house, his heart thudding in his chest (what are they doing here? What’s going on?) Bruce quiets and gets out first. He then comes around to Clark’s side and, with a small and nervous smile masked as a smirk, opens the door. He says nothing, but holds out his hand. Clark looks from it to him, eventually accepting. 

The night, I’m sure, begins in hushed soda consumption (because Alfred is very rigid with certain things and does not keep alcohol easily accessible) and ends in a slow dance under moonlight through the window. A quiet, approving Alfred looks on from the banister, upstairs. Bruce has his own share of troubles, after all. It’s wonderful to see him taking a step towards a better direction.

[apatheticaria]

my spoilery thoughts on the last of us part ii

i apologize in advance for this super long post that you have to scroll past because i don’t know how to do the “keep reading” option thing

the only reason i’m writing this out is because i’m literally going insane from not being able to talk about my feelings for this game to anyone since no one i know actually cares lmao so this is mainly just for myself and anyone who wants to read this

the intro:

as i played through this game, i also watched a few playthroughs up until the point where i stopped to take a break. this was a game i couldn’t binge just because it’s so heavy and intense and sometimes you just gotta step away and take a breather

one of the playthroughs i followed along with was jacksepticeye’s and at the end he gave his review of the game like he normally does. i didn’t completely agree with everything he said, but for the most part i thought what he said lined up pretty well with my own opinion.

in particular, one thing that stood out to me was when he said that the introduction to this game shouldn’t have been Joel talking to Tommy about what he did at the end of the first game, but rather the whole flashback of Ellie’s birthday at the museum. then at “one” during the countdown to liftoff, the screen should’ve went black and fast forwarded to four-years-older Ellie opening her eyes in her home in Jackson (idk if i’m explaining this well, but Jack’s editor, Robin, edits this together and really sold it to me. if you wanna see it, go to the last part of Jack’s playthrough and look for it towards the last 30 minutes). i think this would have given us the time i think we all needed with Joel before he died and all the following flashbacks would be more focused on how/why Joel and Ellie’s relationship turned so distant - or hostile on Ellie’s part - and could’ve helped the pacing a bit.

Joel’s death:

potentially an unpopular opinion? but i actually like how Joel died. or uh lemme rephrase, i like the way they wrote his death. in this world of violence, hate, and brutality (actually doesn’t sound too off from our world but ahem moving on), i think the way he died was realistic, especially since he doomed all of humanity by saving Ellie in Part I. it just makes a lot of sense that someone would go after him and hunt him down

from the moment Abby and Owen stood over Jackson from the cliff, i was thinking: well theyre gonna kill Joel and since we’re gonna probably be playing as this girl for some (emphasis on some) of the game, they’re gonna go hard on the grey area of perspective in terms of revenge. which i was super on board with, but we’ll get back to that

when this game was first advertised, i didn’t know how i felt about a revenge story. it’s been told so many times and i’m never as hell-bent on revenge as much as the character is because it never feels warranted enough. that is, until i saw Joel die. watching Ellie pinned to the floor with a perfect view of his body, his face, beat to shit as she screams and begs for Abby to stop? haha that’s fucked Naughty Dog, thanks. but i do appreciate that they were able to make me just as mad as Ellie because of just how brutal his death was and how much i care, cared, about that character. no story has ever made me so incredibly enraged to the point i was with the main character full-stop to just destroy the perpetrator and take revenge. that’s why i think the way Joel dies is perfectly done. the fact that that cutscene is so horrible to watch for so many reasons just proves that it does it’s job.

Ellie’s half:

i actually don’t have too much to say about Ellie’s half of the story. this was what i both expected and wanted from the game, the whole game. while i can’t say i was having “fun”, because this isn’t really a fun game to play, you know what i mean when i say that this part was fun to play and follow.

side note: Naughty Dog’s improvement of your NPC buddy is so good, Dina and Jesse were both actually helpful, still not perfect, but also they’re not supposed to do all the work for you. i think the added layer that they could also get caught/seen and alert the enemy was completely unexpected and such a good addition to the gameplay (ofc this goes for Lev as well).

throughout the whole story, there’s kinda a problem with the pacing, and i know i’m not the first person to say that. however, i think the only big pacing issue i had with Ellie’s perspective was that kinda weird attempt of an open world map that they did with the gates. it felt a little unnecessary since i, and most other people, are playing for the story, not an open world with various side quest-like things. i missed the guitar cutscene with Ellie playing the guitar and singing to Dina (which kinda sucks, but i obviously just watched it after) because i just wanted to get back to the story rather than explore a large area. it was an attempt at something different so i won’t fault the game for that too much, but also stay in your lane lol so that section was a bit of a miss for me personally. i really liked the rest of it though, it had me engaged the whole time

Abby’s half:

ok. i have a lot to say about this half of the game since this is where most the problems occur.

first, let me preface this by saying that i don’t hate Abby. as i said, from the very beginning i knew she was going to have a, not justifiable, but an understandable reason for murdering Joel and that the game was going to be about seeing two sides to the same story. except, at the same time, i came here for Ellie, so why am i playing as this heterosexual? im mostly kidding. but fr i didn’t need the entire half of the game trying to get me to sympathize with Abby. i really didn’t need the message to be so spelt out for me, i got it from the moment i realized she was going to kill a favorite character.

i think my main gripe with the way they told this story is the way they formatted it. this story has all the elements to be amazing, but the execution just lacked the...finesse? idk if that’s the right word.

rather than splitting up the game into two halves, they could/should have integrated Abby’s story into Ellie’s so that when we cut from Abby holding the gun at Ellie in the theater to suddenly Abby as a young girl, it won’t feel so jarring when we have to start all over again with the upgrades and the timeline.

i really liked how we switched between them in the very beginning so why couldn’t that have just continued? in a book with multiple povs, the author often switches back and forth between every or every few chapters. you never see a book that starts with one perspective, then at the climax you have to start all over again from the other. at least, i’ve never seen this in any books i’ve read and i’ve read a lot ngl

maybe they forced us to stick with Abby for so long because if we’re forced to play as her, then we’re forced to get invested into her story. while this makes sense, it also really degraded at my enthusiasm for the game. it took me so long to just give up on the idea that we would be going back to Ellie relatively soon and when i did actually realize that was what was happening i was really disappointed.

instead of separating their stories, i would’ve liked to have Abby maybe one step behind Ellie the whole time so that while we play we’re just anticipating when Abby will finally catch up and it builds to this whole thing. instead, when we actually got to the point where everything was supposed to go down, we’re hit with whiplash and back to the very beginning with tutorials?? like did they just expect us to forget how to play since we switched characters?

i’m thinking, after Ellie and Dina jump over the barbed wire that explodes and Ellie’s knocked out, we could have switched over to Abby waking up in the WLF stadium. after Abby sneaks out of the stadium and you have that interaction with Jordan where he mentions Leah at the tv station, then we go back to Ellie waking up and tied to the table and we see Ellie kill Jordan.

after this i think Abby should have met Lev and Yara way sooner because i barely even remember what happened before Abby was caught by the seraphites it was so boring. so she gets caught by the seraphites AFTER we meet them through Ellie being shot through the shoulder (i still want to get all the first impressions of new stuff with Ellie because then it still makes her feel like the main character) and we meet the siblings and blahblahblah.

as a follow up, after Ellie kills Nora, which by the way, Ellie’s facial expressions are just so good with the red light while she’s just beating Nora to death? wow that entire interaction was so well done. anyway, after Ellie kills Nora, and Ellie gets back to the theater and the scene ends with her and Dina hugging, then we would switch to that whole section with Abby and Lev traveling to the hospital to get the meds and it would be cool if on her way in, Nora helps Abby and then on her way out, we run into a door we have trouble opening so we push and when it opens, Nora’s beaten up body is right there.

you get the gist. Abby’s story was barely intertwined with Ellie’s until the very end where she finds Owen and Mel dead. she doesn’t know that literally everyone else, except Leah, is dead too. i feel like that would’ve made the impact of Abby and Ellie’s fight at the theater more effective. affective? whatever i’m not an english nerd

i also think we should have gotten the flashback with Abby’s dad a little later when we’re expected to understand her character a bit more.

overall, i’m not mad about getting Abby’s side of the story, but i am mad that the way it was told felt so disconnected from Ellie. we could still get that whole arc of Abby going to the island to get Lev, she can still get her own story apart from Ellie, but she needed to have more of a interaction with Ellie’s actions.

Abby vs. Ellie, Abby’s pov:

i absolutely hate this fight. i really hate the way it was written and the way it happened. i get that the game is trying to give us Abby’s perspective and to show that in her point of view, Ellie is the villain in this story.

except, AGAIN, i don’t need this spoon fed to me!!! i KNOW that the world isn’t black and white and that people’s perspectives are different, but also? i don’t really care. both characters have gone through shit and both have done shitty things. neither of them are innocent, no one in this world is innocent (hence why i really dislike Mel, but that’s not really relevant), so it really comes down to which character you value more. in my - and most other people’s - case, it’s Ellie. i know the whole point of this fight is to make the player uncomfortable, but i wasn’t just uncomfortable, it made me legitimately start to dislike this game (spoiler for the end of this stupid-long review: i don’t completely dislike it)

the game really emphasizes that this is Abby’s story as much as it is Ellie’s and i get that, but this fight did not need to happen the way it did and the game didn’t need to be even longer after this. a lot of people say that we played from Abby’s perspective because Ellie would have killed Abby and that would be that (and she did, by the way, i relished watching Ellie get her revenge because while i don’t hate Abby, it was still so satisfying even if that wasn’t how the game wanted me to play). however however however, Abby wouldn’t have showed mercy either. she was absolutely going to kill Ellie if Dina hadn’t intervened then she was going to kill Dina if Lev hadn’t intervened.

here’s how i wouldve wanted it to go: we go back to Ellie’s perspective once Abby has the gun pointed at Ellie in the lobby and during their fight, Ellie would get the upper hand because she has weapons and shit (let’s be honest, Ellie would not win in hand-to-hand combat with fully-healthy Abby, we saw that first hand). Lev would try to jump in, but then Dina would disarm him and prevent him from escaping her grasp. then eventually Ellie would have the barrel of the shotgun pointed at Abby’s face and she would hear Lev tell her to please stop don’t kill her and Ellie would listen because the same exact thing happened to her (we could get a short flashback or something for more emotions, idk). so instead of killing Abby, Ellie would knock her out and her and Dina would leave and Lev would run to Abby’s unconscious body. this would end that cycle of revenge and because Abby has something more important to her than revenge (Lev), they would move on.

the ending:

if the game went how i just imagined, we probably wouldn’t get an ending that’s as depressing and open ended as it is, but i’m sure Neil and his team could figure something out, such as Ellie still has to deal with PTSD and Tommy’s really pissed at them and Ellie still looses her two fingers. so we get that little domestic sequence and the PTSD flashback and Tommy coming with his eye missing and showing the map. he leaves and when Ellie is about to leave in the middle of the night, Dina convinces her this time to stay and the next day Ellie tries to play the guitar one last time before giving up since she doesn’t have her fingers (i still want that last heartbreaking flashback, that one fucked me up i love it) and she goes out to leave it somewhere in the woods with it all ending with her walking away from the guitar that Joel gave her to symbolize her letting him go. idk man something like that, still not that open ended, but i’m just talking out of my ass rn

anyway that’s not how it went so we’ll stick to reality.

an open ending isn’t supposed to be unsatisfying, because that’s what this ending was. Part I does an open ending perfectly as we still get closure even though we don’t know exactly how things go afterwards (until now obviously).

after playing from Abby’s perspective for so goddamn long, it was weird to play as Ellie again, even while it was also a relief, and that makes me really sad. in the end, i did feel bad for Abby when she was literally left to starve and “hang” (but again i didn’t need 15+ hours in order to feel basic sympathy).

from the way they wrote the story, i knew Ellie wasn’t going to let it go and she was going to leave Dina and JJ. it made sense and i don’t think it was out of character for her, but the fact they did that in the first place and that Abby was the one to let go first? Abby got her revenge, she killed Joel, but Ellie never got that closure so of course she was going to go after Abby.

in the very end, Ellie is left with no one and Abby still has Lev and a group of fireflies to run to. Ellie’s biggest fear was being alone as she said in the first game, but that’s exactly what she’s left with. yeah life is unfair and i do like that the consequences feel real in this story, but i don’t think Ellie deserved to be done so damn dirty while Abby is living her best life. sure all of Abby’s friends were murdered because of Ellie and Dina leaving is Ellie’s own fault and i don’t blame Dina, but i mean we have no idea what happens to Ellie after this, where she goes. it at least feels like she’s on the road to eventually being relatively okay, as okay as you can be in this world.

i can’t completely articulate how i feel about this ending, even after three days having finished playing. all i do know is that while it’s realistic how Ellie’s story ended, i would’ve liked for Abby to get the same treatment. for her to not actually find the fireflies through the radio and escape from the Rattlers only to have no where to go so that, just like Ellie, revenge cost her everything and we don’t know where she went after.

maybe because Abby’s story was pretty much wrapped up and Ellie’s wasn’t, they’re planning for a trilogy, but i guess we’ll see.

the tldr;

this game has all the elements it needed to be amazing overall imo, i just wish they were all utilized Better. the reason it’s so hard to figure out how i feel about this game is because it has so much potential that just never came through and i’m really jealous of all the people who were blown away by this story. it’s still a good game though, but a 7/10 seems too high and 6/10 seems to low. ig it’s a 6.5/10 for me.

thanks for reading if you made it this far

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1230

Monday, October 1, 2018

 Surprise! I'm still kicking and writing. My announcement last week about off the rack possibly ending prompted Heather to tell me her plans for Comet Comics after the move to 1073 Bank Street which included asking if I wanted to continue to work for her. Do I like to go fishing? Of course I said yes. To all of you who sent me messages that you're going to miss off the rack, I say thee nay, I get to read on and ramble on.

 Catwoman #3 - Joelle Jones (writer) Joelle Jones (art pages 1-8, 14-22) Fernando Blanco (art pages 9-13) Laura Allred (colours pages 1-8, 14-22) John Kalisz (colours pages 9-13) Josh Reed (letters). My thanks to Amanda and Ryan for giving me permission to read their sub service copy, otherwise I would have missed this issue because it was sold out by the time I got back from vacation. Selina gets read the law of the land and you know how she feels about the letter of the law. This puts her in opposition to the family that runs her new home town but she's one tough cookie and is able to complete her personal mission. I want to see how this family reunion goes.

 Hey Kids! Comics #2 - Howard Chaykin (writer & art) Wil Quintana (colours) Ken Bruzenak (letters). See if you can recognise Stan the Man and Jack the King in this thinly veiled history of comic books.

 Old Man Hawkeye #9 - Ethan Sacks (writer) Marco Checchetto (art) Andres Mossa (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Eye for an Eye part 9. Bullseye finally catches up to Clint as Hawkeye is about to kill another old Thunderbolts member. Wounds are inflicted on both sides and someone earns redemption. The story continues next issue in the Great White North. I'll be there eh.

 Silencer #9 - Dan Abnett (writer) Patch Zircher (art) Mike Spicer (colours) Tom Napolitano (letters). Hell-iday Road part 2. Talia Al Ghul's only loyal department head uses her magic to switch Silencer and Quietus's bodies. Brain triumphs over brawn and Honor lives to fight another day. Her family is her main weakness and I hope somewhere along the way they are eliminated so we'll see her really let loose.

 Heroes in Crisis #1 - Tom King (writer) Clay Mann (art) Tomeu Morey (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). I don't keep up with much going on in the DCU so I don't know if this is another Crisis on Infinite Earths deal where they try to clean up the universe a little, but there sure are a lot of dead super powered people in this first issue. I picked this off the rack to read because the art is sweet and it's written by one of my favourite writers right now. We start off the 9-issue story with Harley Quinn fighting Booster Gold and I'm rooting for Harley to finally rid the DCU of the time travelling doofus. A place called Sanctuary is introduced that seems to be a place where super heroes can go to get psychoanalyzed. Maybe there's a connection with Harley but it's not made clear here. The big three, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman gather in Sanctuary and the mystery of why these dead super heroes are lying around all over the place is off to a flying start. This goes on to my "must read" list.

 Marvel 2-In-One #10/LGY #110 - Chip Zdarsky (writer) Ramon K. Perez (art) Frederico Blee (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). It's not quite a full reunion of Marvel's First Family but were getting closer as Ben and Johnny get their powers back to beat this world's villainous Fantastic Four.

 Stranger Things #1 - Jody Houser (writer) Stefano Martino (pencils) Keith Champagne (inks) Lauren Affe (colours) Nate Piekos (letters). Dark Horse Comics capitalizes on the popular Netflix show with this 4-issue mini following the adventures of Will Byers and his friends. I've never watched the show so I'm new to these characters and situation. The art is pretty good and the plight of young Will in another dimension is scary but nothing grabbed me here. I'm sure Stranger Things fans would be tickled to have their own comic book to collect.

 Justice League Odyssey #1 - Joshua Williamson (writer) Stjepan Sejic (art) Deron Bennett (letters). As soon as I flipped open the cover and saw the art I wanted to read about this new team. Plus I love how Stjepan draws Kory/Starfire. I didn't know who the big grey guy was but boy was I surprised to find out he's Darkseid. The big bad villain sure has slimmed down a lot or else it's Darkseid junior. Joining Starfire and Darkseid are Azrael, Cyborg and Green Lantern Jessica Cruz. They will be fighting evil in the galaxy according to the cover blurb so aliens beware.

 Amazing Spider-Man #6/LGY #807 - Nick Spencer (writer) Humberto Ramos (pencils) Victor Olazaba (inks) Edgar Delgado (colours) Steve Lieber (art pages 8-10) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours pages 8-10) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). A Trivial Pursuit part 1. I will pretend that Peter Parker and Spider-Man were never split in two during the last arc and catch you up with the present. Peter's new roommate is the super villain Boomerang. Talk about keeping your enemies close. This issue takes place in The Bar With No Name, a super villain hangout, and it's trivia night. The category is Spider-Man. Boomerang takes Peter to the bad guys bar and guess who wins? Meanwhile, Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime and current Mayor of New York City is not happy with his lackey Boomerang. Got all that? Looks like the old Parker luck will be rearing its ugly head again. I didn't like the jarring difference in art for the 3 pages where Spider-Man is spying on the Superior Foes of Spider-Man playing cards. It didn't feel like part of the story.

 Doomsday Clock #7 - Geoff Johns (writer) Gary Frank (art) Brad Anderson (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). The first page is super confusing as the narrator jumps back and forth in time but thankfully the second page carries on the story in a linear fashion and we finally see the appearance of Doctor Manhattan. There was a big deal made when Watchmen first hit the racks in 1986 about the full frontal nudity when Dave Gibbons drew the naked Doctor Manhattan and showed his penis. No problem penis this time because this issue was overshadowed by Batman: Damned where Lee Bermejo uncovered Bruce Wayne's penis in that book. Nudity is so controversial in North America whereas in Europe people don't get their knickers in a bunch over seeing so called private parts. I'm glad we've matured somewhat so that this comic book didn't stir up a big conservative backlash too.

 Domino Annual #1 - I've been enjoying the regular series and I recommend that you check out this $4.99 US anthology to see what fun Neena Thurman/Domino has. There are four short stories in this annual. All lettered by VC's Clayton Cowles.

 "Dead Drunk in Dry Gulch" by Gail Simone (writer), Victor Ibanez (art) and Jay David Ramos (colours) tells the story of how Domino and Diamondback meet Outlaw.

 "The Good Fight" by Fabian Nicieza (writer) Juan Gedeon (art) and Jesus Aburtov (colours) features Cable.

 "Rebound" by Dennis Hopeless (writer) Leonard Kirk (art) and Jesus Aburtov (colours) shows the gloomy Colossus wallowing after what happened between him and Kitty at their wedding.

 "Domino & The Rejex" by Leah Williams (writer) Natacha Bustos (art) and Jesus Aburtov (colours) looks in on a mutant support group that Neena and Nightcrawler put together.

 These are bookended by "Saturdays Are For The Body Count" by Leah Williams (writer) Michael Shelfer (art) and Jesus Aburtov (colours).

 Action Comics #1003 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Yanick Paquette (art) Nathan Fairbairn (colours) Josh Reed (letters). Invisible Mafia part 3. I missed Action Comics #1002 with Invisible Mafia part 2 while on vacation but I got the gist of what's going on no problem. Batman helps out when a Daily Planet reporter gets her hands on some Green Kryptonite. I would like to see a World's Finest comic book written by Brian Michael Bendis. We go to la la land with Lois Lane and Lex Luthor on the last page which made me wonder what's going on there?

 Extermination #3 - Ed Brisson (writer) Pepe Larraz (art) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). I'm getting a sense of where this story about the time displaced young X-Men is going. I think young Cable/Nathan is rescuing them from Ahab but we don't know why. I really like young Jean hanging with Domino and her X-Factor team. I will read on to see if I'm right about what's going to happen.