#it was like every series is a reason to hate DC comics

[damian-lil-babybat]

It arrived!!!!!!

I am now the proud owner of THIS COMIC waaaaaa.

Seriously, only good writing and good art can make me do fanart again for Damian. So I am happy comics nowadays are fun now.

Haven't bought any new comics since 2018...for obvious reasons. Let's just say, I don't want to give my money to DC editorials, until now. XD Dami-fans will know why. (Rant at the tags)

[lygma-nygma]

The genuine struggle of being a Riddler fan when all three of his most popular incarnations are different levels of deeply ooc for completely different reasons and you find all three insufferable but they're his most talked about because they're the only non-comic versions of him that aren't Jim Carrey, in three episodes of an animated series, or made of lego. You still reblog stuff about the ones you don't like though because the art is nice but god damn does it ache a little.

[themyscirah]

Suffering more than Jesus atm (being a fan of 80s/90s Suicide squad in 2024)

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Propaganda Under Cut

Iris West

Treated terribly by fandom because of racism and misogyny

Iris is one of the oldest Flash characters (well, oldest by measure of the Silver Age Flash) and despite the show's problems she was adapted pretty well. Her being pushed aside 100% has to do with her being Black in the adaptation. The most popular ship on Ao3 for that show is her white husband x a white passing supervillain clearly intended to be read as actually white who has been in LITERALLY ~SIX EPISODES. He DIED IN 2016. THEY ARE STILL DOING THIS

Gets mom friended like you wouldn't BELIEVE. People hate her because she was childhood best friends with The Flash and has chemistry with him :( like it's her fault she's sweet and smart and not the male blue coded villain to the red hero. I am so tired

Stephanie Brown

Literally my best friend ever!!! Every time she shows up in a comic I point at her and smile!!! She’s the vigilante known as spoiler & batgirl & was a robin before getting fridged because of editorial mandate and misogyny she deserves so much better @_@. The m/m that some people hate her for is timkon; like they ARE very gay but people are genuinely insane about hating her instead of also realizing that she too is gay (insane amount of subtext w her bff cass). Basically she was Tim’s girlfriend for a long time on and off. People will literally call her abusive for no reason they’ll be like oh but she didn’t apologize for starting a gang war accidentally and faced no consequences for it :/ as if she wasn’t literally KILLED OFF BRUTALLY. And although hate is rarer for her nowadays from what I’ve seen she’s also a victim of Background Lesbian Syndrome. And also a victim of Woman Not Allowed To Have Ocmplex Feelings in the source material itself (tim is canonically bi now yay but like steph wasn’t allowed to have any complicated feelings at all at her on again off again ex breaking up with her for good???). Anyways she’s the light of my life.

she’s the light of my life my baby girl my everything. she canonically dated tim drake, but people love to ship tim with his male friend kon or his male brothers (🤢🤮) and so they constantly sideline her, making her the quirky wingwoman or sometimes even villainizing her by trying to claim she was abusive to tim. i don’t know why so many people hate her my girl will literally just be standing there and people will hate on her.

Stephanie was first introduced in the 1994 Robin series as a side love interest for Robin, but when she turned out to be really popular she became the main love interest. Because of this, she was fully fleshed out as a vigilante calling herself Spoiler to try and take down her villainous father, the Cluemaster. She later grew a lot closer to other cast members, such as Batgirl and Oracle, to get herself a firmly established place among the bats. Then, she dies in a gang war after taking up the Robin mantle. Eventually, in 2009, she was brought back from the dead and took on the Batgirl mantle. Her and Robin get back together sometime around ~2010 and they are solidly together until 2021. Then, Robin breaks up with her off panel for zero reason in canon, only to date some really boring guy named Bernard. By fanon, she's often demonized and turned into an abuser to make either this ship, or a lot of other mlm ships happen. Either that or things are mysteriously set in the time she's dead despite characters who were not yet introduced until she returned appearing. strange.

[bi4bihankking]

Okay the main reason that you should read Infinity Inc. Do you like cute college students who are fun together? Do you like found family? Do you like your favorite characters being friends forever and nothing bad happening to them at all? 

Well TOO BAD! If you read Infinity Inc. your favorite character has a 92% chance of either dying or going evil! You will love these stupid children and you will be so upset that DC refuses to have an actual full Infinity Inc. Reunion and instead decides that every few years former members should attempt to murder each other. 

For characters you have: Boy with daddy issues, other boy with daddy issues, gay angry boy with daddy issues, (unfortunately not canon gay yet) boy with EVIL daddy issues, and 7’6” himbo. It’s just... daddy issues all the way down. Also sexist 1940s man who is incredibly annoying. Jennifer-Lynn Hayden, or Jade, who you should all know, and frankly I think if your only exposure to Jen is Kyle Green Lantern you should be OBLIGATED to read Infinity Inc. I have seen some awful stuff flung around about her by Kyle fans. “Jade is only important to comics to tie Kyle to Alan and since she can’t do that properly she might as well stay dead” and that’s just what I’m willing to quote. 

Read Jennie-Lynn RIGHT NOW to properly appreciate her or learn to keep her name out of your mouth. I say while shipping her other ex with her dad and her brother. 

Lyta Trevor who has been through so much and deserves so much more than being hated because of Sandman, you do not know Lyta and you have not read her struggles, how dare you, I am assigning you the homework of Read Infinity Inc. or shut up. 

Okay that is the big sexisms it’s time to get to the big homophobias, or both. Hey remember how the mini series that Beth and Yolanda were killed off in either heavily implied that they were dating or ramped up the sexual tension so much that it seems that they are. I think you should read Infinity Inc. and join me in demanding that Geoff Johns brings back that relationship. Yeah it would be cute. 

Read Infinity Inc. now to fall in love with the cutest college age idiots you’ve ever read, ship a ship that is definitely considered problematic now (it’s Hank and Todd I don’t mean problematic problematic I mean, my god people are weird about non-canon gay ships involving canon gay characters, they just have a ridiculous amount of UST and you have to understand Hank was absolutely in love with both twins you have to you have to), be destroyed by the only death in the main series as you learn to care about them all, and also read further in the main characters lives and see the horrible shit they all but especially Hank gets subjected to... 

I forgot someone... 

MISTER BONES 

MOST IMPORTANTLY 

Infinity Inc. is the origin of this meme!

[howlingday]

This may be my not very popular opinion but I hate most spin-off products that rwby makes Number 1: Ice Queendom and the crossovers with DC, Both crossovers were created to make money and nothing else and my hate comes from the simple facts and that they want to make these crossovers canon or semi-canon, But make this spin-off fuck the issue of timeline and development of rwby, A good example is weiss from ice queendom being racist towards faunus to have a dream for her to no longer be racist and then she continues to be so.

Spin-Offs are kinda hit or miss for me.

I LOVED Ice Queendom. RWBY was really good in the anime style, though the plot did get a little eh for me.

DC is something I am VERY not okay with. I haven't seen the RWBY/Justice League specials yet, but just from what I read from the RWBY comics, it feels... off. Like, they make Ruby way too edgy with her "baby bird" speech. They just... don't feel like RWBY.

I never played Grimm Eclipse, though I've watched playthroughs now and then (but only for like two characters because the dialogue is all pretty much the same). I played and LOVED Amity Arena, and I am very upset that they didn't continue for some reason. I want to play RWBY Arrowfell, but I can't because it was only for a limited time from a specific website and I was too late to get a physical copy (PHYSICAL MEDIA IS FOREVER, BUY LASERDISK!).

I've heard about the Grimm Campaign, but I haven't seen anything actually physical that can be bought, not even a freaking guidebook. I have Combat Ready! ...but no friends to play it with.

World of Remant was... a thing. I will say that. Which leaves...

The best thing Rooster Teeth has ever made. I remember a video that criticized RWBY Chibi as "a series that uses the main series characters better in every way". Seriously, Rooster Teeth, THIS IS HOW YOU SAVE RWBY! JUST MAKE MORE CHIBI! WHY IS THIS SO HARD FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND?!

[bestangelofall]

Think about... a new Red Hood comic book series... written by judd winick... art by nick robles...

That would be nice, wouldn't it?

I know we are always talking about Nick Robles' horny art lmao (and for good reason) but seriously, his style is really really pretty. I really like his art in The Dreaming: Waking Hours. Perfection.

I am also very partial to Phil Noto, and I'd sell my soul to have Phil Noto drawing Jason, *especially* Jaybin. IT WOULD BE ADORABLE. There's just a sense of movement[*] in Noto's art that I think would go really well with Jason (especially if it were for a story with a—ah... non defanged Jason, shall we say.)

[*]I know some/a lot of people don't like Noto's action scenes, but I do. I don't know why, they hit differently.

As for the writer... Winick would be cool, since he's the creator of (resurrected) Jason. Apart from him, maybe Rosenberg could be a cool choice.

but I'll be honest and say that I'd be very interested in seeing a more poetic writing style for a Jason comic (although, UTRH is quite poetic at times). Yes, I am talking about Marjorie Liu. I AM SORRY I am just completely obsessed with her work on BW2010, and if I had any say, she would write every comic book ever (maybe we could let other writers write too... under her supervision 🧐).

(Please note that I am saying this because it would be my personal wish fulfillment. I don't think she ever wrote for DC. For all I know, she might hate Jason and write him like Morrison did lol.)

tl;dr: Winick an Liu partner to write it, and Noto and Robles take turns to do the art.

Thank you so much for the ask! :D

[mochi-kitty]

Being an impulse fan is like walking the edge of a knife sometimes

Rant about cartoon impulse that morphs into complaints about the young justice show itself.

Please scroll I just needed to complain a little

cuz on one hand that’s my boy. My complicated driven and violent creature who sometimes doesn’t understand that danger is realTM… and to see him animated is a dream but the only place he’s really animated is in a half anime half cartoon low effort art style series that sorta got him right in the season they introduced him in but then when the show got rebooted they turned his cringe dial allllll the way up and it’s kind of painful to rewatch because they didn’t hold onto a single bit of his story in the reboot after season 2 and if you thought they hated writing him in the newer comics well they also hate to do it in animation (as said previously they just never know what to do with the flashes hence why Wally barely appeared in Justice league unlimited). Season 2 impulse was okay, I was happy with what I got. Season 3 kid flash was unbearable. Season 4 kid flash was better but not as good as season 2 and they brushed over his involvement like nothing.

It just sucks so much because an impulse series is never going to happen. The TV Industry is too far into other genres like Harley Quinn and kiteman to even attempt spending money on adapting the impulse comics even if it would find a small audience, the fandom is just too divided between the multiple interpretations that were created for Bart Allen over the years. From aging him down when he shouldn’t have been to making him more adult and then never using him or killing him off to make him young again.

And it SUCKS so much because was keeping his comic personality in the young Justice show too much to ask for? Could the writers really not find any use for him past season 2? Could they not be bothered to read up on his lore? Not even from the wiki?

I keep thinking of what it would be like if the show directors had just a little more wiggle room to work with. Like if they didn’t HAVE to keep a central plot involving 30 different characters to wrap up a 24 episode season with a big battle at the end only to remember in hindsight that they A. forgot some characters still had holes in their plots and B. no one got character development that was substantial enough to matter. We had up to nearly a decade between season 2 and season 3 and it was a miracle in itself that it even got this chance in the first place. Even I admit I was too excited to care at the time but now it’s kind of painful to find all the faults in it when it’s been left again on the back burner of a greedy studio. From the time skips to introducing SO MANY new characters all in one season,,, the show practically dug itself in a hole and I will die on this hill. I understand the time constraints, the money issues, the audience reacting to a new season years after the last one when we’ve turned the internet into a harsher judgement zone. They wanted to include every character DC ever created, if only to please that one DC fan who even knew about Halo or dolphins existence and then add in real world issues on top of that to make it relatable.

IMO they bit off more then they could chew. Despite what redditers will tell you, the time skips were a cheap way to avoid certain parts of the characters development and they hindered more then they helped. Not only did we not get to grow with our original team of hero’s, we had to accept that we wouldn’t get to see 7 years of their growth (not even in flashbacks). And it just kept happening in a lesser volume with each season. Add on top of that we had the 20 new people they’d introduce who’d get the same no development treatment. Season 4, of course, tried to course correct and made little arcs for the original characters to get developed. Almost 9 years within the story later and with one of the original dead for no reason.

I just keep wondering if they hadn’t done any of that, what it would be like. Even the big rolling up hill plot of 24 episodes that crests 14 minutes into the last 20 minute episode with the remaining 6 minutes being the down time. If we had it more like the original Justice league cartoon with part 1-2 episodes focusing on one major plot or issue with all or most team members showing up. Or if we had kept it like season 1 with the monster of the week style of episodes (see supernatural season 1 to know monster of the week better) would we have gotten better character development? Would it have paced out the big bad reveal at the end more efficiently? Would it have forced the writers to actually read up on the characters they were adapting past their surface level personality? We’ll never know.

I can’t even hate the young justice plot that much either because it’s not terrible, it just the way they play dolls with the characters that hurts because I want to love it. My fav has been animated and I can see them move past their still comic pages and hear them actually talk on screen, that alone should be enough but it’s not.

Not when I can’t rewatch any of it without the high chance of getting second hand embarrassment if I don’t pay attention to when I have to skip ahead. An issue that wouldn’t even be a thing if the writers had JUST ORGANIZED THEMSELVES A LITTLE BETTER AND READ THE DAMN CHARACTERS COMICS A LITTLE.

I can’t even talk about the outfits or art style or the battle animations or the relationships or the specific character based plot holes or the change of priority the reboot brought or idk maybe Wally’s death??

[talleyuh]

i’m a pretty big fan of DC comics (specifically the movies because there are just so many gosh darn comic runs out there but i do my wiki research) and the characterization of diana prince/wonder woman is so all over the place.

i feel like i haven’t seen an adaptation of her character that really served her well, like everyone makes her super boring? i often see the criticism of captain marvel that she had no real personality outside of being a strong woman and i see that a lot with Diana in the DCAMU. like yes she’s a strong woman but I feel like there’s so much more that can be done with that character.

all of her dialogue in the dcamu movies was just really flat and boring. when she took center stage in wonder woman: bloodlines she made for a really forgettable character. i liked that they showed the lengths she would go in battle when she blinded herself to fight medusa but i had to reread my letterboxd review because i couldn’t remember that. i feel like the writing issue could be said for all of the dcamu movies, but they’re not available to watch on max anymore so i could be wrong.

i’ve seen most of the dceu movies (i am the strongest soldier i know) and i just found diana in any movie past wonder woman (2017) to be flat, repetitive, and radiate serious nlog energy. the entire crux of her character is that we the audience is to find her attractive, but god forbid we mess with her or she’ll beat us up. or when she said “i’m unlike any woman you’ve ever met” what about all the other female superheroes out there? she only works in a sort of male fantasy-only girl on the team kind of vibe. kind of similar to early black widow from the marvel movies but with only a little more agency.

i revisited justice league and justice league unlimited for the second summer in a row and i feel like the episodes where we get diana center stage are some of my favorites. even though i have my gripes with bruce timm and the writing of diana there too, i think diana works a lot and she could’ve carried her own series with a different set of writers.

as far as i can tell in the in jl and jlu (and the 6 issues i pirated from the sensational wonder woman) diana is levelheaded, kind, compassionate, incredibly headstrong, and genuinely smart. sometimes she prioritizes the brawn a little more than strategy but she was raised as a warrior and i feel like that could’ve been an interesting arc to explore.

i really hate how in every adaptation i’ve seen, they made all of the Amazons seem like heartless misandrists. like according to greek mythology, ortrera (the mother of the amazons) was raised in a world where women were treated horribly so she left and built her own world with other women so they could live in peace and train to be warriors. i’m assuming that ortera’s daughter hippolyta (even tho she died) is supposed to be diana’s mom. i think that the pressure of basically being an heir to themyscira could’ve been a lot of pressure for diana to subscribe to her grandmother’s line of thinking and been part of the reason she even left paradise island in the first place. also women were oppressed because femininity was seen as lesser and i would’ve loved to see femininity not be villainized and have a place to flourish on paradise island where they would be safe to express themselves.

the more i watch dcau shows, the more i can tell that they were made by men for boys and no one else. diana and shayera were sidelined so much even though they were probably the most compelling, at least to me. i feel like the audience was supposed to side eye diana because she grew up in a culture that was misandrist but didn’t take the care to explain with nuance why that was a problem.

time and time again we see people write diana to reject femininity and denounce her womanhood in favor of her strength to show she’s just as good as a man, but that sucks. she has the potential to be such an interesting character on screen if someone is willing to put in the work. and i especially hate that we only see her embrace femininity when she’s in a romantic situation with a man. we see her talk a lot about the deep sisterhood she shares with her amazon sister, but i wanna see it happen. i want to see her embrace the women on the justice league, have girls nights with her civilian friends, complain about work, just exist as a regular woman living in america.

i’m so sick of every adaptation of her character have themes tied to surface level gender politics because we’ve already gotten the same character a dozen times when the other two parts of the trinity are given so much depth. so challenge yourself, write diana like a human being!!! she is so much more then her gender

[dotthings]

Some DC stan BNF on twitter with 48k followers is shouting about how they “won” because Gotham Knights was cancelled and called it a disgrace to the Batman legacy. What did you win? The cancellation of a diverse, beautifully written Gotham based show that has the most unique live action portray of Harvey Dent ever? With a storyline that honored Batman’s legacy with every episode, examined what that legacy is, the nature of the good Batman does, and the people he mentors? Does it make you mad a black woman is Robin? Stephanie Brown is queer? A good DC show is being yanked off the air. I’ve been a DC fan a very long time and I love Gotham Knights.

People don’t have to like the show but the narrow mindedness and hatred and spite began before it even aired. They hated on it before it aired even one episode. So how are these dc fans to spit on a series like Gotham Knight this hard. I understand it’s not going to be for everyone, maybe some people found it boring, or they just aren’t that into this part of DC, or they didn’t want something so AU, what I’m questioning are the people who under the flag of being the True DC Fans went this hard targeting it and hating on it, beyond reason.

Its depiction of Gotham was lovely. It drew inspiration from BTAS and the comics, it examined characters familiar to me and not so familiar to me in different ways. It captured the spirit of Gotham, in a gritty, semi-steampunk, semi-gothic way. And it was an openly inclusive DC series about generational trauma.

As a DC fan I am really glad to have had this.

You have won nothing.

[sliipppy]

I haven't read Marvel in forever, i dont keep up. I dont read much of it in general despite it being what got me into comics. (Ms. Marvel is my favorite comic character ever, and her 2016 run is still to this day my favorite series ever.) So basically what I'm saying her is take way I say with a grain of salt.

I think Tom Taylor is Dc's Zeb Wells. Like fans hate the writers, but they keep getting projects. Taylor is dominating DC, doing so many series, and Wells keeps getting to work on the mcu projects. They both pull the most insane plotlines out of their ass to keep readers that end up going against their characters.

Importantly, neither lets the character they write progress. There's no development, just insane plot twists. (Like the whole Mj-Paul thing or most recently Bruce becoming nightwing shenanigans.)

While Spider-Man stays miserable, unable to just be an adult who can be married, have kid, be a person. Like he's not allowed to move on, which is why Ultimate Spider-Man works so well. Nightwing, on the other hand, is kinda the opposite, he is this perfect golden boy who can't do any wrong, who has no issues, has great relationships with every member of his family for some reason and is just happy-go-lucky. Both Nightwing and Spider-Man are bad because they are the two extremes of opposite ends, and neither are allowed to develop or progress as a character because of it.

Fortunately, for Spider-Man fans, things seek to be getting better as that series is ending soon, and there's Ultimate Spider-Man. I think DC fans are going to be stuck with Tom Taylor for a while, though.

This is random rambling at 2am, don't take any of this seriously.

[cogbreath]

i waint to hea r your bbt things

sheldon is also not the only one whos autistic imo. im not certain of who i all headcanon as such, but i feel its a fitting one for amy and bernadette actually. i think a lot of the problems with the way sheldon's autism is written is the fact that other characters don't *respect* him about it. like his needs and behaviors are often belittled or treated as nonsensical. overall i think everyone should be much kinder and understanding about it towards him seeing as they are literally his friends and all.

also probably a nitpicky thing and a matter of my own autistic sensory preferences but i feel it makes more sense for sheldon to NOT wear his sleeves rolled up for sensory reasons. whatever though im allowed to project. also i think they missed an opportunity to explore his interest in vexillology more? like there was maybe 1 or 2 episodes i remember about it but if youve ever met a vexillology enjoyer you know its a common topic they gush about.

speaking of gushing i think the dynamic between sheldon and amy would be like. two autistic best friends who love to infodump at eachother and do parallel activities. at most maybe they have some sort of queerplatonic thing going on? but im not actually super versed in what that means despite being aromantic myself xP

oh anothet thing that bothers me is how the female characters are written as not getting any of the geeky stuff??? it's stupid. like, yeah penny isnt a nerd, but she's an aspiring actress i think she would know what a star trek is. -_- honestly like, all of them would understand a lot of those things and are probably into similar stuff. bbt seems to think that like, these are Guy interests that all women dont understand or get when in reality like, dc comics n shit like that, literally your average person can follow along so i hate that they make the women seem as if they don't understand star wars references.

obviously this is probably one of the most common complaints about the show but id love to have made a lot of the pop culture references controlled and niche. we dont need a reference every other 5 minutes, id like to define each character's interests in a more sensicle way outside of just "haha guys look theres nerd stuff on tv hahah did you guys get that reference"?

also another problem is the way howard behaves. like some episodes his behavior is like, sexual harassment at times, which is met with a laugh track every time. not cool, and unnecessary, should be written to be more respectful. and then of course id like to make him have a better view of his mother, the dynamic in the show is one based off of antisemitic stereotypes about jewish mothers, and thats shitty. i wont retcon it to be a perfect mother/son relationship, like they would definitely still bicker, but i want to potray his mother as more than nagging and obsessive, like perhaps she does care too much and doesn't always treat him as an adult at times, but i dont find a lot of the overall nastiness that happens in the show between them to be funny or interesting.

raj is a pretty okay character imho, but definitely needs to be written more respectfully. He is a major example of the trope of characters of colour being sidelined. like the fact he was the ONLY character to be single in the end of the series? its kinda fucked up lol. obviously as mentioned before i think raj x howard should be the canon outcome. howeber both of them are bisexual, they both are potrayed as having interest in women; but i also think their interest in eachother is serious, or at least should be written as such. its also probably likely that the way he's written in terms of his culture should be improved but i havent gotten around to that just yet. i also think his anxiety issues should have been written with more respect, like the fact he was physically unable to talk to girls i think shouldnt have been an issue he had with *just* women. it seems they were trying to potray him as having selective mutism? but obviously thats not a thing that ONLY happens when one is a around ppl they r attracted to.

bernadette im actually rlly excited to write better because she reminds me of myself at times. i will dial her mischievous nature and her interest in microbiology up to 10. i will make her infodump about prions just i do.

also imho leonard is transmasc. i dont have any like, "evidence" or theory for why i think that other than just he feels that way to me. not that we even need justifications for transgender headcanons around these parts though.

also wil wheaton will NOT be existing anymore as a character in the narrative due to the fact he blocked me on tumblr for some dumbass shit. LOL.

uh i didnt expect to actually have all that much to say about this show... LOL.. enjoy my rambling!

[bougiebutchbitch]

Congratulations, you made me start reading White Knight! I'm not a fan so far, but I believe you said it gets better?

lmao, I am shaking hands with you and pretty much every other Batjokes fan!

It does get better. By a lot. I would encourage you to keep going!

The whys & wherefores are below the cut - but I have to give the obligatory disclaimer that this is all personal opinion. I know this is a bit of a contentious comic in the fandom, for reasons I fully understand! I'm not looking to get into a debate - just to ramble a little and share my love for this series with folks who, hopefully, will appreciate that x

The most egregious issue I had with White Knight was that Jack seemed to be an entirely different character from Joker. So... why should I even care about him?

Like. He started wearing a suit? And working out to get the Stereotypical Superhero Bod rather than rocking that classic scrawny Joker look? And he became a freaking politician? Bullshit.

Add to that the shoddy mental health depictions (that's... really not how DID works, DC) and the blatant homophobia of "We will literally say ON THE PAGE that Joker is in love with Batman, but only when he's evil - when he's good, he's in love with Harley and hates Batman".... Yeah, the initial comic has issues, to say the least.

BUT. I do think that in the later chapters, after Jack's 'death' - so, in the Beyond the White Knight era! - Jack's characterisation gets wayyyy more believable. He reads like a good incarnation of Joker! He's annoying - purposefully, irrepressably so! He's a dork! He's hyper-intelligent but also just plain ol' hyper! He does his own sound effects! He goofs about because he thinks he's hilarious (and Bruce kinda indulges him and it's very cute)! He's A MASSIVE Batman fanboy, and hooooo boy does it show!

There's a gigantic Queer Undertone to his relationship with Batman - even more so than is the norm, for Batjokes. One need only look at the little heart emoticon when he talked to Bruce in the Valentine's Day issue. Or the whole 'Harley gets to call you Bats but I don't? :pout:' part. Or the 'those two bicker like an old married couple' bit, or the part where Jack asks Batman if he can ride on the back of his motorcycle ("You won't even feel my arms around you ;)" - holographic flirting at its finest!), or even Bruce's relationship with Harley!

I'm serious. You do NOT need to be wearing the Queer Viewing Goggles in order to interpret Jack wholeheartedly supporting Bruce and Harley getting together and being happy together, with or without his involvement, in a very OT3-sorta-fashion.

Buuuuuut if you're after explicit statements that Jack is still in love with Batman as Jack, rather than Joker, you won't find them in this comic. I would argue that there's enough implicit stuff there to see Jack as 100% bisexual, in love with Bruce and Harley, but, as usual.... that reading remains implicit. Instead, there is enough ambiguity for Comic Dudebros to argue that The Magic Brain Pills 'cured' Joker both of his mental illness and his love for Batman. Which... sigh. :/

In other news, I genuinely like the depiction of Bruce in this comic! So driven, so stoic... But he's also learning slowly how to be vulnerable with the people who love him, how to accept and live with his panic disorder, and how to impart affection to his sons! He's learning that he's allowed family, happiness, and peace! Those are arcs I will never tire of.

Harley is also a delight - a take-no-shit, smart yet fun interpretation of the character. She doesn't really read like the Harley I know and love, but regardless, I'm invested in her and her story!

So, yeah. Awesome art, decent storyline (not exceptional, but far from the worst out there!), fascinating Elseworlds look at the entire Batfam, and strong, strong implications of an m/m/f OT3... There's a lot not to love. But there's a lot to love, too!

I hope you enjoy!

[emperorsfoot]

I always wanted to ask Do you have a favorite version of Keldor? I personally enjoy the CGI version.

It took me a long time to get to like the CGI version of Keldor. His design is so dramatically different from every version of Keldor that came before him that when the series was first released I thought he should have just been an OC with a different name. His race was different, his backstory was different, and his motivations are different. He is not the same Keldor as the Keldor I fell in love with.

But none of the characters in the Core/CGI Masters of the Universe are the same characters that people feel in love with before. Everyone is different. Cringer is no longer an adorable grainy cat but is now an aged mentor and pseudo-parent figure. Man-at-Arms who previously was the mentor and pseudo-parent figure is now one of Adam's peers. Ram Man became Ram Ma'am and was given a backstory and depth of character development I never even imagined for the character before.

Everyone in Core/CGI is different from what they were before and that includes Keldor.

At first I didn't like this version of him, but now I see how he fits in with the rest of the world and cast he's paired with and I do appreciate and like him.

But my favorite Keldor... hm, that's a tough one.

I like aspects of every version of Keldor.

I like the Classics-Line comics version of Keldor for his motivations.

In the Classics continuity, Keldor does not start off evil. He is the eldest son of King Miro and next in line for the throne. But the population is divided and racist and Keldor is half non-human. The people already did not accept Keldor as their King, and their prejudice is only validated when Keldor is implicated in the death of his step-mother the dowager Queen.

This does not instantly make Keldor bitter, resentful, or "evil". As Keldor is leaving Eternos (banished for a crime he did not commit), his thoughts are of unity and healing. Of unifying Eternia as one people.

Later, even after he's been Skeletor for decades, at the conclusion of his final battle with He-Man as he lay dying, Keldor reaffirms that peace and unity was what he really wanted all along. He begs Adam to be a good king to all people of Eternia, both human and Gar, and all races.

Classics-Line Keldor is a tragic figure who dos the wrong things for the right reasons and is doomed by the narrative.

But I also like DC Comics Keldor.

Overall I hate the DC run of the MotU franchise. I feel like they did not understand the world or the characters, or even the point of Masters of the Universe. DC did not know what MotU was or is supposed to be. They did not do the reading and turned in a shitty class project.

But they did do one(1) interesting thing, and that is Keldor's backstory.

Prince Keldor is once again the eldest son of King Miro. But this time he's not a legitimate heir.

He's a bastard.

He's not just a child born out of wedlock, he's a child that his father was ashamed of and always resented.

Keldor grew up as the black sheep of the family, a public shame to his father who had an otherwise spotless reputation as a heroic warrior and champion of what was "right".

Keldor was denied any kind of connection to his mother and her people. Miro wouldn't let Keldor visit Anwat Gar, or even study the Gar language and culture from the confines of the palace in Eternos. Keldor was made to assimilate into Eternos human society even though he was not fully human, did not look human, and would never be accepted as a human among other humans.

DC's Keldor is also a tragic character.

But unlike Classic's where he was a noble hero who went down a dark path, DC's Keldor is a marginalized person who was pigeon holed into becoming the villain. His society and his own family gave him literally no other option except to become the monster they already saw him to be.

I like 2002 Keldor because the angst (and absurdity) of his backstory is exactly something my 12-year-old self would have come up with if I had known such a character existed back then.

Once again, Keldor is the half-brother of Randor, uncle to He-Man, and the eldest son of Miro.

But it seems like in 2002 Miro had no idea Keldor even existed.

Instead, some great cataclysm befell the Gar people either shortly before Keldor was born, or perhaps when he was still an small infant. Keldor's mother, holds Miro personally responsible for the tragedy that befell her people and seeks to use her son, Miro's own son, as an instrument of revenge.

That tragedy in this backstory is two-fold. One that Keldor never even had a chance to be anything else besides the villain. He was bred to be an antagonist and already set on the path before he was even aware of the world enough to realize he might have a choice. Two, he's seeking revenge on the wrong man. It is not his father, Miro, that is responsible for the cataclysm its Count Marzo.

2002 Keldor's story is a greek tragedy.

Finally, I also really like the original Keldor from 1987, because he's just a blank slate and can be anything we want him to be.

Keldor was King Randor's brother. But we don't know if he was older or younger, or if he was half-Gar or fully human.

All we do know for sure is that he was an aspiring sorcerer who's experiments went wrong and he was trapped in dimensions beyond time.

In an interview with the writer for this comic, they state very clearly that Skeletor is Keldor. The name "Keldor" was coined specifically because is sounds like something you could get if you mispronounce "Skeletor".

Skeletor is Keldor.

But, that is never explicitly stated or shown in the canon comic. So if someone hasn't read the interview and doesn't know the Word of God, then there's no reason to assume Skeletor and Keldor are the same man. In a previous comic its stated that Skeletor is a "demon" from another dimension.

A person could come up with any number of wild stories with this information. Perhaps Keldor and Skeletor are not the same person but instead switched places. Skeletor is a demon from another dimension and when Keldor's spell went wrong it teleported Skeletor to Eternia and Keldor into the demon dimension to take Skeletor's place.

There're lots of possibilities!

Anyway, to answer your original question:

I don't have a favorite Keldor.

I love all Keldor's equally, but for different reasons.

If I absolutely had to choose, I would say the "version" of Keldor that lives in my head is my favorite, and that version of Keldor is an amalgamation of all the versions of Keldor that've been made to date.

[raan-miir-tah]

sci-fi I LIKE and whether or not I define it as 'good sci-fi'

Starwars: bad. treats humans as a default species and treats planets as if they are small settings. This is a sin no amount of cool space wizards can change

DC Comics: bad. Why are all their aliens humanoid and refugees. Like, all of them. I've hated every way they deal with aliens. I know I am a Supergirl stan.

Murderbot Diaries: good. Thought out and science based worldbuilding, best characters ever. Aliens are unknowable and strange, human society has adapted to space

Autonomous: good. Multilayered analysis disguised as worldbuilding which is actually just science infodumping with a mask on

Rabbit and Robot: terrible. The robots kept shitting all over the place and humans came from alien monkey shapeshifter sperm.

to be Taught, if Fortunate: amazing. The most tangibly real fantasy on what actually finding aliens will be like. The ending made me cry.

the Mimicking of Known Successes: ok. Does give reasons for humans moving to Jupiter

This is How You Lose the Time War: incredible. You don't need a review u know its good

Iron Widow: good. Science and fantasy and a polyam that fixed my soul

the Money Shot: bad but funny

Once and Future: shit. Must Read

Renegades trilogy: meh. Best YA romance

17776: spectacular for some of the reasons that makes other sci-fi bad, love it

the Code series: good but basic. Characters really tug on my heart strings

the Gunk: good. The soundtrack stays on during sex

Lightyear Frontier: good. Only cozy game that matters /j

Citizen Sleeper: great. Made me cry.

[aingeal98]

Top five characters

Of all time would be very, very hard to answer uhh.... Hm. You know what I'm going to try anyways. I can't make any sort of ranking for them because they all occupy such huge amounts of space in my brain so let's go with the order in which I found them.

1: Valkyrie Cain

From the Skulduggery Pleasant series and perhaps the most relatable character I've ever come across. She's Irish she's bisexual she uses humour as a coping mechanism she has an ego sky high she goes through so much trauma her own reflection hates her she's just. So good.

2: Toph Beifong

From avatar the last airbender. Iconic TV show iconic character. I feel like I shouldn't even need to explain this one like she's just too cool. Joined the show late and made every moment count, she was a delight to watch. I think avatar being the first show I experienced online fandom with is part of the reason she makes the top 5, but hey, nostalgia is one hell of a drug and she was a foundational part of my childhood that helped shape all the future characters I'd come to love.

3: Willow Rosenberg

From Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My favourite little meow meow (She has no morals, unfathomable amounts of power, and the only reason she hasn't destroyed the world is because her friends are in it and they like fighting monsters together) Such a good deconstruction of the nerdy best friend archetype and also she's a lesbian. And kills misogynists. But not unless they really piss her off because her friends kind of have a whole thing about murdering other humans and she spends a lot of time trying to pretend her morals are the same as theirs.

4: Cassandra Wayne

Everyone pretend to be shocked. The whole reason I got into the batfam and dc outside of the titans. I saw that Dick had a sister who was a cooler version of Batman and never looked back. No regrets even though comics can be. Well. This whole blog is a decent summary of all my thoughts on her. Also hilariously enough she's the only person on this list who would not be OK with murder. Congrats on being the most normal one here in that regard Cass it's not something that happens to you like. Ever.

5: Sameen Shaw

From Person of Interest. Bisexual sociopath and one of the best TV characters ever created. Watch Person of Interest for Taraji P Henson in Season 1 and then Root and Shaw from season 2 onwards. Trust me it's worth it. She's everything.

Honorable mentions: Marcy Wu, Helena (Orphan Black), Rukia Kuchiki, Jinx (Arcane), Chara from Undertale actually they should probably be top 5 now that I think about it but oh well. Team RWBY, Arya Stark, Daisy Johnson, Brittany from Glee and many many more.