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jokeroutsubs · 4 months ago

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[NEW ENG TRANSLATION] Bojan Cvjetićanin, Joker Out frontman: The world's being destroyed by unhappy people, so we should try to bring happiness to as many people as possible

Original article Written by: Sonja Javornik 28.11.2021 English translation by: @varianestoroff proofread by: @flowerlotus8

With two sold-out concerts in Ljubljana's Cvetličarna (the second one will be broadcast on TV Slovenija on New Year), Joker Out proved that, after a long time, we have new idols for the youth. The two concerts in Cvetličarna sold almost 600 of their CDs.

The majority of their audience are girls, which isn't surprising, as the band consists of handsome, talented and smart lads. Bojan Cvjetićanin is the frontman of the band and also the author of most songs. The Sociology student fascinates in many ways, as, despite his young age, he's an excellent and knowledgeable interlocutor.

I was surprised by how enthusiastic senior fellow musicians are about your success. They say you bring hope that the music scene will spring to life again. I'm glad they don't see us as a threat, so it made me extremely happy to see their honesty. Last time, Boštjan Meglič¹ came up to me and told me with a genuine smile that we reminded him of their early days.

Yes, we can definitely compare you to Siddharta - but, after them, there hasn't really been a band to cause such hysteria and excitement. I can say that everything has worked out really well. COVID-19's impact on us was positive, as we couldn't wait for the first album. It was a big thing for us. Since it didn't make sense to release it when there were no gigs, we polished it and changed it in a way we're really satisfied with, and we can finally say for ourselves that we're a really good band. We have a great energy, we're all good musicians and our arrangements are good. We're a solid team.

Nowadays we don't seem to have as much patience as we used to, so it's good that this long pause hasn't demotivated you. Do you feel like there are other younger musicians who are willing to be patient to be successful, or are you more of an exception?

¹Boštjan Meglič is a founding member of Siddharta and plays drums in the band.

I dare say we've taken a very mature approach, covering all the aspects needed to make it work. We're always willing to play for free as opening act for exposure, without any financial demands. That felt like an understandable investment, and I think a few others are doing that too - bands like MRFY, Koala Voice... We also started to acknowledge how important the overall image is, because you also have to externally portray what you represent in the music. I think a lot of people underestimate that, or think of it as showing off, but clothes on stage are actually important, as we also act differently by putting on specific stage clothing. We put on things we really dig, and we don't look for inspiration in fashion magazines.

For sure, rockers in Slovenia tend to underestimate their image - maybe they're afraid of looking too pop. On the other hand, serious rockers have always put a lot of emphasis on appearance and distinctive clothing - think of Bowie, Freddie (Mercury), but also Guns N' Roses or AC/DC, who can't be counted as pop artists, for sure! Or Siddharta, for Slovenia. Could it be that you've made such a difference compared to other young bands because you don't do music as amateurs, instead you understand that also this business has its rules?

For sure. We realised that there's no shame in saying that this is our job. As long as being a musician is perceived as a hobby in this country, it'll remain a hobby. You're no less an artist if you make a living out of this!

When did you start taking care of your appearance? Would you have looked the same on the stage of Cvetličarna even before the COVID-19 epidemic?

We'd have a similar style, as we knew from the beginning that Joker Out had to work as a whole. For Cvetličarna we went to RTV studios and borrowed clothes. Our stylist Suzana Juršič was with us and helped us choose the right items.

On stage as sex symbols

When I met you backstage before your concert at Cvetličarna, you warned me not to miss the intro. And it was brilliant - you prepared a video intro. How so?

We hoped for an epic intro, but we couldn't picture what that would look like. Mark Pirc, who shoots our videos, quickly intuited what we thought, so we let him design the whole visual concept. Afterwards, he called us and told us that we needed special outfits, in which we then filmed the intro a few days before the concert.

You always mention regular colleagues, you must have an extended team, which is unusual in Slovenia, as everything tends to follow the 'do-it-yourself' principle - I'll do it myself, so I can spare the fee.

This comes from the 'hobby vision' I mentioned before. Everybody can do everything themselves to save money, we left other aspects to people who know best. We quickly realised that we needed to be surrounded by people who love us and understand what we want to become. Joker Out isn't just the five of us, but there's Mark, who makes videos, there's Sandi, the sound engineer, a lighting engineer, a photographer. The permanent part of the team is small. We also have a guy who helps us carry and set up the equipment, and we used to have a photographer for a while, but we don't anymore. We also have a PR rep.

What does it financially mean for you? Are you already in profit or do you still have losses because of the team?

Absolutely. The deficit's a big part of our narrative, and we still go deficit if we have to. We often have a headache when it comes to certain amounts, but we still go to the ATM as we believe in our story. And we go to the ATM a lot... (smiles)

All successful stories started with the band members investing their money because they believed in themselves - like Čuki, Siddharta... But really, not many are ready for a financial investment.

It could quickly happen that the risk's high and the reward's low. We're lucky we've never believed in failure. Our dream was to play on big stages, but the process never was a necessary evil for us. We enjoyed the climb. Well, there are still a few more climbs to go! We've made it up the first climb and are now on the first top cap...

Aren't you afraid this might already be the peak?

Honestly, I'm not afraid of this as I feel a lot of creative energy in me. With this album, we haven't said everything we want. Also, nobody's worried next album will be less successful. I dare say that, out of almost all alternartive artists, we're the ones who do the most ourselves and work like a well-oiled machine. Even our first album was successful commercially, which makes us very happy.

The album is available online, and you've also released a CD for fans. How many CDs have you sold?

I don't know the exact amount, I know we sold around 500 to 600 CDs just at the two concerts in Cvetličarna, which seems a lot to others.

We're surrounded by people who love us and understand what we want to become

Worry not, that's a huge number given the times. Do you feel like a sex symbol as, already by the second song, bras were flying on stage?

At first, we were very scared on the first night, as we waited a year and a half for this mythical moment. This certainly increased expectations, but also stress. I had a million different scenarios playing in my head, and then it happened...

Did you have any stage fright?

I had a weird stage fright. I wasn't afraid of going on stage, I didn't know what would happen afterwards. As we stood and waited, we heared everything happening on and off stage, so we went on stage quite scared and shocked. We couldn't realise all the enthusiasm was just because of us! The second night we went on stage already as sex symbols, that's how we really felt.

Are you the most popular with girls because you're the most exposed, probably?

Different sides have formed, so we're all satisfied. (smiles) When we post, we can't wait to see who people are rooting for, who's the sexiest...

Bigger stages than the one in Cvetličarna are waiting for you, but you've already played on smaller Slovenian stages over the summer. Was there such response as in the capital?

Everywhere we went, the response was really good. In Cvetličarna, people already knew lyrics that aren't even online yet! This didn't surprise us, as we knew that those who came to our summer gigs would also come to the other side of Slovenia for our concert. We have some fans who've been to more concerts than Kris, who missed two shows because he was travelling with his girlfriend! (laughs)

And you let him do it?

As at the time he had everything already booked, it couldn't be otherwise.

But I was angry at the time. Luckily, there's a fellow guitarist in Fat Butlers who we're very close with, and he was able to quckly jump in, as he knew our repertoire.

When someone really succeeds, that boosts the entire music scene. Even when Siddharta made it, the overall rock scene was in great shape, everyone was performing a lot. Do your young colleagues realise that you created opportunities for them too?

I know that the entire scene has really grown, but I can't say we're the reason for that. When we announced the Cvetličarna concert two years ago, our opening act Kokosy had just released their first songs. We chose them because they sounded extremely amusing during their performance at Škisova tržnica and had good energy. At the time, few knew this band, today they're already well established performers with quite an audience. Now also our audience knows them, so the vibes were really good during their performance.

Parents listened to Indexi and Bijelo Dugme. You come from a family of doctors. Are your parents upset that you didn't follow their path?

No, they're very happy. Mum's glad I didn't choose medical studies, dad would've been happy if I'd become a doctor too. But there's no hard feelings, as, with grandma, she's by far my biggest fan. Both go on YouTube every day and tell me how many views we make, when we'll be on the radio... I also have an older sister, who's an extremely diligent lawyer. She too is very proud of me.

So will your sister review all contracts to make sure some label or promoter doesn't scam you?

That's right. (smiles)

Your parents moved to Slovenia due to the Yugoslav Wars. Do you feel any bitterness, any trauma in your family because of this?

Both graduated medicine in Banjaluka, and came to Slovenia during the war, here they did their specialisation. Both consider Slovenia home, as here they felt accepted when they needed help. They never felt like foreigners. Sure, it was hard for them at the beginning, being foreigners in a shared country until recently², but, despite that, they successfully finished their specialisation and started a 'new life'. I never felt like a foreigner myself.

Have you ever been subjected to prejudice?

I went to a primary school with a few 'čefur'³. In Grade 8, only two students had excellent grades in Slovene - besides me, a classmate whose surname ended in -ić⁴. They probably didn't even know who came from where.

Nowadays, Balkan music's very popular among the youth. How did you keep up with it? Were you fond of it due to your roots?

Pretty much. When I was little, at home we had albums. As children, we listened to the music our parents listened to. Whether it was Indexi or Bijelo Dugme, we listened to that too. When I got my MP3 player, my sister too downloaded some songs, by Siddharta, Big Foot Mama, Trkaj and Murat & Jose. These four artists were my favourites and I could say they still are today, I still love the ex YU rock scene, especially the new wave.

²Bojan's family moved from Bosnia around 1992, the year in which the Bosnian government declared independence from Yugoslavia, a statal entity that administered the western Balkan peninsula for much of the 20th century.

³Čefur is a word with a pejorative connotation that denotes people from Slovenia who originate from other countries of the former Yugoslavia or are descendants of such immigrants.

⁴The suffix -ić is a very common way to form surnames in Slavic languages. It is a patronymic suffix, indicating 'descendant of' or a certain personal name. As in most cases, people with these surnames are Serbs or Croats, or descendants of these, said suffix turned into an indicator of one's ethnicity.

What we couldn't realise was that all the enthusiasm was just because of us

Did you start writing the texts in Slovene right away?

The first song was in English, and Martin still keeps its paper at home. The melody was good and I can use it, but the lyrics were terrible. I've never been able to write lyrics without a melody, so I write the melody first. Also, I've never written lyrics to a melody made by someone else. Except for the first one in English, I've written all the others in Slovene, and I only write when the inspiration hits me. That's when I sit and start working, and a new song comes out of that. I discard very few songs, if something isn't good, I usually find out after the first lines. I usually get carried away to the point where it progresses. I wrote the song 'Gola' differently at first, but I didn't like the chorus. Later Kris reminded me of it, and I knew immediately what to change to make it sound right.

So, are you quite self-critical?

It's true. Sometimes I like something a lot at first, but within a week it doesn't satisfy me. Then I'm sad, because I disappointed myself, and I discard it.

But the Serbo-Croatian language market is much bigger than the Slovenian one. Have you also written songs in Serbian or Croatian, which you certainly know thanks to your roots?

Not all of them, but I'm working on adapting the whole album. It's easier to write songs in Slovenian, but it's true that I never started writing songs in Serbo-Croatian either. I tried to write one song in Serbian, but it sounded so bad melodically that I quickly gave up.

How often do you visit Banjaluka?

I used to go there a lot as a child and teenager, but not much since the epidemic, so I miss it a lot. I miss my grandmother who lives there. We live partly in the city and partly in the country, and it's the country that I miss the most. Everything is so pristine there. Everything is the same as when I was a kid, even the people are the same. In rural Bosnia, there are no things that can hurt or disappoint you.

Well, politicians continue to fuel nationalism in Bosnia, so it's always tense.

I love Banjaluka, but, since I grew up, the atmosphere has been tense all the time, so I don't like that environment. I'm worried for my grandma who lives there, as times aren't looking good and things can snap quickly. In the countryside, luckily, you don't feel this.

Can music and your message help improve this world? Do you think you can change something with music?

Unhappy people are destroying the world, so we can try to make as many people as possible happy. I think spreading love and positivity is the best we can do. Goran Bregović⁵ said in an interview that he stopped believing that music could change the world when all the musicians and cultural figures united, but were unable to stop the war. I think it isn't the job of us musicians to spread world peace, but we can try to make people happy, as happy people won't cause wars.

⁵Goran Bregović is a Bosnian musician and composer.

#joker out #jokeroutsubs #bojan cvjetićanin #bojan cvjeticanin #jan peteh #nace jordan #kris guštin #kris gustin #jure macek

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welcome-leon · 2 months ago

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HOW am i only just realising that Freddie Mercury would have been Chris' gay awakening like. of course he would have been. twelve year old Chris would have seen the broadcast of the Live Aid concert and been like "I hope this doesn't awaken anything in me" and then immediately bought as much Queen merch as he possibly could

#it stands to reason that Chris has good taste in men after all #rottalks

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bestworstcase · 8 months ago

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Rwby beyond March 30th, any theories? What are you hoping gets explored? Please let me see team OREN, 🅱️lease

given how directly salient RH was to neo’s arc in v9, i expect the same to hold true for the CFVY novels in regard to the vacuo arc, and i think making that backstory more accessible to general/casual audiences is one of the core purposes of rwby beyond—giving cliff notes in a brief animated short is a lot less of a barrier than asking viewers to read two entire novels, even if the novels in question are quite short. a succinct recap of what went down with the crown’s insurgency prior to the broadcast and arrival of refugees from atlas + character-focused shorts giving some sense of what’s been going on with the vacuo coalition in the aftermath so that v10 can hit the ground running seems the most likely. a sort of after-credits “where are they now” for v8 but with the intention of setting the stage for v10 as opposed to tying off loose ends.

i anticipate it’ll be in a similar vein to the epilogue animatic—like a more narrative-driven world of remnant-esque series where it’s in-character exposition over a sort of slide show. (what i would ideally really like is if we got the same basic story told in a different ways by different characters, rashomon style, as a way of elaborating on the story’s themes about storytelling and the nature of truth.)

i am not holding my breath for anything to do with salem or cinder or summer, but i would be over the moon to get even the tiniest crumb of what’s happening over there given that they are Clearly Not in vacuo.

given the description of “untold stories happening in remnant during v9 and even beyond” i am wondering if the series will like, end around where the storyboard epilogue does—ie with the reunion after rwbyj return—again for the purpose of easing the narrative burden at the top of v9. i could even see it going as far as settling rwbyj into the New Normal in vacuo (as in, establishing up to the equivalent of where they’re at in rwby x jl pt 2), although that depends on how important the Explanations are narratively (the more important they are, the less likely they’ll be in rwby beyond bc you want to reserve critical scenes for the show proper)

the other possibility is that “and even beyond” means in the past, in which case we might get some “missing scene”-esque shorts set during previous volumes. which i think would be pretty neat.

i would love it if we got a spot or two focused on civilians rather than the main cast—for many reasons, vacuo is the ideal point in the narrative to start breaking down the hard boundaries between huntsmen and civilians and the CFVY novels focus quite a lot on non-huntsmen experiences, so i’m pretty optimistic that this will happen generally but i’d be stoked to directly get a glimpse through the eyes of an ordinary vacuan citizen or mantelian refugee with no connection to the plot whatsoever, and the relative low-stakes of an ancillary “untold (short) stories” series is the perfect place for that. fingers crossed.

in addition to the CFVY novels recap, i’m placing my bets on a short centered on qrow, oscar+ozma, ren, nora, emerald, winter and/or the schnees, robyn and the other happy huntresses, pietro+maria and whoever else is involved with converting amity into a battleship, arrival of aid from vale and mistral, glynda, (possibly) mercury+tyrian, and raven. plus tai if he’s left his cabin. that’s assuming like WOR-length shorts; if they’re longer then these can and probably will be combined more efficiently. but broadly speaking those are the important narrative gaps to fill in.

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eclecticwitchbitchsworld · 4 months ago

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Color Correspondences in the Craft

in the craft, colors have their own correspondences and symbolism. Here is a list I have compiled of some basic colors and related correspondences to get you started ! - Leviathan

Red:

Fire (aries, scorpio, Mars influencing Saturn)

passion, fire, courage, strength, power, joy, renewal, energy, health, motivation, desire, ambition, leadership, self-esteem, business deals, combat, confrontation, buying and selling mechanical things, repairs, hunting

Pink:

Venus (influencing Mars)

personal success, self love, personal harmony, friendship, calming, romance, harmony, passion, partnership, getting a move-on, physical energy, sex, action, exercise, surgery, buying, selling, & adopting animals, gardening, woodworking, new beginnings, honor, morality, emotions, femininity, breast cancer, homosexuality, compassion, relaxation, infants.

Orange:

Fire (sun, Leo, Saggitarius)

relieving depression, feelings of abandonment, increasing opportunities, happiness, mental alertness, breaking down barriers, material gain, kindness, sealing a spell, harvest, strength, dominance, legal matters.

Yellow:

Air (taurus, libra, Mercury)

healing, friendship, increase productivity, remove negative thinking, increase creativity, inventiveness, prosperity, self-esteem, beauty, life, humility, intellect

Gold:

sun

money, inspiration, prosperity, wealth, power, divine masculine

Green:

Earth (Aquarius, Cancer, Venus, Mercury)

increasing love and trust, faeries, general healing, wellness, transformation, new beginnings, prosperity, money, career, employment, hope, immortality, rebirth, garden & herbal magic, fertility, luck, courage, change, peace, harmony, relationship success, beauty, soulmates, artistic ability, affection, partnerships, alliances, grace, luxury, marriage, social activity, decorating, cosmetics, gifts, income, gardening/gardeners, architects, artists, music, painting, poetry, courtship, dating, household improvements, planning events, shopping.

Blue:

Water (Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Virgo, Jupiter, Moon)

increase wisdom, wealth, joy, opportunity, patience, peace, truth, loyalty, meditation, introspection, insight, happiness, fidelity, remove confusion, the ocean, elevation, calming, long distance travel, higher education, political power, religion, philosophy, forecasting, broadcasting, publicity, expansion, luck, growth, sports, horses, legal matters, doctors, guardians, merchants, police, psychologists, charity, self-improvement, research, studying, reading.

Violet/Purple:

Capricorn, Gemini, Saggitarius, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter

clairvoyance, relief of emotional hurt, spiritual protection, heal wounded pride, spirituality, wisdom, increasing psychic powers, meditation, justice, forgiveness, humility, the occult, hidden forces, secret dealings, memory, intelligence, communication, messages, students, merchants, editing, writing, ambition, contracts, kinship, progress, visiting friends, astrology

White

Pisces, moon

safety, protection, transformation, enlightenment, connection to higher self, becoming more outgoing, relieving shyness, the cycle of life, freedom, health.

Black:

Saturn

use in combination with white to represent balance, opposites, union of opposing forces, divination, beginning, creation, rebirth, absorbing energies, patience, binding, stability, neutralizing forces, material gain, protection, karma, death, manifestation, law, understanding ones limits, overcoming obstacles, challenges, tests, sacrifice, separation, criminals, civil servants, plumbing, justice, wills, debts, discoveries, elders, truth

Gray & silver

Moon

Divination, secrets, psychic awareness, divine feminine.

Brown:

Earth(Scorpio, Capricorn)

security, friendship, animal magic, nature magic, generosity, fruitfulness, new beginnings, harvest, health of pets & livestock, endurance, grounding, strengthening, solidifying, sound decision making, improved concentration, focus, telepathy, finding lost things, anything to do with animals.

#baby witch #beginner witch #cottage witch #green witch #little witch academia #pagan witch #tarot witch #witch #witch community #witch aesthetic #colors #correspondence #color correspondences

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moonfurthetemmie · 4 months ago

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OKAY so

- currently, the disease has no official name, not even in-universe. Zuli and Mercury are pretty much the only people in memory who have come into contact with it and survived uninfected. Everyone who was infected refers to it as some variation of ‘The Colony’s Gift’.

- The stranger’s not any other character from JMV. Just an OC made for the story. They are essentially Patient 0, though many non-intelligent creatures had been infected before them, and were almost definitely their first encounter with the disease.

- The disease can infect pretty much anything, though it kills all non-sentient life.

- The stranger’s age is undecided, but given the disease was able to almost entirely take over Jade and Obsidian’s bodies to the point of turning their own cells into fungal cells, it’s possible that the stranger is Old As Fuck and has been kept alive by the Colony constantly replacing the cells in their body in a very weird and parasitic form of regeneration.

- The Stranger officially lives with what I’ve been calling ‘The main body’ of the Colony. This thing has grown so big, it can house multiple humans inside it. Which it does. Some monsters, too, probably. But it really wants to spread everywhere, so it has people leave sometimes to try and infect others.

- The longer you’re infected, the less of your own personality remains. A few things may stay, but eventually you’re just part of the hive mind that is The Colony. The Stranger has very little of who they used to be left, if any.

- Aside from changes due to Trauma, most of the JMV manor residents have retained their personalities entirely. They weren’t infected all that long, compared to all the people who live with the main body.

- The manor residents remained on a closed network because of their isolation from the main body, and the infected there. Had the stranger stayed longer, they all would already know where the main body was and would likely have gone there to ‘connect’ with everyone else.

For whatever reason, though, the stranger left not too long after Koroit showed signs of infection. This was definitely not what the Colony wanted. Hopefully this is a good thing and won’t come back to haunt us later

- While symptomatic and part of the system, everything Jade experienced—Thoughts, physical sensations, sounds, smells, tastes—were essentially broadcast to the others at all times. Obsidian’s experiences should have been, too, but he completely mentally shut down. Since he wasn’t sensing anything, no one else did, either.

- Now that they’re network is closed off even from the Colony, and their symptoms are significantly less severe, Jade is learning how to cut everyone off from everything he senses, and only let them know what he wants them to know.

Obsidian seems to be more with-it now, but he’s already blocking them out from his thoughts. Maybe he wasn’t as shut-down as they had thought this whole time…?

But Jade’s doing good; without the Colony insisting it know everything he does, he’s getting to a point where he can use the network just like the others do, and keep some shit to HIMSELF for fucks sake

- the others are also learning how to keep some things out of the network, though they’re having an easier time of it.

- Obsidian and Jade are still contagious. Their bodies are almost entirely fungus now, and trying to completely ‘cure’ them will kill them. Mercury suspects this, but still has to do some tests to be sure. Maybe he can find a way to make them not be contagious without hurting them too much, though?

- Everyone has scars from this ordeal.

- The Colony may seem incomprehensible, and even the ones who were infected get a headache from trying to remember what it was like being under its influence, but it still has tel very basic desires: Survive, and Reproduce.

It’s almost impossible for it to not know Obsidian’s reputation, and it was likely hoping it could use the manor as a secondary ‘body’; another ‘base of operations’. Everyone inside (that it knew about) could travel between universes, which would make it extremely easy to spread; it wouldn’t have to even make them change what they were doing all that much. Dead bodies can still spread the disease just fine. Obsidian in particular would be very helpful, if the infection could spread to his tentacles.

Unfortunately for it, Obsidian and Jade were not able to be absorbed into the hive mind, and were significantly less useful as a result.

- Obsidian’s tentacles are full of spores though. That part did work.

- obsidian and Jade are also highly flammable now so. they’re not allowed near the camp fire.

Actually all the infected from the manor are pretty afraid of fire now. Instinctively. Even before Zuli suggested they torch the manor and saw how easily the mushrooms burned.

- There is a chance—albeit a small one—that once Mercury finds people who actually know how to help, that Obsidian will pull his head out of space and try to help. But that will depend on just how much the Colony scares him, and whether or not he cares enough to do anything about it.

It’s much more likely that he’ll just watch and occasionally tell them their ideas are stupid, until Peridot gets a nice containment cell to keep him in. At which point he probably gets to help by letting the pathologists take tissue samples from him

- tbh he and Jade might be a good source of material for vaccines against the disease. They’re contagious still, but the fungal cells that make up their bodies may be inert enough to be used to immunize others.

Maybe. But I don’t know if you can make a vaccine for a fungal disease. I know they’re really really difficult to treat compared to viral and bacterial diseases. Also this bitch is sentient

- There is hypothetically an alternate ending where Mercury and Zuli notice far too late that they’ve been infected. This is not a good ending

- Also, hypothetically, if two infected people were to have a child, that child would just be part mushroom. With little to no hope of being ‘cured’ or even just disconnected from the Colony without dying.

Given how large the main body is and how long it’s been around, there’s probably a number of such children. Some are even adults now.

These very important people to the Colony, especially after losing our beloveds in the manor. It knew they were more ‘connected’ to it somehow, but it never thought anyone could be cured of it. It really hopes these little shits can’t be cured.

- While it is aware of people’s perception of it as a disease, it sees absolutely nothing wrong with trying to spread. It’s not like it’s killing anyone anyways. And look! They’re all sooo happy staying with it <33

- a seemingly small symptom is that the infected do not ponder the oddness of The Colony. Specifically how it speaks to them and what they perceive from its senses. They also don’t have trouble ‘understanding’ what they’re perceiving; it tells them what it wants them to know/do and that understand that, so they don’t need to understand the rest.

Once you do start trying to understand it in its entirety, though, it can do a lot more than just give you a headache.

The Colony perceives its surroundings in a way entirely unlike humans. Trying to understand it could drive you insane. Imagine trying to explain sight to a creature with no eyes. Imagine suddenly having that electrosense shit some other animals have and trying to understand what the fuck you’re sensing. It’s gonna fuck you up, man.

Some monsters may not experience the eldritch madness. Depends on what their default senses are and how close they are to the sense of a fungal disease that can still produce fruiting bodies.

#Untitled.MP4 #Untitled LORE #JMV #JMV Obsidian #JMV Jade #JMV Mercury #JMV Zuli #JMV Zircon #JMV Koroit #JMV Paraiba #JMV Silver #JMV Jasper

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centrifugal-apotheosis · 4 months ago

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Dr Wily's World Domination FINALE: Part 3

//transcript of a Discord RP with a lot of people. List:

@rogue-nebula (Quasar), @freeroaming-curiosity (Oppy), @ripper-the-indoraptor ("Ripper" and Courier), @that-one-poison-trainer (Viper), @averagedualies (Dualie and Byte)

@mirror-buster-pkmn (Enker, Ballade, and Mega Man), @the-poke-virus (Virus) @beepboopstarman (Vasilyev)

@moonlit-faller (Kaladin, Sylphrena), @shallahi-and-snowflake (Shallahi), @faller-of-kharbranth (Malkah) @mercury-retrogay (Mercury), @rock-bird-go-brr (Notos) @nebula-incursionists-official (Baron Twyst Von Jokewyld)

(dear arc that's a lot hope I got everyone)

With Wallace and his pokeon safe and sound, The Incursionists prepared to amke their way around the main way to Wily's tower. However, they would soon be greeted by a visitor who would change their plans slightly

You know what, by the time we’re done here, i’ll have seen enough skulls to last me a lifetime :/

A familiar whistle is heard, and a strange robot lands outside the Battle Palace. Seeing the general reaction to his arrival, he raises a shield and his hand

"Wait! Don't attack! I'm on your side!" "... Proto Man? What are you doing here?"

notos lets out a breath in relief, hands retreating from their pokeballs

But why only come here now? Of all times?

"I've been here for a while, but I've had to keep low-profile until now. I've been helping Megaman with the main forces, but now I need to give you some intel that might inform your next move"

"Ballade, put your cannon down."

Ballade sighed, lowering his arm cannon.

"What's the intel?"

"Wily's forces might be being controlled from his tower, but the commands sent from there to his forces abroad are actually broadcasted via a signal booster in that pyramid over there. Meaning if you can take the pyramid"

Then we can shut down all his forces worldwide that aren't in the immediate area of the Battle Frontier

Or better yet, issue a return command to send them all here, and then back where they came from!

so we dont have to worry about missing any!

Exactly!

Ok! Lead the way Mr. Proto Man!

"Unfortunately I can't come with you. When I attacked Wily's factory I found a few of those pink-haired servants VermilineCorp is so fond of overworking, and there's also Wallace to worry about. So while you're taking the Pyramid, I'll make sure everyone we rescued gets to safety" "Do you know who or what is guarding the Pyramid?" "I can't say for certain but I do know that Wily didn't build anything new there aside from the booster. So it's something Megaman has fought before" Oh, boo. Was hoping it was something new. "One other thing to note: Wily's Dimension gate generates enough heat that he has to keep the top windows of his fortress open at all times. So once the booster's taken it'll be easy to just fly in through those skull eyes right to hs gate"

im assuming that doesnt narrow it down very much?

That's at least 108 Robot Masters or Stardroids, and at least 44 Fortress Guards. So not really. And thank you, Proto Man. We'll use that information well.

Ok, new plan: we take the pyramid, send a return command, and then fly in through the eyes. People who can't fly carry people who can

sounds good to me! i’ve got a bunch of flyers, should be able to take about… 3 extra.

that's really convenient considering I can fly and all

since when?

since now

Virus levitates a foot off the ground

Then let's go! ^u^

Fortunately going up to the pyramid was easy enough, right up until they reached the bones leading up to the entrance. These unfortunately seemed to be a timed electric gate. They are very tempted to just walk through the gate. However, that is a very stupid idea. Notos slashes at one of the bones, attempting to destroy it. They're thick and unyielding, but it does seem like the current is only projected from one side of each the bones on either side. Perhaps blocking that side might disrupt the current.

…anyone have a particularly tall ground type? especially one who’s extra immune to electricity?

Like a Golurk?

basically yeah!

Raygor! Block that current!

Quasar's Golurk does that, and across one of the three sets of bones, the current can't run anymore

Alright! everybody across!

Once everyone's across, Quasar then moves Raygor to the second, and they cross similarly

One left…

"This is… Admittedly slower than I would have expected." What's stopping us from going around?

Have you seen how many traps Wily has in his place?

everybody's almost through when one of aforementioned traps activates a Tatepakkan due to Raygor just barely crossing outside of the bones' radius, knocking the Golurk off step with the sudden pain. The last to cross was Virus, and she was right between the bones when the Golurk started to fall, reestablishing the current. Viper pulls Virus out of the way, narrowly avoiding getting electrocuted

are you ok?!

Virus's surprisingly speechless, she clings onto Viper tightly. Oppy also tries comforting Virus, as she sees both her and Viper as new friends (perhaps mistakenly in Virus's case but oh well)

(> ~ <)

You ok?

y-yah

Virus's lying she's so scared right now

If you need a minute to regroup before we press on that's fine. We'll cover you

Viper tries to return the Beartic hug that Virus is giving her, but the whole situation is a little awkward

hey, it's gonna be okay

...Virus... You ready? I don't want to force you, but Wily's threat still looms

yah

Let's get moving then

Going into the pyramid, there are lyrics flying over a massive pit of spikes. Without warning, blocks appear, then retract and appear a different place just as suddenly Kaladin looked at this once, and he shook his head. This was a good reason to use Light.

"... You have got to be kidding me."

"Any objections to being flown over, speak now."

I got no problems, it's already been one hell of a week. Virus, are you gonna fly over or do you wanna hitch a ride?

... I'm fine

Notos calls out Battery, Sargent, Andes (Shiny Noivern), and Esper. Mercury, on the other hand, realized they don't have any flying pokémon. That's a lie, actually. There is one. Volbeat. Which cannot carry an entire human being across the murder pit. Which leaves either A.) Asking someone to carry them across (ew, talking to people) or B.) parkour (oh no. spikes.)

A shadow in the room… shifted. Became darker. Became a maw into Distortion. And out tumbled a certain Hisuian Zoroark! Who then landed as a sprawled mess on a section of safe flooring.

SIS!!!!!!!

“Hi Oppy!”

Well... You're on an incursion for real now. Hope you're prepared, as things tend to get hectic. But you probably already know that

“Yyyyyep.”

Malkah crossed her forelimbs in the Bridge Four salute. With everyone's flying arrangements made, the Yoku blocks were easily defeated. What wasn't were the flying Wily bots - Lyrics and Tellys, but also these strange yellow blobs that would fly in from the side and then leave. Oppy was quite hurt when touching one. Fortunately the blocks left as soon as they arrived, but they grew more frequent as they ascended, until they came to an open room with a stble floor, and a machine with a forcefield - the signal booster!

“I guess we just… junk it? And we’re good?”

"It's not going to be that simple." Three... Two... One...

right as Ballade finished, the yellow blobs returned, but this time they formed a massive humanoid shape, with one evil red eye glaring at them

Wily Fortress Boss 3: YELLOW DEVIL

“… What the fluff.”

hey I know that guy he was in Smash Bros. you gotta hit the eye or something? That's how this works right?

Bingo. The issue is-

Yellow Devil shoots a few laser blasts from its eye at Top, Viper, and Malkah

-actually getting an opening to pull it off!

“Only ranged attack I knOW WEARS ME OUT! Aaark!”

Malkah did its best to dodge the lasers, using Shadow Sneak as a mobility tool rather than an attack as Viper jumped out of the way.

Ingrid return, Emmey you're up!

she releases her Garvantula Emmey who begins shooting electric attacks at the Yellow Devil as Viper shoots him with her Quick Boomerang attack. Virus has an idea, she uses her Gemini laser to clone herself, this distracts the Yellow Devil so Viper and friends could stay out of trouble while attacking. Notos shouts, causing their four pokemon to screech in response, shooting various ranged attacks at the beast’s eye. Malkah’s got Teru-Bozu and Chiri out, letting them use their ranged attacks as Enker raised his spear.

"Everyone! Stay behind me when it shoots! I'll block its fire!"

Viper and Emmey move behind Enker. This was met by the Yellow Devil closing its eye, and splitting its body into yelow blobs flying at Virus, reassembling at her location, hitting Viper, Virus, and Enker. Enker... admittedly wasn't expecting the splitting just yet. He took the hit, but it didn't charge his attack at all. Top Man desperately tries shooting beigomas at it, but only one connects with the eye Mercury glared at the Yellow Devil. Remember the laser rifle from p1? Yeah they're just shooting with that. Their aim isn't great, but they at least hit the thing once or twice. Probably. It's enough that Enker is able to move the girls away, or rather, Viper, as luckily that was a duplicate that was created by the Gemini laser. The replica disappears after being hit leaving the real Virus a ok.

"Are you alright?"

I'll survive

you missed me (^w^)

JUDGE ABOVE WHY DOES NOTHING WORK ON THIS OVERSIZED BLOB OF SQUEEZE CHEESE???

this outburst is punctuated by Andes firing boombursts at the eye. A Zap Square from Quasar connects with YD's eye, causing it to close, and again split into pieces lobbing itself across the room, this time at Quasar and Oppy. Oppy narrowly avoids the yellow blobs, landing next to Ballade. Vasilyev fires his plasma cutter and the Power Stone at the eye, keeping up movement as he does so.

Whatever it is, looks like the eye is holding it all together! There's 7-8 defence droids in the Devil Line. During their fights with Mega Man he took them out with Electricity and explosives! If you have any of those weaponry use those now!

Ballade followed this statement up with a barrage of Ballade Crackers. Luckily Viper was still firing her Quick Boomerang at the Yellow Devil. Mercury switches to Electric attacks, firing off a few Sparks.

I’ve got something explosive but I’m not sure how big the boom’s gonna be! Grows said they’d never tested how much nitroglycerin was in the batch I’ve got! JUST USE IT!

"You'll never know unless you use it!" “Oh dear.” EVERYONE DOWN!

Vasilyev takes out a bag, made of cloth, and lights a spark on it before tossing it with his suit’s gravity gun (esque thing)

Look out! what?

Oppy grabs Virus and gets her down (luckily that was not a duplicate Virus). Malkah's down on the floor. Viper reads the room and gets down. She also protects her Garvantula from the upcoming explosion.

Onto the floor we go. Yay. ^_^

The bag explodes roughly on contact with the Yellow Devil, filled with around 6-7 pounds of nitroglycerin, stabilized in liquid form inside fruits grown from an alien world. Thankfully Vasilyev got lucky - Yellow Devil's eye was open, and thus a blast of that power tore through the Yellow Devil's systems, and took quite a bit of the room with it. Thankfully the floor survived, but the top of the Battle Pyramid is no longer skull

Why didn't you use that earlier?

Quasar elbows the metal Top Man. This is less effective than he would have liked

It could have done nothing or it could have killed us all, I wasn’t sure. Grows could have put anything into it! Think I saw them make one with napalm in it once…

Viper and Virus are both trying to recover from the loud explosion sound. Notos clambers out from the pile of debris they’d been half buried in, grinning widely despite a slight limp on their right leg. Malkah’s still a bit disoriented from the blast. Quasar looks over to the signal booster, which is no longer shielded

Now to send a signal to all the Wily bots across the world to come here and then enter standby. That will stop the attacks for a while until we get Wily outta here

good idea

“I think I need some of that healing stuff…”

Here. I pack a number of bottles wherever I go

“…How do I use it? Do I drink it, or is it topical?”

Either works. It's pure regenerative energy in matter form after all

…can i borrow a little of that? i think i hurt my leg “...I think that’s helping.”

Top Man steps up to the booster

...of course the old bat still hasn't changed his codes. He never does… lemme see here… Quasar ya mind giving me a hand?

Quasar's able to get the booster working, and soon a signal is broadcast to all remaining Wily bots: return to base and await further orders

I'll shut this booster down in about an hour, so those "further orders" won't ever come. The bots will just stay here until we send them back through the gate

“Great!” "Can you not send them through the gate no- wait. Yes. Dr. Wily."

Yeah. Can't send em through while Wily's still on this world

#rotomblr #pkmn rp #dr wilys world domination

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skyfullofpods · 1 year ago

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It's audio fiction Sunday! This week we had the epic October 3rd episode of @re-dracula, the launch of intriguing new maritime horror @eelerschoice, and Moonbase Theta, Out's highly emotional series epilogue!

#audio fiction Sunday #audio fiction #audio drama #podcasts #moonbase theta out #lost terminal #re: dracula #small victories #breaker whiskey #do you copy #mercury: a broadcast of hope #eeler's choice #palimpsest #apollyon

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a-d-nox · 2 years ago

Note

I'm sorry if it was interpreted that you wanted a full natal chart reading. I just wasn't sure which natal chart and in which system I should send you the photos.

I enclose my natal chart and my mc persona chart, only for the analysis of my professional career.

Thank you so much

part 2: career observation (using natal and mc persona)

natal

your mc is in gemini so we are looking for its planetary ruler. mercury in the 12h (yea, i am working off the placidus charts you initially sent to me).

12h jobs: government agents (working in SNAP, USDA, SSA, BDD, etc), bootlegging, nurse/doctor at a walk-in clinic, working at a shelter or half-way home, working in a crime unit, hospital worker, managing large animals, private duty nurse, psychic, prison guard, and retirement home worker.

noteworthy aspect (tight orbs)

mercury conjunct venus: having to care for others in a semi-compassionate manner. dealing with others needs/wants. making others feel better about themselves and their appearance in society. helping people feel at peace. dealing with clothing - uniforms for the self or others. hearing a lot drama in the workplace. dealing with the social affairs of others.

neptune trine mc: working around medical drugs and antiseptics. working under a pseudonym. working with poisonous things (snakes?). working around a water source (aquarium?). an erotic job. artist freedom within field. able to maintain a face of calm without worrying others. working around a lot of masculine energy. maintaining calm in a place of chaos. working with the confined. making written reports.

pluto opposite mc: working in a place of extremes. working with poisonous animals/reptiles. working with the deadly and the uncivilized. deducing what the problems are on your own. job involving sexuality. dealing with those who are moral. working under a pseudonym. dealing with the waste of others.

mc persona

3h stellium: thought of as an intellectual. transporting others (ambulance?). surrounded by gossip - both good and bad. messaging or sharing notes often. needing to be preceptive and on guard. doing a lot of studying. speaking a lot of the time.

gemini mercury at 0°: bound to talk a lot. could be in advertisement. may need to read a lot and often for your career. could be in broadcasting or something where you need to use clear and precise diction when communicating with others. may need a lot of dexterity / hand-eye coordination. might need to speak multiple languages for the career path. multiple phones or being on the phone / on call often.

sun 2°: a wealth degree. likely to gain more due to ambition. authority. making the correct bets - taking the correct risks. confidence. your consciousness of the future. good for doing vocal entertainment (not singing but talking). could be managing others / telling them what to do.

jupiter 2h (mc ruler): often a money indicator. could be a good indicator of singing for a living. lots of financial freedom. might have an old money hobby that you participated in and are known to be really good at (racket ball, golf, polo, etc).

sun conjunct mercury: being in the spot where people are a bit starstuck when talking with you. people may be a bit uncomfortable in your presence - could be seen as threatening ("yes, boss. no, boss. anything you say, boss."). might be interviewed often.

mars opposite jupiter: needing to be cutthroat to gain money. needing to take action for there to be a lot of gain. might have a dangerous or physical job that pays a lot. might be used to seeing a lot of death and/or blood in your line of work. might be gaining money under the table or in illegal ways. might deal with triage. extreme passion for making money - you'd do ANYTHING to make some. a career where sexuality is prevalent.

my guess: EMT, ER nurse, criminal defense attorney, criminal investigator, large animal vet, prison warden, or magistrate.

hope this helps!

a.d.

click here for the masterlist

click here for more of nox's hypotheses

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#astrology #astro community #astro chart #astro placements #natal chart #persona chart #mc persona chart #astrology notes #astro observations #astrology tumblr #astro posts #astroblr #astro notes #astro content

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popculturebuffet · 4 months ago

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Pride Month: The Pride Season 1 Review: Their Here, There Queer, Get Used To It (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people. It's pride month and once again i'm late to the party as things have been hectic, in this case catching up on stuff and then just having my body and mood crash entirely for a week. But we're back and once again Kev has some rainbow flavored treats he wants me to hand out. Also some stuff to review.

This time we're kicking things off with a look at 2011 comic The Pride, starting with it's first mini series later renamed The Pride Season 1 after coming to comixology.

The Pride comes from gay comic writer and gay rights advocate Joe Glass. Glass has written a ton of queer comics i'm curious to check out, with the pride being one of his first and most notable works and one that he still dives into ocasionally, writing a sequel for Comixology in 2017, a spinoff series the Pride Adventures, with a summer special and new mini series, Agenda Dysphoria, coming this year.

The Pride follows it's universe's first, and possibly comics first all queer superhero team after openly queer superhero Fabman feels the community isn't getting nearly enough representation on the bigger team, with this universe's justice league stand in being outright homophobic at best. So he gathers all the queer superheroes he knows and together they fight for truth, justice and acceptance, while dealing with a mad preacher who plans to turn people with the superhero gene into his servants to take over the world, as you do and be a homophobic jackass, as the church often do.

The Pride seemed to be a modest success, and is something I was curious to check out: I read the first issue years ago when season 2 was announced.. and wasn't impressed, but when Kev pitched it I figured it'd be a neat thing to look at. See if I was wrong about the book and it was better than I expected or if it was just meh. So join me under the cut for pride as their here, their queer, and they've got a bear, their the pride.

The pride is drawn by Gavin Mitchell, who does a decent job, having a cartoony style with sketchy lines I feel fits the book's old school tone with modern values approach well. The weird thing is.. Mitchell only draws HALF the series, drawing thesee first two issuea nd then issue 5, so the series does suffer a bit from the art being consitant, some is good, some is not, so keep that in mind as you see panels.

We open to a news report as some jerky reporters report on various other superheroes, including Crabman and Lobster boy, a mustached crabman.

And his young soon to be dead ward. I... badly want a spinoff with this guy I mean look at him

He's a crab man with a mustache, a human hand for some reason, and a sucession of lobster boys who died horribly but don't seem to be his fault. I also like how Fabman smiles at this. Like he just loves how rediculous the world of superheroics is. But seriously if a crab dealing with severe losses on a regular basis who dresses like Freddy Mercury isn't a spinoff pitch you want to hear, I don't know what I can possibly offer you as you clearly lost lost the abliity to feel joy long ago. Now if your against it because he MIGHT have murdered a teenager.. fair point. I don't think he did on purpose justding by his OH CRAP face, but still fair.

Fabman's in his civies.. kinda dealing with the fact the hosts of the newscast casually throw out homophobic shit about him rescuing "a hunk" and outright use the term trick. You know Kent Brockman may sell out to our ant overlords but he never pulled that shit.

This unease from the broadcast compounds when we cut to some kids playing with their toys.. and one brings out a fabman figure. The two other kids turn into homophobic shit lords... only for Fabman to show up and scare the crap out of them. They super run away and the kid, Billy talks to his faviorit hero, admitting he didn't choose to be diffrent, and wondering why people suck, hoping one day they can see how great fabman is. Fabman wonders that too.. and the gears turn in his head

We get a one page interlude as we meet our villians, the reverend and basher. The reverend has basher kill a guy for complaning about exploding a little, how dare he before rambling ominously about "Ma plans".

Fabman starts to round up the heroes who will be thwartin "ma plans". We first meet Frost, An english heroine, transwoman and lesbian into punishing "Naughty Boys". She's as cold as her power set, but game for whatever her friend has plan. She was beating up some assholes in an ally who made the mistake of trying to accost her. She's the best.

Next is White Trash, A tatooed white man with super tough skin who runs some gang bangers off a basketball court but has one of the kids he saved used the f slur. I do like this bit, with Fabman saying "it ruins the good feeling every time dosen't it".. that even rescuing someone as a queer person.. can have the person still be homophobic. White Trash brushes it off as while it does indeed suck, he's a kid: Kids can change... and is honored to meet fabman and hear him out.

We next meet my faviorites out of the pride as some homophic assholes are mid hate crime when one of them ups and hits another and we meet Angel, pansexual drag queen with the powers of a confusion field that messes up the brain pans for those nearbye and makes them attack their foes and Bear, hard gay man who can turn into a literal bear. While having a Bear turn into a bear is the most on the nose thing imaginable I can't help but love it for it's sheer audacity and the bear gets fleshed out so much over the series he's hard not to love. The two are close friends and a duo and Angel mentions Fabs offer.

The final initial member of our party is Queen Sapphire, an amazon whose black gay wonder woman, Nubia before she got to be that, and whose stopping an asshole throwing a brick at someone working at planned parenthood and who runs straight into fabman's abs. Lucky asshole. Fabman invites his new friend Sapphire to the meeting.

Th group meet at the gay bar, gay bar, gay bar Fabulosa, Fabman's hq. Fabman gets into it briefly with Angel over not including T in calling this a SLBG meetup.. this was long before non binary and asexual were as known or accepted, something I have heard the sequel corrects and is forgiviable given when this came out. I also like this as it shows queer people can mistakes in their own community. And having seen the massive dumptrucks of biphobia int eh owl house fandom (Though most of us are awesome) over Huntlow.. can confirm.

Speaking of which at least for this arc the team has none which does bother me a bit as there's a B in the term.. but no actually bi members of the team. I do respect Glass not adding one just to have one and going with the characters he had, so it dosen't ruin the book for me, but it is something I hope later mini series course corrects as the team DOES expand in season 2.

Fabman gives his full pitch

And it's sad that most of the speech still holds. The first part.. never really felt like a thing in comics: Sure homophobic jackasses exist and always have, but most queer heroes were taken seriously in universe. The problem was, and still is, that a lot of queer heroes are lower profiled, either due to being introduced later or being firmly established as straight. There's exceptions like Iceman and Wonder Woman, but both came out AFTER this series was published, and even now while there are more queer heroes than ever before, it tends to be a dice roll if any actually get pushed. As Fabman later points out, teams might have a queer member or two, but they generally tend to just hav eone. And when you look at the major super teams right now their pretty bone dry in terms of queer members: The Avengers, as good as the current roster is, has exactly zero queer members. The Justice League when last around had two (Black Canary and Hipolita). The Titans, dc's current main team has zero. I"m not knocking the writers, I get ediotrial has a say, but it gets to the heart of the issue: most of the biggest heroes were throughly established as straight. Jonathan Kent, Superman, is one of the few exceptoins and even then DC has no idea what the fuck to do with him after his initial push wasn't the roaring sucess they hoped for. While Queer Rep, IS way better these days, the lack of visablity is still an issue. For all this mini's issues i'm glad the pride exist for that reason alone: why NOT have an almost entirely queer superteam? one that welcomes the straights sure, but is mostly queer people being who they are and fighting for the world like any other team, while also repping the community. If the big two can't make superman gay, make your own superman who is. Who has all the ideals of the character, but just happens to like guys and wear even tighter fitting pants. Seriously I may not be into fabman but I respect his giant crotch bulge in the panel above. Size isn't evertyhing but it's still fucking impressive.

As for media rep while sexless is slowly being weeded out, he wasn't wrong at the time nad even now having the gay character be a joke machine is still a common device.

At any rate the team soon gets an audition: Twink.. who starts by taking his shirt off

I do love everyone's reaction to him stripping down and worry when he says he dosen't want to ruin his close. He dosen't have a super dong like fabman though, his power is instead.. basically colossus. This is Twink, a younger member.

And now as Fabman goes to recurit the team's final member with everyone on board, let's take a moment to adress the elephant in the room. Some of the cast falls into typical LBGTQS+ niches to the point it COULD feel sterotypical. I mean fabman runs a gay bar, gay bar, gay bar, and is camp as hell, and well.. do I really have to outline where guys named the Bear and the Twink fit into the gay community. And that's just what I do know as while being bi, I don't know how say Angel reads to a drag audience or Frost to a trans one.

From my limited perspective though it mostly works: The most overt refrences.. are coming from a gay man himself and feel firmly tounge in cheek, while the characters themselves are well fleshed out, something I missed on first read as I only made it one issue. As the series goes on they get depth to them that really helps them stand out.

With that they have a team.. but they need one last member. Naturally it's down to Fabman to go to a seedy bar to recurit him. Which may be an uphill battle as someone else in the community already tried.

Yeah our final member wolf.. is wolverine combined with batman but gay. Granted Marvel would have a gay wolverine soon after this, but props to Glass he did it first and Logan does have a lot of hairy gay man energy in him, so it makes sense. He has logan's gruff nature, love of bars and denim off duty, and batman's millions, detective skills and lack of powers. I love their back and forth: The two feel like old pals which is something hard to pull off sometimes in fiction, to make it feel that lived in without sounding force but the two trade barbs, Fabs treis to drink whisky and spits it out and eventually a barfight happens as a homophobic asshole makes a deal of it. Twink steps in to help and Fabs reveals WHY he needs Wolf for the team: Training. The team is good.. but haven't trained as a team and twink in paticular, while good for a rookie with his self training, hasn't had proper training yet. Wolf decides what the hell and our team is complete and so's issue 1.

We then get a few origin storys, something sprinkled thorughout the first few issues: First up is white trash, a kid in a poor community whose dad abused him, heavily implied to be because he was gay, and who eventually had enough, kicked the man's homophobic ass and became a force for good in his community. Then we have Wolf, who in a flashback is being considered by the justice division. Wolf is buisnessman thomas everett, who inherted a company when his parents died in a carcrash and had already been training to be a vigilinate. His massive success gets him the spot.. and we'll find out why he lost it later.

Next issue opens with Wolf in their danger room thing, having just cleaned up and showed off for a very impressed rest of the team. Fabman reveals he didn't just get wolf as a trainer: Wolf will be co-leader: while Fabs is the groups overall head, Wolf will be in charge in the field and of training the team.

Twink is super smitten by wolf and a big fan, having seen him in the justice division and wondering why he quit. As I alluded to earlier though.. he didn't. The bastards fired him and he's not ashamed to share why: Brian was closted as a hero as first, getting his big call to the majors, but teamed up with Fabs. While the two were never a thing, it was nice to have someone to confide in.

Unfortuantley the tabolids being the dicks they were caugh ton to the tow's friendship and glommed onto it. The Division.. were less than sympathetic, and asked if he was gay. When he said yes.. they dropped him. Mostly Superdude, the lead, who was concerned about their "family friendly image", which can go straight to hell and is also eerily accurate of how hard it was to get queer characters into children's media. Wolf's over it, though he also figures they weren't All on board with this shit, the Venusian in paticular being uncomfortable as their species has no concept of gender. It's nice nod to nonbinary folks and judging from tv tropes, this gets dug into a bit more next series. I do grant this is with the issue that most nonbinary characters tend to be aliens , but it dosen't feel like the cheat it usually is here, just a nod to a community just starting to pop out and the fact they explore what that means next time. I also wouldn't mind if mainstream jonnn was nonbinary, even if he still used masculine pronouns.

The next day the crew heads for their first training session, with Angel making sure Bear's up to this healthwise. We'll find out why soon enough, for now though he flirts a bit with white trash as the trio and frost head up to find Queen Sapphire and Twink duking it out. Turns out this is his plan: Have them spar so they can find out each other's weaknesses. They were also supposed to be here way sooner and he admits he's going to ride them hard. He dosen't use that exact phrasing because of the book we're in, but they need to be ready. They've worked indvidually but they haven't really worked with teams. It's something i've seen in superhero comics before, it was an issue when the x-men roster was cut in half by the mutant massacre and had to restock with people who either only had worked solo or with one othe rperson (Psylocke and Dazzler) or never done proper superhero work let alone team work (Longshot). The team is good, it's why Fabman recurited them but I like that they don't function as a team out of a box and don't have that team experince most superheroes have. In a mainstream comics universe 9/10 heroes have been on a team at some point and thus even if theirs synergy issues, the team can still work effectively enough.

Fabman interrupts as a fire has happened at another gay bar and they need to go save that shit as they really couldn't ask for a better debut. He's a bit TOO jazzed about that part, but still, even untrained, it's a simple search and rescue. Even if a villian is there, they don't need to be in top shape yet.

At the fire Wolf has Angel work crowd control and twink wisely points out he'll be more of a danger as a metal man inside a raging furance, so he's given back door duty. I swear to god these innuendos are not intentional.. they are fun though.

As frost uses her powers to cool things down a bit, they find the culprit holding some surviviors hostage:" Firebomb, a guy with charred skin, cool googles and a love of hate crimes. Seriously the guy throws the F slur around casually. The villians in this book.. are about as subtle in thier bigotry as a captain planet villian is at looting the enviromrment. And their bigotry.

Thankfully for our heroes Frost easily cancels out his powers while his attempt to flee gets interupted by a metal fist to the face. Our heroes first outing, I swear to fucking god they won't stop, is a rousing success. The pride then make their grand debut to the press, with Fabman even expertly fielding the slightly insenstive question of "Are you only going to rescue gay people" Of course not. This is simply about standing out and letting queer heroes shine. Their the pride and their here to stay.. and unforutantely for them the reverned is watching and one of them is now key to his plans.

Secret origins next. Angels is just a fun monologue of her other half explaning who she is and why she does this: Someone has to keep her "babies" in the community safe. Muscle Mary gets a more proper one, a nice twist on Wondy's origin: Like the amazons of theymiscera, they had man visit for the first time in forever but it was less plesant with one killing her mom. Showing ultimate compassion she choose to take them back instead, going herself to find the good in the world and protect it, debuting at a pride parade, hence the muscle mary moniker.

So next issue opens with the news. They even called april o neil the star reporter, who took a break from turtles business to do a man on the street. That also implies some form of ninja turtles exist in this universe. Crossover when IDW?

There's a mix of genuine support, your usual bigoted idiots, and one oprah knockoff questoning if they need yet another super team. The short answer yes, the long answer go fuck yourself. The worst of it though is that one journalist outs that the bear has HIV. Be sure that you see that he has HIV but it's not aids. He dosen't got the AIDS.

Twink is shocked by this and leaves for some air. Bear follows him and the following scene.. is one of my faviorites. While Twink is nervous and dosen't know much about AIDS, worrying it might be an issue in their line of work, Bear assures him it's fine: it's only transmitable fluid to fluid and he takes goo denough care of himself that it transfering by blood, imprable enough given he has super endurance meaning the only person who could bust him open is someone likely invunerable, is VERY unlikely and already is as it'd take a lot to get there. The two are good and with a ton of calls coming in the team answer them.. badly.

Twink gets the worst of it though as his parents called. They hadn't contacted him since they sent him to a camp to cure his powers.

We cut back to the reverend plotting ominously. Yeah this happens.. a LOT over the series and is most of what he does. You'd THINK this would be a way to flesh him out, figure out who this guy is as a villian and why he's sucha homophobic piece of shit. I'm not asking for a tragic backstory, but i'm asking for more characters than "BLER RELIGION GAYS BAD BLEGH". While, especially on diving in closer for this review, the main cast is good, the antagonists are just.. pahtetically one note. The Reverend is just a hateful old man who wants to take over the world. There's nothing to it.

Compare this to X-Men, because that's my baseline and it always will be: This comparison is a little left field as they had their own evil reverend, reverend stryker. Striker was also an evil old man plotting genocide and who hated a minority, in this case mutants, a stand in for real live evangelicals.. but the diffrence is the reverend.. was smart. Instead of Doing his evil work out in the open or relying on a convoluted scheme like this rev, he simply pedaled his ministries on tv. And given this rev has mind control powers, you wonder why he didn't just think to do that in the first place and work on broadcasting it before he got excomjmunicated. Striker is both more intresting and more dangeorus because like far too many bigots, he THINKS he's right, and tries to use respectablity politics. This guy.. is juts one lunatic with magic knowledge of genetics and a hulk literally named basher.

Back with our heroes they have isssues as Angel and Frost are refusing to train figuring their experinced enough, not getting their good ALONE not as a team. Even Bear sides with Wolf on this one. Unfortunately this argument about training.. comes just as someone else wants to argue with the team: The Justice Divsion ar ehere. Turns out the scanner for HQ hadn't been setup which Wolf is rightfully miffed by.

The JD are led by Superdued, the guy at the forfront of the "Kick wolf out for being gay" charge and head of the team. Think worst timeline shaggy rogers but with super powers. They've come to tell the team to stop.

I do like this bit as it riffs on a common trope in comics that frustrates the hell out of me and i'm glad to see it torn apart here with a much less sympathetic team to boot. See DC has a VERY bad habit of having the Justice League act like judgmental asses and try to put a stop to a super team. The Avengers have done this on occasion too, see the New Warriors series from marvel now, but it's very much a league thing. They've done it to Young Justice, the 2003 Version of the Teen Titans, the rebirth Titans, the rebirth Teen Titans, and just casually flipping through the redhood and the outlaws graphic novel from web toon while at barnes and noble, those versions do it to the outlaws. There's likely more I have no idea about. And that's not getting into Bruce's uber dickish habbit of trying to run any vigilante he dosen't like out of gotham. Sometimes the instinct is right like with Savant, most of the time he just dosent like not having control. The League is the big name in the land sure, I can respect that, but their not god. They shouldn't have a right to judge other teams unless said teams are say edgelord harmful asshats like the elitie or outright super villians. Yes the titans and YJ were their sidekicks, but they were also overseen by one of their own in the case of young justice, and experinced heroes in the case of The Teen Titans.

So it's very satisfying to see the pride. stonewall their wish.com counterparts, especially since Superdued talking over everyone.. actually stops the venusian from making actual progress as they make the valid point they might not be ready and may of got them to agree to simply not go out in the field for a bit instead of Earth 3 Spicoli and his bird friend trying to convience them to "stand down" or "Join other teams', both options they clearly don't want nor asked for. It's a nice exercise in false allyship: how most of the division just wants to shut them down.. when if they REALLY cared about them not dying: offer to train them. No reallly. Wolf is doing it and he got his tactics from them, if your that concerned about them dyign and not about them being openly queer if inexperinced as a team on this level, offer team training. They'd still likely refuse.. but the fact they jump right to disbanding instead of helping them be better unmasks how they simply don't want to deal with a superteam that's both this gay and clearly wont' just bend the knee because the big 7 showed up.

So naturally a fight insues. and our team do hold well.. till Angel makes a mistake and uses her powers. Problem is.. Venusean is a telepath so it broadcasts it to EVERYONE and destroys the place. The Justice Assholes leave.. but proved a point: They may not be ready. And wolf agrees.. not that they shoudln't be a team, fuck those guys, but that they weren't ready and Angel now gets why train as a team: because you don't know how your powers might interact in a fight. In good situations you can create a circut and do a super teamwork combo. In bad... it trips up your allies and you. Still Wolf's calling a break and while Fabman is worried this might've been a bad idea, wolf assures him no, he did what had to be done and this willw ork promise.

The two have a longer talk, and Wolf makes a valid point, and a meta point about why this team exists: The big teams often have maybe ONE person of color or two women and the women rarely lead. A team that's diverse stands out. And he's sadly not wrong. Marvel IS having Captain Marvel lead the avengers right now, but previously leaders were Cap, Sam Wilson Cap, and Cap again bitches. Sam is black, so that helps a little, but in general marvel tends to default to cap, while DC defaults to supes. John Kent wasn't even in the league in his time as head superman. These aren't bad characters, I love Supes and Cap a lot, but it's tied to my point earlier: There aren't a ton of a-list, big powerful queer characters in marvel or dc. Plenty of queer characters but for DC"s biggest it's just harely and wondy (And Ivy when she's on the good guys side), with Alan Scott for the JSA and for Marvel it's Teddy, Wiccan and Hercules for the avengers, no one for the fantastic four, and Iceman, Magik, Captain Britan, and Kitty Pryde out of the major x-men (Though to the x-men's credit there is a lot more queer characters than most comics stables) and Magik and Kitty haven't really gotten to explore their bi sides yet, both being confirmed bisexual in a one off joke and a panel that went nowhere repsectively. The PRide has it's faults.. but it is very nice for the core of a superhero universe to be it's queer characters. Hopefully they get more poc, but it's still more gay than most teams have.

Meanwhile Basher kills a bussload of people and kidnaps one. This turns out to be Bear's son with Bear getting the whole we have your kid speil after coming back from a night out with White Trash, who he also brought home. So a bit of a wash all things considered.

Origins again: This time it's , Da Bear, and his origin is one of my faviorites: he was a closted gay man who didn't realize he was gay till he became a bear man one day. In this verse, some people get their powers from the "X-Cel Virus" basically their verison of the x gene mixed with the viral nature of generator rex's nanites. He found out he was gay, got a divorce , and soon got HIV but soldiers on anyway.

We then get Fabmans one I honestly love. He's Stephen Wainwright: he always knew he was gay and not only did his parents catch on before he came out, but they were fully supportive, being nothing but proud of their son. Stephen, like the hero he's modeld after, is a kind hearted soul who only wants to help, helping consule those in his community and offer support. He later opened his bar simply to give his community a place to relax and be safe. It's this kind, open nature and pride in who he is that attracted some aliens, who had been watching him.. which would be creepy if they weren't clearly looking for a pargon of virtue to bestow powers on. Okay i'ts still a little creepy but hey they gave him powers for being a good person who isn't remotely ashamed of who he is and who always wanted to help people. I'm not going to judge too harshly. So like his parents and Stephen himself they coudln't be prouder.

The next issue opens with the team all meeting early in the morning, most not in costume. Angel had a show already so their the only one ready besides the Bear. We also get details on his relationship with his son and heartwarmingly.. it's really good. While The Bear and his ex wife naturally weren't on the best terms after the breakup, she never hid his son from him nor kept him. So while Jacob didn't grow up near his dad, the two did know each other and Bear couldn't be prouder

While the Bear wants to go after basher NOW, Wolf tells him to ease up a bit: not because he dosen't care.. but because it's an obvious trap. Bear naturally can't wait for common sense and rushes off. Thankfully.. Wolf saw this coming and his assuring shoulder pat included a tracer. He's going to have Angel fill him in, try to figure out who the hell basher is and hopefully fast enough to get there before this guy can really hurt bear.

Bear meets basher and Basher is naturally a dick, using the f slur, calling bear "Riddled with diseas" and generally being punchable. He wants bear though, and easily wrecks our poor ursine pal. Luckily our pal has pals of his own and a fight begins. The fight takes up most of the issue and is nicely tense with Basher essentially being a homophobic juggernaught. And while as a character his characterization begins and ends with "I don't like the gays", he is a decent threat at least. OUr heroes try EVERYTHING.. and come up short. They do dent the guy a bit.. but not enough and while Bear's son , Jake, chimes in, Bear's rage after Basher punts him gives the asshole the opening he needs to knock out or pal and run off with him.

Origins time again. This time frost is first as she has an interview with a reporter.. and freezes his research as she's worked hard to hide her past pre transition. She's not ashamed of being trans, and it seems Fabman knows, but her family disowning her fo rbeing who she always was is clearly a sore spot.

Next is twink who writes to his parents. It tells us mostly what the text has: he's a big superhero fanboy who always was one. Getting powers was the happiest day of his life.. but his parents instead feared this and sent him to madman to try an dcure him. Given the gay conversion therapy parallels you can probably guess WHO they sent him to. I certainly did. He's happy with who he is though and his freedom.

Issue 5 opens with the pride having a wake. Naturally assholes are protesting it. It's a weird thing.. but I respect the comic for using the f slur. It's not for shock value, it's simply being realistic, and it's something queer people face every day. It's something a lot of comics would censor but glass knows is necessary.

The pride haven't given up... but have a good justifcation for doing this: as Fabman points out superheroes have learned to "hope for the best, expect the worst". Given how many heroes end up dead but come back or were never dead, fair point. It's also been a few weeks, giving the team time offscreen to train. Speaking of which.. wolf asks Owen, aka Cub, to join the team. While Cub is straight.. Wolf genuinely dosen't care. It's not about exclusion, i'ts about family and right now Cub coudl use one. He tearfully accepts.

We also get introduced to Angel OUT of costume, Kele Amos and his wife. Everyone's happy to meet her and finds out Angel is pansexual. There's four absences though: Fab Man is taking the loss personally, even more than Angel and Owen who vow revenge, so White Trash went to find him, while Frost... seemingly didn't care to show up. Sapphire was absent.. because she went to go confront her at the gay bar gay bar, but not the gay bar gay bar gay bar in front of their HQ.

Frost is seemingly not effected.. but Sapphire sees through it: she's afraid to cry and be vunerable and while Frost is offended for a second.. she breaks down. The two end up embrasing and while Frost tries to come out at trans, Sapphire assures her she knows all she needs to know.

Their not the only hookup either as WOlf and Twink have a training session, with Twink frustrated they have no leads an daccidently bodying Wolf across the room. He kisses him in the heat of it, Wolf kisses him back. Another couple paired off.

Finally we get to White Trash and Fabman. Fabs naturally blames himself, but White Trash shuts that shit down: Harvey knew the risks, was out there every day in spite of them, and was proud of who he is and this team. He makes a cabaret refrence, for a drag queen he once knew and life is a cabaret: sometims it's good, sometimes it sucks balls. But you'll never get the good if you don't live it.. and making this team.. is living. So White Trash gets him ready to go out.. they don't kiss thoguh. Not his type. Also can Fabman mystically sense when other people ar ebanging or are the others hooking up that much of a forgone conclusion he just assumes it's happening.

After all this hooking up, Wolf gets a spooky spirit message from Bear, whose alive... Basher's using him for his evil mind control plot, revealing it's an evil mind control plot. Seriously is there anything about this guy that isn't a cliche wrapped in hate speech?

At any rate we get a brief scene showing the team's been training hard, leveling up.. and after Cub takes on the highest level of training bot himself, beheading it.

We end the issue on Bassher making a grand announcment to the world as he holds up Bear's bloody body hooked to the machine.

Final issue. As basher makes his announcment Cub, White Trash and Angel and Twink wonder why nothing's happening to them. Their all x-cel positive while the rest of the team has diffrent means. Since it's the only one I forgot to mention, frost got hers via surgery.

Taking an art break the art this issue is decent. Not as good as the other issues but fine. The other issue.s. minus the last one which swapped artists constantly including weirdly ending on Mark ellerby's art. And I fucking love mark ellerby's art but it's more cartoony and din't fit the ominous ending at all.

Our heroes have bigger issues as it turns out most of Justice Division is X-Positive, and thus only Morningstar (the bird asshole form before ) and the Venusian are left as they crash into Pride HQ. Luckily our heroes have been training for this.. both combat and specifically kicking the Justice Divisions assholes which give no homo zonker harris just suantered in trying to shut them down and a fight broke out rather easily, fair point. It pays off as the Pride easily take them down, with Angel in particular getting a nice subtle bit of redemption for botching the last fight, narrowing her focus to just superdude and sending him to the moon. After finishing up with a ncie combo attack, using fabs and morningstar's light powers on Twink's shiny skin to drive the last Divison Member left, a midnighter knockoff who also can move through shadows, down. Wolf also bluntly tells the Venusian and Morningstar to stay put for two reasons despite their insitance that, as the big team they should do it: One, they just koed most of their team, and two, they need someone to protect the city while they hopefully handle this. On this reread for transcribing this review as it's a perfect contrast to the first fight: The first time out most of the team squared up against someone, fighting one on one, a subtle detail I didn't notice but highlights how while they are a team, their not WORKING as one. While tw oget taken out solo, frost targeting bluebird's vocal cords and Sapphire/Muscle Mary easily handeling Mighty Miss (Their wonder woman at home), the first is a strategy they worked out just in case wolf prompts her for, and the rest are all taken out with team work. While it disapointing all the actual training happend off screen, it's an excellent way to show how it's paid off. I would've liked to see them come together as a team, no comment, but I also understand Glass likely could only get the six issues and judging from the fill in artists and especailly issue 5 being a whole GAGLE of various artists and clearly not being intended for that kind of setup, self publishing was a nightmare. It's no wonder the second volume had comixology's help and the third was funded with Kickstarter, to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. So it's that Hazbin Hotel issue of having to cram EVERYTHING they can into 6 issues as they may not get more. It hurts the story a little, but I understand the impulse and thus i'm a bit more forgiving if the story still mostly works.

Thankfully said dream earlier allowed Wolf to track them. As he explains when they get into their dope jet the crusier, there was some sand at the scene that was diffrent, coming from a former nuclear test site. Luckily for our heroes the radiation has gone down enough that the radiation isn't an issue.. but allowed them to track the Reverend down. We also get his backstory: the Reverend is Reverend William Franklin, who was kicked out after he was caught using his powers to brainwash his congregation. I like to think bibleman did it. At any rate his powers didn't work on X-Cels, hence his need for bear.

The team split up: Most of the team stays out front, with Angel taking out most of the brainwashed heroes the rev's summoned, while the team as a whole minus fabman, wolf, twink and frost fight basher. Wolf, Twink and Frost take on the rev's forces.. and it turns out.. they were also a distraction as Fabman cleans house. Outside the res tof the team has an excellent rematch with basher another nice reflection; Before each member fought him one at a time, this time they all work together and angel uses her powers to allow the others to sucker him. It's something I wished i'd noticed on first read as this book is REALLY good at having the team.. work as an actual team once their good and pumped in this last issue. Most team books tend to have them hit em one at a time, but if you have a team.. why not have them do a circuit. I'm not against the group fighting alone, but this and x-men 97 show why a good super circuit is awesome.

White Trash ALMOST kills basher but backs away.. unfortunately though.. cub does not and slits his throat. WEll I mean Basher did deserve it but i'ts not good for the kid himself to murder a guy ya know? As he sobs to his dad as he's freed though Fabman.. is also close, ready to go full red eyes superman on the homophobe.. but being the bigger man dosen't. He destroys the reverends book so he can't channel his powers again, which was just directly pulled out of his perfectly toned ass but whatever. The day is saved.

Their greeted by the entire superhero community they just saved.. who all cheer them. The Pride proved themselves and it while basher's about as complicated as a piece of cardboard, I give the comic credit for having an organic way for them to earn the superhero communites respect.

With that there's just one last bit of buisness, an epilogue finishing up where we began: two months later the Pride are now one of the world's most popular superteam, with both of the anchors no longer being homophobic jackasses.. I doubt they've actually changed, they just recognize they can't make snide queer jokes about the world's saviors. The pride are getting medals of valor while, fair play to them, the justice division not only admitted they had a don't ask don't tell policy but have removed it. The latters the bear minimum and never should've been a thing. The formers.. the part they get more credit for: it's rare for a public figure not forced into it by overwhelming evidence to admit they did something awful, so the divison not only admitting what they likely did to wolf, but likely apologizing for it is big.

Fabman meets with billy and the bullies have also changed their tune finding him awesome. Fabman is here because Billy.. is the one that inspired him to do this. The world wouldn't of been saved and he wouldn't have his new family without them. Billy returns the favor giving fabman his old action figure after fabs gives him a new one, wanting to give fabs a token of where this started.. and his thanks. The why.. brings a tear to our heroes eyes. He fought hard.. and now the world sees Fabman the way billy did, sees all of the pride that way and we end on fabs proudly flying away with the kids telling him to go change the world. Cheesy but it works.

The Pride... is pretty damn good. When I started writing this review, I found it okay. But as often happens my opinon changed the more I engaged with the work. Sometimes that goes the other way: I liked temple of Doom and Lion King II less the more I had to think about them. But here seeing all the little touches, how it has a decently fleshed out cast in such a short time span (With only Sapphire feeling underdeveloped by the end and even she's still decently fleshed out), and how the team slowly grow. It's not perfect: A LOT of the commentary is on the nose with all the villians being one not ebigots. I'm not asking them to be likeable, i'm asking for their to be layers to thier bigotry and hatred, how they operate. The book is not subtle and while it hurts it in the antagonist department, and the rev himself is dispatched cartoonishly easy, it helps everywhere else: As I thought about it the book does raise some really valid points about the big two. it'd be nice if the justice divisoin weren't cardboard cutouts themselves, but it's still a nice commentary on how superhero books tend to have one or two queer people on a team if at all. The Pride isn't subtle, is a tad messy at times.. but i'ts a lot of fun an da concept i'm shocked took this long to happen. An all queer super team is a brilliant concept and I can't wait to see what happens with them next time, next year. I'm all for making the Pride a permenant pride month fixture if this does well enough. For now it was a fun ride and I hope you enjoyed me jawing about it. Thanks for reading.

#the pride #pride month #gay #lesbian #transgender #pansexual #drag #comics #joe glass #queer comics #lbgtqia+#fabman #the bear #angel #wolf #twink #sapphire #frost #cub

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