#pretty bulky in the dc comics too

[kitocrystal]

I stand corrected, thanks for telling me!

I did a bit more digging into Dick's character and I hope that this one is more true to the comics now.

It's hard to get an accurate characterization when you're new to the fandom. And it's especially moreso for me since I struggle to read the original comics.

And I'm not sure if it is true. But Jason still smokes occasionally during his time as Robin, I don't know if he still does as Red Hood though, I'll try to look into that.

Hope you have a nice day, stranger!

I'm new to the fandom, is this a biblically accurate summary of the Robins?

[buddyfromearth]

Object of Affection

For @gothamsworst​ because your entire penguin tag has put into me a great fire to write a sheepish significant other for him.  Mind you, I haven’t written fanfiction since high school so forgive me if I get something wrong (I’m still getting into DC and my parents think it’s embarrassing because I had a lobo phase out of high school.)

Notes: confessions of love; sfw (some slight implications at the end but it cuts off because that’s not going on this blog here); aw, gee, he brought a bouquet of flowers; hey who ordered flirting because here’s some; several headcanons in one go let’s go people; I can write pretty words I just mostly refuse to in favor of making it all comics instead; idea of flirting is just walking up with a bouquet and going “marry me”; I don’t know what I’m doing I’ve never written this guy before.

EDIT: fixed some things.

 Stuck between yearning for love and the fear of rejection was a difficult place to be. It was at least easier to know rejection than it was to have yearning for love going totally unanswered.  Oh, what pain it was. 

   Oswald Cobblepot, that troublesome Penguin known about Gotham as one hell of a man to cross, was madly in love.  Yes, an unfortunate feeling to have.  But he couldn’t help it.  Not this time, at least. 

   It was someone he’d seen around the lounge, lurking nearby where he’d watch the penguins. When he saw them around and was able to not make it awkward, he couldn’t help but stare at those eyes all green and deep like some dark thicket.  And those venomous eyes did plenty of staring back: he could feel their gaze fixated on him whenever he was working at the lounge. 

   Really, though, what did he know about this crush that had taken his entire heart by a single blow?  Well, he knew enough.  His eyes about Gotham told him that they weren’t much of anything besides a total hermit: mostly stayed home at a ground-floor apartment in a low-rent yet slightly decent part of town (as decent as the city could be, anyway), and had everything that was needed for living delivered to their door.  No car: only ever ventured out on a trike with a headlight on the front and a trunk on the back.  He wasn’t even sure what they did for a living. 

   At the very least Oswald knew he could find them lurking around the lounge.  So, that’s exactly where he went. 

   Of course, such an event was not something to go into completely unprepared.  He pulled out a nice suit, as usual, with all the fine accoutrements he was well-known for.  An umbrella in one hand and a large bouquet of bloody red roses in the other.  Even went out of the way to pick out cologne, albeit he preferred not to.  He wanted to make the best impression he could. 

   It was just that odd hour before the post-work rush.  Oswald hoped he’d not come in on a wrong night.  Trying not to draw too much attention, he made a long sort of awkward path over to where they usually were. 

   There they were, right at that surprisingly bare table he got used to passing by.  There was a pencil case pushed to one side, and it sat next to a tall glass of what he thought might be soda (of course, he wasn’t about to just try it: that would be a bit too much).  They were hunched over something in front of them, and their hands moved quickly with a pencil and a brush. 

   “Excuse me, my dear,” started Oswald, with a soft tone so as to not scare this beloved mystery away, “but is this table taking guests?” 

   They jumped.  Oswald feared he’d gone too fast.  Oh, wonderful, now he’d scared them off! 

   They looked up and met his eyes.  What was once a terrified look behind thick glasses quickly melted into something tender and rather curious.  “Oh.”  Their voice had an astoundingly flat affect, hinting at an origin out in midland farming country with the slight tint to it.  They cleared their throat, and moved their bag to the other side.  “S-sure thing, sir, sure.  Wasn’t expecting anyone to be over here tonight.  Normally people only ever come over to ask for free work from me.”  Their voice was soft and quiet as they spoke: an absolutely adorable sound that hit just right in his ears.  He could listen to it talk forever. 

   “Excellent.”  Oswald sat down directly next to them, putting the umbrella to rest on the seat beside him. 

   Their face quickly changed colors.  It went from a sickly pale in the lowlight to being absolutely taken over with blush.  “R-right, s-sure.  Please, forgive me for asking, but haven’t I seen you around here before?” 

   “Of course you would have seen me here before,” said Oswald, rolling his eyes slightly.  “I own this lounge, after all.” 

   “Oh, I…” They stopped for a moment, and their mouth was slightly agape as they appeared to slowly mentally register the weight of the situation.  Then their eyes shot wide open and they gave up a nervous smile with chattering teeth. “M-Mr. Cobblepot, sir.  I-I-I didn’t think I was something you’d… well, y’know, actually come over to see?” 

   “Quite the contrary,” said Oswald, moving in closer and putting an arm around their shoulder.  “You’ve captured my attention with how much you care about my darlings.  I see you in here and I can’t help but wonder if you’re some kindred soul.”  He gestured just slightly over at the centerpiece of the lounge, the namesake iceberg with a whole group of penguins he often spent hours watching on his days off.

   They looked over to where he gestured, and then they nodded quickly.  The nervousness quickly got itself out of that smile, and their entire posture melted into one of repose.  “Your penguins, right.  Right, the penguins!  Of course! They’re so cute: little communal flipper birds that just waddle around and honk and preen all day.”  They sighed and smiled, leaning forward and putting their head to rest in their hand.   “What I wouldn’t give for a life so carefree.”

   Oswald immediately had a few ideas come to mind.  Oh, he could take care of that: he could just bring them into his life and get them out of that awful apartment, pamper them with anything and everything they could ever want.  Ask them to move in with you.  Ask them for a date.  Ask them to share a drink.  No, no, no, that’s all too fast!  Play it slowly: perhaps they’ll melt into your arms if you go ahead just right.  

   “How often are you around here, hm?”  Oswald looked over from behind his monocle at this mystery figure that had caught his attention and proceeded to hold it in a vice-like grip, taking a moment to look at what he was dealing with.  Their figure was mostly obscured by big, bulky articles of clothing, but what could be made out was all thick and rolled together like some haphazard cake stacked up far too high for its own good.  It was very easy to look at.  “You seem to know enough about my precious little birds.”  “Perhaps a bit too much” was a phrase he wanted to add, but he wasn’t about to murder this feeling. 

   “I don’t really drink alcohol.  I only really come here to draw the iceberg and all the penguins,” said the mystery crush. “They’re so fun to smush together with their little shapes.  Their little flippers are so cute.  And their little feet are surprisingly complex once you get past all the flub and feathers.” 

   Oh, one of those artist types.  Wait, artist type.  Artist. Oh, this could be good: this could actually be really good for several different reasons!  Not just the romantic pursuit reason, either: perhaps their passion for the arts would include, somewhere in there, a passion for him. 

   “I see.” Oswald reached for the pad of paper they were so vigilantly guarding and said, “I can’t help but have a look at someone’s work regarding my darlings.” 

   A sickly pale hand with chewed-down nails shot over and clamped in on Oswald’s wrist. “Just a second there, Mr. Cobblepot. You have to promise me something first.”

   “Anything, my sweet, anything.” 

   “Don’t tell anyone what you see in this book.  It’s a lot of… well, it’s… bad.” 

   “Oh, I will most certainly be the judge of that.”  Oswald picked up the book, and then handed them the bouquet in return.  “Here, something for you to hold in the meantime.”

   Noting their shocked expression as they carefully took the bouquet in their arms, Oswald began to slowly browse through the contents of the book. 

   What they had said was indeed true: there were a lot of penguins in there.  They were doing all sorts of things: preening their coats, honking, spread out on their stomachs staring at each other, ambling across the ice.  They were all partway realistic, but there was some sort of fantastical flair to them. It was cute: just like them. 

   While flipping through the pages, though, he couldn’t help but notice other pieces. Things like the name of the lounge written out in poster type pieces with his penguins and their little iceberg on it.  There was, undeniably, a unique work of a penguin in a suit like his.  Curious, he turned the page. 

   And what he saw there surprised him greatly. 

   It was not only drawings of patrons with little notes about time scrawled around them that occupied the pages, but there were drawings of him as well.  Little notes here and there about the things he’d wear, the way he’d talk, and the way he moved.  Around one particular piece underlaid with purple markings was a portrait of him smiling: the note around this piece said “Handsome guy but who?”  It was surrounded by little scribbled hearts. 

   Oswald, in his stroke of peacock vanity that got to him every now and again, turned his head slightly as he was gently urged by these things.  “I see that you draw more than birds.” 

   The mystery crush looked over.  They caught a look of what pages he’d come to and they grimaced before sighing and hiding their face in their hands.  “Sorry about that.  I-I draw people a lot, just to stay aware of how to do it.” 

   “It seems you’ve become quite taken with me in these intimate studies,” said Oswald, casting a rather tempered gaze and a matching grin over at the object of his affections as he handed back the book.  “I must admit, I came here tonight thinking you wouldn’t reciprocate the feelings that brought me to you in the first place.” 

   “Oh, wow, feelings?”  The mystery crush smiled and chuckled ever so softly, rubbing their hand along the back of their neck as they took the book and put it back on the table.  “Goodness gracious, Mr. Cobblepot, I didn’t expect a gentlemanly type like yourself to be the romantic type.” 

   “Oh, but isn’t a gentleman always the romantic type?”  Oswald, emboldened by such a soft response, couldn’t help but to pull them in closer.  When they began to blush again, he grinned and pressed a gloved finger to their nose. “I can’t exactly help it.  And please, just call me Oswald.” He then picked up one of their hands and pressed a single, fervent kiss to it.

   “Ah, uh, I guess so,” said the mystery crush, “mister… oh, right, Oswald.  Right, first name basis now.”  Their face was getting hotter by the minute, and they began to stammer over all their words as they put the bouquet on the table.  “I, uh… would, would you be offended if I asked you something kinda personal?” 

   Oswald could already picture several personal questions and perfect little answers to go along with them.  He nodded and held their hands in his.  “Oh, but of course, my dear: anything you ask for, you’ll get it from me.” 

   “Oh.” The mystery crush nodded, their glasses falling down their face in the meantime.  When Oswald reached up and pushed them back to their previous position, they cleared their throat and quickly stammered out, “If you feel so strongly about me, would you mind if I moved in?  I, uh… they hiked the rent on my place again and I have to find a new one before the end of the month.  Don’t make enough.” 

   “Would I mind?  Of course not, dearest bird, of course not.  I have far too many places that need a colorful touch like yours.  You can come with me tonight, if it pleases you, my dear.”

   “You don’t have to be so heavy-handed with all the compliments.” 

   “Oh, but I believe you deserve every last one of them.” 

   “You’re far too kind.”  The mystery crush sighed.  “I hate to tell you this now, after all those compliments and affectionate talk, but I’m kind of a handful, I’m… look, I’m trans and if you’re not into a guy like me, I’m sorry.  I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m- I’m sorry.  We can just go away from this table and never speak about this again.  It… it’ll be fine if we do that.” 

   “Oh, now you just listen to me.”  Oswald put his hands to the mystery crush’s face and leaned it over so they were looking at him. “I don’t rightly care about whether you’re trans or not, and I’ll fund that for you so you can be happy.  You’re just far too pretty of a kindred spirit to be left so alone in such a big city.” 

  “I…” The mystery crush looked baffled. They froze for a moment or two, and Oswald wondered if he had said too much.  After a long silence, they sighed and smiled so big and soft that it couldn’t help but bring him to smile as well.  “Wow.  Thanks.” 

   “Oh, you’re ever so welcome, my dear.”  Oswald pressed his face up to theirs and quickly asked, “May I?” 

   “May you… oh, right.  Right! Yes, you may, Oswald.  You most certainly may!” 

   With that, Oswald couldn’t help but press a kiss to their lips.  Their lips were slightly chapped, and he couldn’t help but nuzzle his face just slightly against theirs in some affectionate attempt to bring intimacy to such a moment.  This move, while unexpected at first, was quickly reciprocated as their hands took hold of his shoulders. 

   Oswald pulled away with a troublesome little grin spread across his lips, and the object of all those affections smiled like this sort of intimacy was brand new to them. “I can’t help but wonder what your name is.” 

   “Look, my name is…”  They stopped for a moment, but then they smiled and just said, “Call me Lou for now. I can’t think of a name that belongs to me.” 

   “Then let’s find that out together.”  Oswald took his umbrella up and moved to stand, offering his hand to Lou.  “Come, I can have a crew bring your things to our home tomorrow.  Tonight, we shall simply be enamored little lovebirds.” 

   Lou laughed.  Their laugh sounded like the call of a bird, with its dragged-out syllables and its pitch. They snorted just slightly as they packed up their things.  “You’re very honest, Oswald.  I like that.  I like that a lot.” 

   “What’s a little honesty between significant others?”  Oswald smiled and shrugged his shoulders. 

   Lou put their bag back on their shoulders and put their hand in Oswald’s as they stood up.  They weren’t much taller than him, and those assumptions he had made about their figure were correct.  “It’s a lot. Let’s go.” 

   Oswald only put his arm around them as the two gently went hand-in-hand to where his driver waited. 

   “What are the plans for this evening, Oswald?” 

   “Oh, I do believe I have a few ideas beginning to come to be.  Just you be patient, my sweet, I’ll tell you when we’re alone.” 

[scone-lover]

@findingniamho​

HAHAHAHA thank you so much for this ask!!! ❤️ This is exciting. Honestly the Egghead fight was one of the most entertaining scenes to write. (Coming up with all the puns was an egg-celent time.) Rereading it just now was like an out of body experience 😂 

Link to the original chapter here - passage & commentary below the cut!

So I have to start with how this scene was born. This is a Simon scene. He’s had a couple fight scenes with Vampire, but I wanted to show him off as the superhero of the city. What was he doing before Vampire appeared on the scene? What are his strengths and weaknesses? Despite the scene’s silliness, it’s also one of the first where we start to get a sense of what Mayor Mage is up to. 

So I knew I wanted him to do the typical defending-the-city thing, and showcase him and Penny as the dread companions power duo.

Besides the plot stuff, my main goal was to make this scene as ridiculously, stereotypically comic book-ish as possible. 😂Hence, Egghead the Villain.

Most of the credit for Egghead goes to my friend -- they’re really into DC and helped me with a lot of the plot stuff in this fic and making things semi-realistic. (Every time you read a clever plot point, it was probably them. 😂) For this non-Vampire fight, my friend suggested a gangster who was doing crimes and bribing the police. Hence this exchange--

“Okay, okay, um-- fuck. Did you call the police?” She huffs. “Yes, and I think they’ve been fucking bribed, because they pretended they didn’t even know who Egghead was! Can you believe that?”

I made him a repeat villain because honestly, I just thought it was more compelling that way. They know who he is already, Simon can grumble about him, they have egg-themed quips at the ready, etc. 😂 

As for the name, Egghead. I love how it came together because Simon is a baker, and I was able to work a couple baking jokes in there eventually. But in reality, it was me begging my superhero expert friend (named t below) to help me out with crafting this villain and coming up with some witty exchanges. A transcript of our conversation with the brainstorming and some of the rejects--

t: the gangster has a nickname right? he has to if he’s a supervillain t: make it a gimmick t: like if he has a red outfit call him mr. red or something t: he has a flamethrower and call him dragon (this made it in, later) me: Vampire already has a flamethrower t: they can be forced to fight him together me: Vampire is at home studying bc he’s a NERD t: ok he can be bald and simon can call him egghead me: THANKS I HATE IT t: simon throws him on the ground at the end of the fight - that was over-easy me: I hate you where do you get this shit t: I mean it’s typical superhero stuff t: he wears yellow and white and deals crack me: This fic is so food themed I love it t: that’s your villain. that’s it. t: listen, if the Flash can have an ice skating villain, YOU CAN HAVE EGGHEAD. And he was born.

(And yes, The Flash does have an ice skating villain. AND SHE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE ICE POWERS.)

Okay, let’s do this! Warning that this is definitely going to go through more than 500 words of the chapter. 😂 

Men dressed in black suits with bright yellow pocket squares. And larger men around the perimeter, wearing grey and holding flashlights. It looks more like a business transaction than anything; there are briefcases and money being passed back and forth, hands being shaken. “Hey!” I call. There are six men, and they all turn to stare at me, and then make a run for it. The flashlight beams dart wildly and I hear a few of them clatter to the floor. Everyone starts yelling at once and looking for an escape.

I basically watched an episode of Brooklyn-99 and crafted the warehouse drug deal based on that. 

“Don’t move. There’s only one exit,” Penny says in my ear. “And you’re standing in front of it.” I stand my ground, but no one comes near me. The suited guys stay slightly behind the muscular ones. Finally, one of them steps forward. “Mage’s Head Boy. Come to tell us off?”

This scene was also an opportunity to have Penny in Simon’s ear! I wanted them to work together more closely than just talking about superhero stuff - I wanted Penny to be invaluable to Simon’s superhero success and in on the action, too. She’s kind of modeled after Oracle from Batman throughout this fic. 

Mage’s Head Boy is a pretty transparent CO reference. 

There are times when I’m grateful for my ability to just have muscles and growl at people and make them disappear, and there are times when I wish I was witty like Vampire. This is definitely the second. I can’t think of a response to that. Luckily, I have a best friend with a head full of wit. “Tell them to fuck off,” Penny says. Then again, maybe not. What would Vampire say? I get hot and frustrated in the face of danger. He seems to get cooler the higher the stakes get. I fall into a fighting stance. “You wish.” The guy takes a step backwards. “But since I can’t bring you to the police, I suppose I’ll just have to teach you a lesson.” “That was good,” Penny says in my ear.

I obviously had to work a bit of Baz jealousy / crushing into this. I like the idea of Penny being super blunt. She’s smart and sometimes witty, but more often she just says it like it is. “Cooler the higher the stakes get” was a direct reference to the similar line in Carry On. With Simon’s last line - this scene was all about showcasing him as a “typical” superhero that you’d find in a comic, fighting a classic comic book villain. So I gave him one of those cheesy lines.

I’m surrounded. There must be fifteen or twenty of them. Eight huge muscular guys, and the rest in suits. They form a loose circle around me. Almost all of them wield knives, but I don’t see any guns so far.

I knew from the outset I wanted this to be a one-against-many fight. At this point in the story I’d set up a good dynamic for Blade vs Vampire, but not so much Blade vs. other city threats. What makes him a trustworthy hero? Simon’s origin story is that he got news attention by fighting off a group - so putting him in this group fight setting was a chance for him to shine.

A man steps out from the shadows. He’s bald, with a straight, dark mustache, and he’s wearing a pristine white suit and a shirt the colour of an egg yolk. “Egghead,” I say in what I hope is a threatening tone. The name sounds absurd. I’m glad the mask covers my mouth, because I don’t think I can keep a straight face. Penny coughs. Benedict Eggerton, better known as Egghead, is a drug lord who wears yellow and deals… crack. (I know.) (He got into crime early; his parents were poachers.) (Okay, I made that one up. I can’t help it.) I put him in jail earlier this year, but he escaped and fled north.

I was laughing so hard while writing this. You can see in the text exchange above where the suit and nickname came from. I was trying to come up with what his first name might be (my first idea was Sunny). I was so amused when I finally thought of Benedict. 😂 The poachers line is also from my friend T, and the “north” is a reference to Scotland, which comes back later as the Scotch Egg joke.

I draw my weapon, trying to look as menacing as possible. “I remember your blade being bigger,” he says, eyeing my kitchen knife. “Is it too cold for you in here?”

PFFFFFT I LOVE THIS JOKE okay so. I originally made Simon forget his sword because I thought the fight would be too easy - and going back to what I said above, he’s kind of returning to his “roots” with this fight - that spark he has that makes him a hero. And then I wrote the line “I remember your blade being bigger.” TO BE CLEAR, this was not originally intended as an innuendo. 

And then my friend said something like ‘he should turn up the heating in this warehouse then’, and I was like OH DING DING DING PENIS JOKE! 😂I’m oblivious sometimes. I’m glad I realized in time because this is honestly one of my favorite villain lines I’ve ever written.

I really, really wanted to give the “too cold” line to Vampire. It would be perfect for him. But Simon always has his normal sword with Vamp, so Egghead it was. And he instantly became an icon. 😂 

I twirl the knife between my fingers. “I can crack you anyway.” “Good effort,” Penny whispers. “But a bit rough on the delivery. 'Take a crack at you' might have been better...” “Sword or no sword,” I continue, “you’ll be an egg wash by the end of this.” “What?” Penny says. “Is that a baking reference?” Egghead cracks his knuckles, and his men rush me.

Much like Penny does later in the scene, I had a tab open of egg-related words up while writing this. I had to work in the baking reference. But a terrible one. There’s a French term for whisking eggs that basically translates to “beating eggs into snow” - and I wish it was a thing in English, because, you know, Simon Snow. Oh well. 😂 

I Google a list of ways to make eggs. Simon needs to win this fight, but more importantly, he needs to get some egg-themed one-liners in there to show them who’s boss. Chances like this don’t come around very often. 

Listen, Penny is very dedicated. I love the idea of heroes just being quick-witted and coming up with these ridiculous quips on demand. But ultimately, I thought it was funnier - and more in character for Penny - to do this. (Even though her Superhero name is Quickwit, oops.) She has the world of Google at her disposal. Egg puns may not seem important, but superhero image and reputation is half the battle.

Simon is being attacked from all angles, but he fights like a whirlwind. The bulky guys attack first, mostly with their fists. Simon kicks their legs out from under them. He throws them across the floor like they weigh nothing. “Behind you!” I say. Simon spins around and disarms the man behind him, twisting his arm, and I hear a shout through my earbuds. He grabs the guy’s knife and kicks him in the stomach, sending him sprawling. Simon Snow faces fifteen men with nothing but two knives, looking like he’s ready to explode.

I loved writing this from Penny’s POV. I am used to writing fight scenes from the POV of the person fighting, so this was definitely a cool challenge. It’s part of why I brought Penny into the scene in the first place - so I could show Simon in third person. Almost like we’re watching a movie and getting some overhead shots. From his POV, you don’t realize quite how awesome he is. So getting to showcase him like this was really fun.

I still have to wonder how Shepard knew… well, everything. 

Don’t tell anyone but I didn’t know yet either

“He’s Scottish,” I tell Simon. “Scotch Egg.”

I know. This one’s bad.

He’s a blur of gold and white in motion. He throws his knife—I have no idea where he learned to do that—and it embeds itself in one of the men’s legs. He rolls across the floor, picking up two more discarded knives.

I don’t do a ton of plotting/outlining with fight scenes, but one thing I decide in advance is where and how everyone gets hurt. I didn’t want Simon to win the fight too easily, but I did need to injure him somehow. So it wouldn’t be too easy, but also to serve as a counterpoint to the socks thing later.

I watched a lot of action sequences to write this fic, especially with the trickier one vs. many scenes. 

Simon tosses him like a sack of flour.

Couldn’t resist the baker!Simon reference.

“Hard or soft boiled,” I whisper. “Which way is it gonna be, Egghead? Hard or soft boiled?” Simon shouts. He whispers to me, “That was stupid.” Egghead raises an eyebrow. “Last chance to leave us alone, Blade.” I consult my list of egg dishes. “Give up before you get scrambled.” Simon twirls his blades. I love it when he does that; he looks like Deadpool. “It’s your last chance to surrender before you get scrambled.”

I loved the hard or soft boiled line at first. And then I wrote it down and said it out loud, just to check, and it sounded SO DUMB. 😂I almost took it out, but then figured—Simon is probably not going to think this through, either.

Maybe the Deadpool line was a bit on the nose here, but I wanted to give readers some really vivid imagery of what Simon looks like right now with these dual wicked blades kitchen knives.

“I prefer my eggs… poached,” he says. 

Even though Egghead has turned out to be quite a serious villain—there are guns, drugs, and a backstory—he is, after all, original master of the egg puns. He would never turn down this opportunity.

Egghead scrambles (ha) to his feet

I think Penny is just me in this.

“Over-easy,” I whisper.

“That was over-easy,” he says.

Not my best. But it had to be in there.

I’ll skip the serious bits, since the plot there is pretty self-explanatory, to this:

I wish he’d asked what we serve, because I have so many egg puns at the ready. Eggs-ecution. Hash-ing out justice. Karma served hard.  

My beta ashspren gave me this line, and I could not be more grateful. Imagine the chapter without this. It would be a shame.

Here are a few egg puns that didn’t make the cut, SADLY:

You're washed out, egghead

*Egghead gets angry* hey, it was just a yolk

I had to go "beat" some eggs

*uppercut* Sunny side UP!

I'll bash in your Eggnoggin’

Some people are just bad eggs

Sorry this is so long—this has been a purely self-indulgent experience. Thanks so much for this ask, I really enjoyed writing this and I hope you like it! ❤️ 

[thenerdsofcolor]

When it was announced late last year that Mattel would be losing the master license to make DC Comics-related action figures, I wasn’t sure how to react. On the one hand, I had pretty much stopped buying Mattel’s offerings when they ended their DC Universe Classics line around 2012. On the other, I’ve been an avid collector of these figures ever since popular action figure sculptors the Four Horsemen gave us Zipline Batman in 2003. Of course, in the years since, I moved on — preferring more premium toymakers like SH Figuarts for my DC fix. But I couldn’t help coming back to Mattel one last time for an all-Batman wave to close out their 16-year run on the character.

DC Multiverse Wave 12

Before I dive in to the figures in their final Multiverse wave before turning the license over to Spin Masters and McFarlane Toys, a brief history:

Mattel took over the Batman toy license from Hasbro/Kenner — which had been consistently producing Batman product since getting the character back from Toy Biz after the Tim Burton Batman movie. Upon receiving access to the most successful action figure brand in the world, Mattel took the unprecedented step of upscaling the figures from 4-inch to 6-inch sensing the industry-wide shift Toy Biz initiated with their Marvel Legends line a year prior. Five years later, Mattel expanded from Batman to the rest of the DC Universe and introduced DC Universe Classics in 2008. DCUC would be the most expansive offering of DC characters ever offered, even surpassing Kenner’s Super Powers figures of the early ’80s. After a popular four-year run, the company shifted from mass market retail to an online subscription-based model for a while, then abandoned the 6-inch scale altogether. After experimenting with different scales, Mattel relaunched their 6-inch figure line under the “DC Multiverse” banner in 2016, which allowed for both comics- and multimedia-based likenesses.

And now, we’ve reached the end of DC Multiverse and Mattel’s involvement with the license.

It makes sense that they’d end on a wave that was exclusively Batman related since that’s how they started all the way back in 2003. (It doesn’t hurt that 2019 marks the 80th anniversary of Batman either). The Collect and Connect figure — that is, the bonus figure you can assemble by purchasing all of the figures in the wave that include various components — that the wave is identified with is none other than Killer Croc, a Batman rogue that hasn’t been available since before DC Universe Classics was a thing.

Killer Croc, assembled

Standing over 10 inches tall, this is a massive figure. In fact, he might be a little too big. I don’t recall Killer Croc being such a large character. That said, he is a fantastic figure. The sculpting is top notch, and once assembled, he stands as sturdy as any figure on your shelf. My favorite touch is the articulated jaw. That’s a nice detail!

The other rogue included in the wave is another one who has been on a lot of collector’s wish lists. KGBeast is not necessarily a top tier Bat rogue, but he’s one who hasn’t been made plastic very often. He’s one of the cooler figures in the assortment too.

DC Multiverse KGBeast

I feel like they used a Masters of the Universe sized buck for the Beast, which is appropriate. he’s also stacked with accessories, including three blades that each fit nicely into boot holsters and into his gun-arm to turn it into a musket arm, I guess.

Interestingly enough, even though this is the Batman 80th anniversary wave, Bruce Wayne is nowhere to be found in the assortment. Instead, we get Dick Grayson under the cowl.

Dick Grayson as Batman

While this isn’t my favorite figure in the wave, it’s a great representation for the (most recent) period of time Dick took over the Bat-mantle in the comics — after the Batman R.I.P. arc. The base buck used for the figure is less bulky than Batman has traditionally been depicted, but it works the former Robin and Nightwing. I also appreciate the slight smirk on the head sculpt. That’s not something you’d get in a regular Batman figure!

Speaking of head sculpts, this one comes with an alternate maskless head and a folded back cowl, which is pretty cool. The only gripes I have with the figure are the oversized feet — seriously, it’s like he’s wearing clown shoes — and the undersized cape. He’s also severely lacking in accessories. No alternate hands or batarangs. All you get is the Collect & Connect piece (Croc’s left leg) and that’s it.

This wave is actually more of a celebration of Batman’s sidekicks than of Batman himself. In addition to Dick, we get another former Robin in the assortment in Jason Todd’s Red Hood. This is the first time Jason Todd’s antihero alias has been available from Mattel, and I’m mixed on the final results.

DC Multiverse Red Hood

They don’t skimp on the alternate hands, as Todd comes with three pairs of hands, including two sets of gripping ones, though he has no weapons to grip since his guns are molded into the holsters! At least he comes with two heads (and Croc’s other leg). While it’s great to finally get a Red Hood to add to my plastic Bat Family, it would have been nice to have a more dynamic figure. It’s weird to get so many extra hands with nothing to put in them too.

Alas, Jason is not the only Robin this wave is rocking. Ladies and gentlemen, the best Robin, Tim Drake!

DC Multiverse Red Robin

Okay, technically, this is Drake’s New 52/Rebirth identity Red Robin, but he’s got the classic Tim Drake colors and bo staff so I’m happy! I also really like the overall sculpt and proportions. The head sculpt to me is actually reminiscent of Kenner’s infamous Batman Returns Robin figure — which is basically a whitewashed Marlon Wayans. In addition to the staff and extra set of hands, Robin also includes Killer Croc’s left arm.

DC Multiverse Katana

While she is technically not a Robin, Katana kind of served that purpose in the underrated animated series Beware the Batman. Here’s she sporting her revamped Rebirth costume, and while paint apps are clean, it’s a pretty spare figure. She comes with an additional hand to hold her soultaker sword, as well as Croc’s torso. Interestingly, the last time there was a Multiverse Katana figure, it was for the Suicide Squad movie and also featured a Killer Croc BAF piece.

The final “sidekick” included in the assortment is, arguably, the most important member of the Bat family and another one who has been on everyone’s wish lists. He’s also my favorite in the collection. That’s right, I’m talking about none other than Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler!

DC Multiverse Alfred

You might think a butler action figure is boring. But you would be wrong! A comic-accurate Alfred is long overdue! He also comes with a trusty silver platter, a glass of water, and an extra Bat cowl. And to make it even better, Mattel included alternate heads that feature the likenesses of Michael Gough (Alfred from the Burton/Schumacher films) and Alan Napier (the 1960s TV Alfred). They even included a Voldemort head for good measure.

I’m aware that the third head is of Alfred as the Earth-3 supervillain, The Outsider!

My only gripe with this Alfred figure is that he doesn’t scale too well with older DCUC Batman figures. In fact, that’s an issue with most of the recent Multiverse figures. He does scale really well with NECA’s 7-inch figures however!

Alfred with a DC Super Heroes Batman

Alfred with NECA 1989 Batman

Alfred with NECA 1966 Batman

League of Extraordinary Alfreds

I’ve had an up-and-down relationship with Mattel over the years. But I am sad to see them no longer make DC toys — as critical as I’ve been in the past, there’s something nostalgic about associating these two brands together. This final wave is a hell of a way to go out too. While not perfect, I can’t think of a more perfect way to go out than with the character they came in with. Thanks for the memories, Mattel!

Don’t forget that you can get your own DC Multiverse Batman 80th Wave 12 Action Figures at Entertainment Earth!

Batman R.I.P.: Mattel's Last Line of DC Multiverse Figures #actionfigures #Batman80 #toyreview When it was announced late last year that Mattel would be losing the master license to make DC Comics-related action figures, I wasn't sure how to react.

[sebeth]

Young Justice: Welcome To Happy Harbor, Drop-Zone, What’s The Story

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

 Episode 3: “Welcome To Happy Harbor”

The episode begins with Speedy interrupting one of Brick’s shipments.  Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad soon join the party.

Brick gets cocky and pays for it.  I’d completely forgotten about Brick’s appearance in this episode.  We see Brick in the trailer for the third season.  I bet he appears in Arrowette’s origin/recruitment episode.  It would be a nice callback to the first season.

The boys attempt to recruit Speedy to the team but he’s a manly man who doesn’t need to be part of a team.

“Recognized Robin B-01, Kid Flash B-03”

You know Batman programmed the codes and was all “Robin will be the first”.  It’s also a nice nod to Robin’s status as the first sidekick.

“Mission assignments are the Batman’s responsibility.” – Yep, poor Red is the one who has to reign in their shenanigans.  This Red doesn’t know how easy he has it – there should be a crossover between the Red of the cartoon universe and the Red of the comic book universe.  Comic book-Red can terrify Cartoon-Red with tales of his Conner and Bart.

“This team is not a social club.” – Kaldur would be the one most adamant about assignments and not wasting time on socializing.  He entered the Atlantean military at 12 years old.  He’s had structure and duty drilled into him at a young age.

“I cannot read his mind.” – Ooh, foreshadowing of M’gann’s later abuse of her powers?  That is a pretty clear violation of privacy for no other reason than convenience.  On the one hand, I cut M’gann some slack because even at 45 years old she is still a teenager by her race’s standards.  Teenagers don’t always make the best decisions and she’s obviously attempting to impress her teammates.  On the other hand, J’onn is a very ethical telepath and I’m positive he would have coached M’gann on the proper uses of telepathy.

“We all know what you’re thinking right now.” – Wally the horn dog is taken straight out of his solo comic in the late 1980s.

Wally and Dick competing over M’gann’s attention is hilarious.  I don’t think Dick event wants M’gann’s attention as much as he wants to annoy Wally.  Meanwhile, Superboy is not amused by their shenanigans.  At all.

Kaldur continues to be the only “adult” in the room.

“Granny Jones’ recipe from episode 17” – Subtle foreshadowing of an element that wouldn’t become prominent until much later in the season.

Wally needs to learn subtleness in his flirtations.

“Here, your powers are an extreme invasion of privacy.” – Wouldn’t that have been one of the first things J’onn would have gone over with her?”  

Superboy would be highly sensitive to telepathic intrusions due to his experiences in Cadmus.  If your entire upbringing revolved around telepathic manipulation, you are sure not going to want anyone randomly popping into your head.

“Helo, Megan.” – What we thought was a catchphrase is more foreshadowing.

The Martian bio-ship is cool.

“Fast with his feet. Not so much with his mouth.”

“Dude!”

Yep, Dick is having too much fun giving Wally a bad time.

Kaldur takes the lead and reaches out to Superboy.  Even before it was made official, the writers did a great job laying the foundation for Aqualad to become the leader of the team.

“Mimicking boys is a lot harder.” – Would it be?  Do Martians even have gender?  Their natural forms – green or white – are basically androgynous.

“Are tornadoes common in New England?” – A pretty sensible question.  Kaldur lives underwater, Conner’s a newborn, Megan’s an alien, and Wally’s from the Midwest.  Dick is the only one who lives in New England area.

The team battles Mr. Twister and comes out on the losing end.  I’ve always felt Red Tornado was one of the most formidable heroes around. How do you fight a tornado?

“That was quite turbing.” – Dick’s mangling of the English language is thrown back into his face.

Megan deduces (wrongly) that Mr. Twister is the Red Tornado.  To be fair, it was an obvious guess.

“Stay out of our way.” – Is this Conner’s catchphrase?  This is the second time in three episodes he’s stated a variation of it.

The rematch with Mr. Twister is going as well as the first round.

“First thing Batman taught me.” – Yeah, I can see Bruce believing “never be without a weapon” is a valuable life lesson.  

Where did Dick hide the utility belt? It’s rather bulky.

Megan devises a plan and the team makes short work of Mr. Twister.

“Cool.  Souvenir.” – Wally begins his collection of trophies.

The scientist at the end is Dr. T.O. Morrow – his search for Red Tornado sets up a future episode.

“Sorry.  I’ll strive to be more accurate.”

“And more respectful.”

Yep, Dick and Conner could both use lessons in manners and tact.

Conner mutters an awkward “Sorry” to Megan.  Judging from his expression, it pained him in his soul to do so.

Episode 4: “Drop-Zone”

For those curious, the first three episodes of the cartoon, along with the first five issues of the comic, took place from July 4th through the 12th.

“Drop-Zone” begins on June 19th – Kobra has forcibly taken control of Bane’s Venom-production facilities on Santa Prisca.  Bane is not happy.

Bane battles Mammoth for control of the island and loses.

I like Kobra and his minions visual design.  Very nice. I’m not sold on Shimmer or Mammoth (pre-transformation.”

We flip ahead to June 22nd.  Two possibilities for why we are now in June – which is before July, not after.  One – the creators messed up and put June in the captions instead of July.  Two – we skipped a year between episodes 3 and 4.  I’m going with the first option as the team still hasn’t elected a leader. Pretty sure you can’t have a year’s worth of adventures without an established leader.

That said, I’m pausing “Drop-Zone” and switching to the comic as the fifth issue takes place on July 20th. I’m trying to keep this in chronological order.

Issue 5: “What’s The Story?”

Wally is at the HQ – bored and flirthing with Megan.  Wally suggest a camp fire.  Megan enthusiastically agrees but dashes Wally’s hopes by inviting the rest of the team.

Tents are set, fires lit, and smores made.

Dick tells Wally to tone down his flirting as it’s “kinda bordering on the creepy.” Yeah, Wally isnt’ exactly smooth.

Conner’s not impressed with camping: “Sleep in these flimsy things called tents and sit around the fire?”

Dick scolds Wally again: “You’re about as subtle as a train wreck.”

Megan wants to learn more about her teammates.

Aqualad begins.  Here are the highlights:

·         Grew up in Shayeris, a city of Atlantis

·         Atlantis has many people, many cultures

·         Completed his education at 12 and began mandatory service in the Atlantean military

·         At 14 years old - Transferred to the prestigious Conservatory of Science in Poseidonis

·         Queen Mera is the headmistress of the Conservatory

·         Met Garth and Tula at the Conservatory

·         Garth Kaldur saved Aquaman’s life during an attack by the Ocean Master

·         Aquaman offered the boys a chance to become his protégé and later carry on his “suface duties” while he focused on running the Kingdom

·         Kaldur leapt at the chance while Garth continued his magical studies

Nice origin recap for Kaldur.  I love the inclusion of Garth and Tula as it is a nice nod to Arthur’s original sidekicks.

Wally goes next. Highlights:

·         Jay Garrick is still the original Flash!  Yes!  I love the nods to the depth of the DC Universe. Modern creators don’t seem to care about characters and continuity but Greg Weisman and company flawlessly incorporate all aspects and elements of DC’s history.

·         Barry’s next.

·         Wally desperately wants to be Kid Flash but Barry is “No! No partners! I don’t want the responsibility!”

·         Wally’s all “Screw that.  I do what I want.” and recreates the chemical combination that caused Barry to turn into the Flash.

·         Wally as a science nerd is unique to the Young Justice universe but it’s a nice addition to the character.

·         After a few weeks, Wally gains super-speed.  He campaigns to be Barry’s new partner.  Barry’s not thrilled but agrees as long as Wally does “exactly as I say, when I say it.”

The writers did an excellent job of establishing exactly why the heroes allowed the teenagers to run around in costumes:

·         Aquaman is training a protégé to assume his role as surface world ambassador/protector.

·         Batman doesn’t want Dick to turn out like him.  Bruce doesn’t want Dick’s “inner light” to face out.

·         Barry had no choice as Wally was hell-bent on being a hero.  Better to have Wally by his side than face the danger alone.

Roy is too busy being a manly loner to discover Ollie’s reasons.  Traditionally, Ollie doesn’t make the best life choices so it could have been the more typical “well, letting a kid run around in a mask and punch criminals seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Robin passes on story-telling time.  At first, Wally ribs Dick about Batman not letting him say anything but realizes he’s rubbing salt in the wound and passes the story-telling baton to Conner.

Conner doesn’t say much. He mentions the G-Gnomes and the containment pod.  Conner states he never thought for himself until his rescue.

Conner states the one thing that’s always on his mind is “Destroying Superman.

And with that bombshell, I’m off to work.

Up next, we continue story time and resume “Drop-Zone”.

[heroesofcrash]

10/27/18 - Halloween 2018

Happy Halloween from TheHeroesOfCRASH.com! Remember to Vote Blue, or Gritty will EAT YOUR SOUL.

Usually, my Halloween fillers will include some nostalgic costumes, but there were too many cases of "I Couldn't Resist" with more recent stuff...!

I absolutely loved Shuri in Black Panther; with her brains, wisecracks, and cool hand-blasters, she was easily my favorite character. Plus, she's canonically smarter than Tony Stark, who I think needs to be brought down a peg (Admittedly, that's largely because I still have a somewhat petty grudge against Robert Downy Jr. for his not-terribly-Sherlock-y portrayal of Sherlock Holmes). She's a VERY close second to Deadpool for my favorite Marvel movie characters. There was no way I was missing a chance to dress Enticia up as such an awesome character, even if her design was tricky to figure out, simplify, and draw.

Titanium Maiden always goes as redheaded characters for Halloween, and I FINALLY saw the movie Brave this summer (and liked it). TM's Merida-styled hair was a bit less tricky than I was afraid it would be; I found myself blocking out the general shape first, and then doing the outermost strands.

Cannon always modifies his helmet for Halloween costumes, and this isn't his first time dressing as a Mega Man character (He dressed up as Protoman for the very first Halloween filler!). Cannon and Acid Man (from the new Mega Man 11) share a similar color scheme, have bulky armor above a skinny torso, and wield a barrel-shaped arm cannon on their right arm. The resemblance is unCannony- er, uncanny!

Every year, Belt Boy dresses as a superhero, and every year it's NEVER someone from either DC or Marvel! While the Big Two have come up with some great characters, a lot of my favorite superheroes are from outside their universes. Nearly all of Belt Boy's previous costumes have been characters with only one canon universe (making them easy characters to follow and understand), they tend to explore some inventive worldbuilding, and most of them have strong elements of humor. I haven't seen much of One Punch Man, but I would like to see more. I probably would have had BB dress as him last year if I hadn't chosen All Might. One more note: Belt Boy is intentionally trying to maintain his character's half-lidded gaze and small anime mouth. He takes his costumes seriously.

Gritty is TERRIFYING. He looks like a Muppet with the dead eyes of a Five Nights at Freddies animatronic. As a Pennsylvanian with Philadelphian parents, I'm a little embarrassed for my own home team. But Gritty has a few things going for him. For one, the concept drawings of him look MUCH less terrifying than the actual mascot costume. And for another, Philadelphia's citizens have kinda adopted him as an anti-Trump mascot. I guess sometimes you have to fight fire WITH fire... or perhaps fight a nightmare-inducing orange monster with bad hair WITH a nightmare-inducing orange monster with bad hair. Being big and orange, I knew Unk was the perfect character to pull him off (And yes, those creepy eyes are glued to Unk's signature sunglasses).

And finally, there's Miss Sunflower. This is only her second appearance in a Halloween costume (The first being Gozer the Gozerian). Everyone's been drawing Bowsette lately, and it was only a matter of time until I got into the action. People have been drawing her different ways, combining different degrees of Peach and Bowser's designs. Some make her look mostly like Peach (blonde, waifish, and almost entirely humanoid), while others mix a bit more Bowser into her design (giving her red hair, a bulky physique, and/or a more reptilian design). While I briefly considered drawing Titanium Maiden as a bulky, redheaded Bowsette, it didn't take me long to realize that Miss Sunflower - as a villain with actual horns like most Bowsettes - was a WAY better choice. Outside of her red hair, and her signature makeup, Sunflower's design is mostly like that found in the original Bowsette comic that started this meme (By the way, if Toadette becomes "Peachette", shouldn't Bowser become "Peachser"? I'm just saying...).

One last note; I was originally going to draw a different Halloween filler based on the idea of there being unwanted attention at a Halloween party. In honor of The Heroes Of C.R.A.S.H. joining the Collective of Heroes, I was going to promote it by having some other CoH characters show up, with Cannon unsuccessfully hitting on the superheroines and making a less-than-stellar first impression. However, since it was pretty late in the game for me to ask permission to use characters, and I already signed up to do a Halloween art trade for the CoH, I decided it would be best not to start things off by biting off more than I could chew. You should still totally read the other Collective of Heroes comics. The ones I've been reading have been pretty great. And their Featured Comic for the week is- GASP! It's The Heroes Of C.R.A.S.H.! :-D

[sarahsuemongous]

If you’re looking to buy a costume/cosplay...

2018 was the first year I bought a costume instead of making it for a convention. Time constraints and a lack of a sewing machine. I was considering a Harley Quinn costume from Oasis costume but it didn’t have a review so I Googled the company. I found a post on an Elsa Coronation costume and it was pretty positive so I gave it a try. This is the Harley Quinn costume on their website:

. (https://www.oscostume.com/dc-comics-batman-supervillain-harley-quinn-costume-clown-jester-zentai-jumpsuit-morphsuit-halloween-costume-morphsuit-carnival-costume/)

This is what it looked like on me. Pretty similar, but I had to fuss with it a bunch. I wrote a review for the website after the convention that explained it was overall ok. I think I gave it 3 stars. My reasoning was that the body suit itself was the best part, as it wasn’t too thin and could conceal my underwear underneath. However, the cowl was unruly and I had to use safety pins to hold it somewhat into place, the scarf folded over on itself so I had to use dress tape to keep it in place, you have to find and paint shoes to be able to wear it to a convention (those are socks, not booties). Finally, the mask was so bulky and shaped awkwardly that I ended up painting a mask on. It just didn’t look like the one in the picture on the website. I wouldn’t buy it again but it worked fine for a bought costume. But that’s not what the review posted on the website said....

They hacked out most of my review and changed the number of stars I gave the product. I get not wanting negative reviews but completely changing it seems especially shady. If you’re considering buying from Oasis, know that their on site reviews may be very different than what was actually submitted. 

[mahalshairyballs]

Justice League Review

I have a lot to say about that movie. And I haven’t done a long review on a movie in a long time. So I guess it means something that I want to do that for Justice League?

but first: come on rottentomatoes it deserved more than 40% 

Many compared it to Age of Ultron, while that comparison is interesting, I feel like when Age of Ultron is good it is better than JL but when it is bad, it is way worse than JL, while Justice League is a pretty innoffensive movie. There’s no canon destruction here compared to BvS or AoU. 

 “A fun but unimpactful movie”. I think this describes it well. I liked most of it and I would go see it again. 

Now for the details (and spoilers) under the cut

And my inevitable comparison of what people said and what I saw: 

General

People said that the movie was jumping a lot from scene to scene, I saw that but it didn’t bug me. It wasn’t as jarring to me as it felt to many other people. I also didn’t see that “change in tone”, the movie felt pretty constant in tones to me. I also like the more “light hearted” feel of the movie, there’s not that many jokes in it (but I guess compared to BvS it’s a big difference) and most of them work well. Some things were cheesy and over-the-top, some things were “bad” but in a good way. I think it’s Andre from Black Nerd Comedy who said that it felt like a live-action cartoon of Justice League, and I could see that. It really had that feel, which is hard to describe, but it was a positive thing.  

Also I’m rarely one to complain about CGI, but maaaan some CGI in this was reaaaally showing. The worst part for me was when Steppenwolf fought the amazones, and at some point when Arthur Cury was jumping in the water it seemed like he was in front of a green screen? I have no idea why, it’s just a guy in the water, why do you need a green screen for that?

Many people liked the battle between the amazones and Steppenwolf but I didn’t really like it. My favorite was the one in the tunnels, mostly because there was a lot of character interaction and some form of character development. And it’s true that the “boss battle” at the end was done in like 10 minutes. 

The movie does feel like there’s no high stake here, who cares about steppenwolf? Even if they say it’s a big threat you’re like wtv. But that didn’t bother me much. 

People said there was a lot of plot holes, well they were not big enough to bother me. People said that it was rushed, yeah I can get that, especially with the backstories of the new characters, but it could have been way worse. The movie was mostly straightforward and easy to follow. I had no problems understanding what was going on even if I never saw BvS or Suicide Squad (But I did watch a lot of reviews and analysis of those movies, and I know the big lines of the DC comics lore) 

The characters: 

I liked Batman, I quite like Ben Affleck’s take, especially the lighter version seen here in Justice League. I feel it’s more like the comics than the other ones. And I liked that they made him do some martial art fighting, I feel like we don’t see that enough in the Batman movies. He’s supposed to be so good at it they should show it more. But then his costume is so bulky, it does very much look like some of the comics stories. He says a few funny lines in the movie, I wouldn’t say they’re “jokes” but at least he’s not GrumpyMcGrumpalot Batman in this. 

I liked that Alfred had stuff to do in the movie, even if it was more just practical than emotional. He kind of reminded me of JARVIS.

It was also kind of funny that Batman tried to delegate to everyone else the task of talking to the other three ‘recruits’ (Wonder Woman and Alfred “I thought you were supposed to talk to him.”) 

Wonder Woman is difficult to pinpoint in this movie. She seems more or less the same as in her solo movie. I saw an excerpt of a review on tumblr that said “oh Joss Whedon made wonder woman a nagging wife trope again!”. For one, who said it was Joss Whedon who wrote those scenes and not Snyder? When I was watching the movie I thought “where is she supposed to be the nagging wife exactly?” I never got the sense that she was that at all. It’s not because she disagreed with Bruce that one time that she’s automatically a “nagging wife”. Women can disagree with men you know? And Batman never seemed annoyed by her, and he apologized later, and the other ones were all on Wonder Woman’s side... so really I have no idea where she got that idea...it’s reaaaly stretching it.  I saw that scene where they disagreed more like a “Tony and Steve” kind of moment, and it was way less tense in JL than Avengers. I saw Batman and Wonder Woman as the coleaders of the team, or at least trying to be. Also if you want to talk sexist tropes, instead of the nagging wife, I felt like the nurturing mother was more present to me. I don’t know if it’s good or bad but she seemed to be the one who cared about everybody and believed in them and was sweet to them.

But there are some things that bugged me. Like the fact that they kept mentionning Steve Trevor. Like I GET IT, SHE LOVED HIM. But like it’s been 100 YEARS AND SHE’S STILL NOT OVER IT? Steve wasn’t over Peggy because he got FROZEN IN TIME so to him it’s been a fraction of a second later, but Diana had to live in “Man’s world” for a hundred years now. I know they wanted to link it to the Wonder Woman movie but it felt so forced and I didn’t get any emotion from it. It is a way for them to explain why she didn’t do anything for a hundred years. When Batman said “why aren’t you a beacon of hope like Superman if you’ve been here longer” me: ‘hum I don’t know, the patriarchy? The fact that the producers decided she wasn’t?” I though that the idea that Diana had lost hope and abandonned men had been retconned with Wonder Woman.  They went back to retcon the retcon from what I’m understanding? Ugh I hated this.

The choices of aestetic 

First, the ass shots thing people complained about. It’s not there all that much. I think it’s there once when she’s in normal clothes and maybe two times in her Wonder Woman costume? That’s not what bothered me the most. What bothered me the most was how often she had very big cleavage shirts, even when she was only going to talk to Victor, why did she need a shirt like that? Also “sexy women in movies must wear heels” it’s funny because the first time she came to see Batman she had those big heels, and then the next scene where they walked in a park or something she had black running shoes? So she decided to change shoes in between? 

The Amazones

So the “bikini armor” of the Amazones’ past that did the rounds on tumblr didn’t bother me that much. During the flashback you barely see that they have leather bikinis, and some don’t. What bothered me though is during the present day some of the amazones had metal crop tops and all their stomach were showing. Did we have that in the Wonder Woman movie? I’m pretty sure we didn’t. 

Her relationship with Bruce

I liked it, except for the moments where he kept mentionning Steve Trevor. But oh my god the StraightsTM with their “oooooh there’s sexual tension between Wonder Woman and Batman, will this be a future ship in the movies” like? no? there? isn’t? any? For real, I didn’t read any ~sexual tension~ in their interaction. When she got to help him in a secluded room after he got pretty hurt I feared for the worst, I was like “oh no, this is it, this is the time they will flirt and people will call it  ~sexual tension~ “ but actually it wasn’t? I was relieved, they only talked heart to heart. Also the “I should stop reacting and start acting” thing. I understand where they were coming from and what they wanted to do here. I didn’t see it as necessarily sexist but more a reference to that damn “oh Wonder Woman has lost faith in humans and is hidding now for a hundred years”. I know they wanted that moment to be where she assumed her role as the leader of the team, but yeah it felt more like a reminder of a previous bad character choice for her that they still wanted to be A THINGtm in the movie. 

Also, can we all agree that Wonder Woman is also super fast? They kind of forgot that after her first scene. 

The new characters & the team

The movie tried to give a story/backstory to these characters as much as they could with the short amount of time they had. I applaud their effort, it didn’t work super well, but they tried, and each of the tree had their ‘alone moments’ and some good moments together. It didn’t work so well because you mostly felt thrown into their story without knowing much of anything about these characters. It’s true that the movie does rely on the fact that you should already be familiar with those characters via other media. 

Something I liked is that they all didn’t want to be part of the team at first (Flash said yes but hesitated later), for different reasons, and came back on their own for different reasons too. But can we talk about how everyone in this movie seem to show up exactly at the right time, excactly when they’re needed? Sometimes you’re like “How did you know to come here?”. 

I also liked the team dynamic as a whole, I liked that there wasn’t any forced tension, they mostly got along well but they still had their disagreement. I’m a bit tired of the trope “people who hate each other must fight a common baddie that will unite them and they will bond through fighting together and then form a team of mistfits!” it’s been done over and over, Marvel is a particular expert at this one. I liked that they didn’t have to fight each other to become a team, it’s refreshing. 

Victor (Cyborg) 

I really liked him, he was endearing.  I liked the actor. I just liked the way he was in general, he was the rational one who knew a lot about stuff. He was the straight man to Barry’s quirky/excited character. He had some tension going on with Aquaman, and developped a bond with Wonder Woman (I liked their scenes). 

During his first scenes, we saw him having to deal with being now a cyborg. They touched subjects that were deep and had a great potential for drama but I thought “That has such potential for a deep story, but I’m sure they’ll ruin it”. They didn’t ruin it, they just never really adressed it again? 

Toward the end of the movie I was like “I like him, but I don’t know how they’ll be able to make a solo film with him”. I still want that solo film though. 

Also Honest Trailer will probably nickname him “MrExpositionGuy” probably.

He did look CGI A LOT, I mean of course he would, all his body is a robot! but it was jarring at the beginning how much he looked computerised. And the way he learned his powers, I don’t know if it was good or not but he did learn to use them fast. 

Barry Allen (Flash)

I really liked him!? Yeah he was the comic relief but maaaan he was cute, and relatable. I often felt he was all of us, a tumblr poster child, super awkward, some social issues and endearing. I do very much like the actor too so it helps. So many of the things he said were tumblr quotes material. I hope people will at least gif him.  

I liked how they threw in there a small character development story for him. I liked how he was the average guy who suddenly got supperpowers, he wasn’t suddenly all courageous and had to learn to be. He was a bit the spider-man of the story, the young tech guy who’s also a fanboy and doesn’t know how to Hero yet. 

Also, after credit scene with superman: gold.

Arthur Curry (Aquaman) 

Most people said it was Cyborg that made the least of an impression on them (if they mention him at all...) but to me, my least favorite one was not Cyborg...it was Aquaman. Which surprised me a lot. I LOVED Aquaman’s new design, and Jason Momoa to play him. But I don’t know, his character never struck anything in me. He was cool, I guess I liked him, but less than the others.

I did like the ‘sit on the lasso of truth’ scene haha. Clever way to have Emotional Exposition moment. 

I do want to see a solo film of him though. I think he is one of the characters who should have had a solo film before the Justice League movie, because there is so much lore to his world. They tried to crame as much lore and backstory on him in one scene, it was weird. I mean, good try, but it didn’t work very well. I wasn’t lost during that scene, but it’s definitely one of those “yeah you need to read the comics to know more” moments. 

Superman

I liked him. I liked that he went back to mostly be the Superman of the comics and the early movies. People said that it was the best superman portrayal they’ve seen in the DCEU, I agree, but  I also think it got a bit overhyped. 

The moment when Barry saw that superman was as fast as him though, priceless. 

We did have some good BatSups moments.

Also the CGI lips? Guys it wasn’t that noticeable. I kept looking at his lips and didn’t seen any problems with it. 

Steppenwolf: yeah there’s really nothing to say about him, like who cares? 

The most important now: the ships. Hey I came back with ships! I feel like a movie did its job if they made me ship characters, so good on you Justice League! During the boss battle at the end the only thing I was thinking about was “ok so I ship him with him and her....and then him with....” 

So ships: I’d say Diana x Victor or Victor x Barry (or Diana x Victor x Barry? Ot3 ? maybe?). But then I was like Victor x Barry so Diana......Bruce? ah nah....*Superman arrives, awkward but cute scene with Batman* ah! Batman x Superman! All is as it should be, and all is well in the world. 

So Diana x Victor x Barry

Superman x Batman

and Aquaman......? (and that’s where I realized he was my least favorite, I had no ship with him. But I could maybe see Aquaman x Victor, idk? Aquaman x Batman?) 

To sum up 

The movie was enjoyable, but there was something that felt...off. I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly. I theorized it was because we didn’t know most of the characters yet, or that the story was no that engaging. I’m still wondering what it is, maybe it was the filming choices? Even if there was more colors, it was still a pretty grey movie (and red..). 

So you know I’d give it a good 65%-70%  I think. 

And the After credit: Hey Deathstroke, will you come in time to watch Deadpool 2? (So we won’t have Darkseid just yet?)

[aion-rsa]

The Best Comics of the Decade

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We've read a TON of great comics in the last 10 years, and we picked out the 100 best for you to passionately disagree with.

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What a century this last decade has been.

Seriously, the pace of change over the last 10 years has been steadily rising, and has been somewhere between “dangerous” and “murderous” for the last 3, and that isn’t just about geopolitics: the comics world of today is certainly recognizable to a time traveller from 2010, but it would look extremely weird.

- Webcomics and medium press publishers are EVERYWHERE now.

- Marvel has embraced multiple restarts of its line.

- DC has rebooted its universe at least twice.

- Comics are for kids again.

- Nerds rule culture, for all that’s good and bad.

These changes have been catalysts for some very, very good comic books, and we wanted to give you a list of some of our favorites. Here are a few guiding principles to our list:

I am one person who can’t possibly read everything. There’s some stuff that won’t be on this list because I didn’t have time to get to it. Please share what was missed in the comments!

It’s also an exercise in opinion! I didn’t want to be redundant and talk about the same creators or characters over and over again, though there are some repeats. I ranked these according to what I enjoyed, and not some externally objective measure of what is the finest art. If anything, I’m biased towards what was interesting - books that have stuck with me for years, stuff I still think about or reread or recommend. That said, for longer runs like Scott Snyder’s Batman or Criminal, I tried to pick arcs that were symbolic of the entire run, or the best stories within a bigger picture.

And finally, it’s imperfect. I’ve been fiddling with a good chunk of this list for a month and a half, and every time I look, I realize something I forgot, or something I could move, or something that shouldn’t be ranked lower than something else. But ultimately, I’m pretty happy with everything here, and I’m willing to bet you’ll find something interesting you’ve never considered before in it, even if I’ve missed a few glaring stories.

With that in mind, Den of Geek is proud to unveil our empirically sound, objective, and absolute BEST COMICS OF THE 2010S

  100. Batman & Robin

Pete Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, John Kalisz (DC Comics)

Tomasi and Gleason’s run never got the attention it deserved because it ran alongside huge ones - Grant Morrison’s Batman and Batman Inc. to start, and Scot Snyder and Greg Capullo’s monster New 52 series later. But I might like this one more: Tomasi writes hands down the best Damian Wayne I’ve ever read, and Gleason and Gray do bulky, shadowy Bat people perfectly. The high point is an issue around the middle of this run, post-Damian’s death but before he came back, when Batman is teaming up with Two-Face, and it might be my favorite single issue of Batman of all time. It’s such a perfect take on Two-Face that I come back to it every couple of years. Give this era of Batman a shot, I bet you love it.

read Batman & Robin on Amazon

  99. Black Science

Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera, Moreno Dionisio (Image Comics)

Black Science is a comic full of Rick Remender’s fears and worries. Scalera and Dionisio turn them into bright, colorful, wildly creative visuals as Grant McKay bounced around the Eververse trying to find a way at first to express his anarcho-scientistism, and then to save his family. It wrapped up earlier this year, and Remender and the team did an elegant job landing the plane on one of the best books from a wave of big name creator owned books that launched back in 2014.

read Black Science on Amazon

  98. Black

Kwanza Osajyefo, Tim Smith 3, Jamal Igle, Khary Randolph (Black Mask Studios)

Osajyefo, Smith, Igle and cover artist Khary Randolph’s comic about what would happen in a world where only black people got superpowers stripped the “mutant” part from “the mutant metaphor” and also the “metaphor” part, and gave us a story about black people being treated like exploitable resources by the US government. Igle’s black and white art was terrific, and the story is rough when you explain the plot, but rougher when it plays out on the page in front of you. 

read Black on Amazon

  97. Assassin Nation

Kyle Starks, Erica Henderson (Image Comics)

Starks and Henderson are both gifted comics creators on their own. Pairing them together gave us something beautiful - a book that’s about the world’s greatest assassins banding together to fight for their lives. It’s got unique characters with distinct voices and ridiculous, over the top action.

read Assassin Nation on Amazon

  96. Boundless

Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Time has sped up immensely in the last three years. Things that feel momentus happen and are forgotten four hours later. Trends are microtrends, fads are localized without geography, and entire 24-hour news cycles are compressed to the space between weathers on the 1s. So it’s really weird how a collection of in-the-moment short comics drawn (presumably) in 2016 feels extremely relevant and timely now. Tamaki takes a bunch of quick stories - about a mirror Facebook that shows you what might be in a parallel world; a Twilight Zone-esque cultural phenomenon mp3; a porn sitcom from the ‘90s gaining more than a cult following 25 years later - and uses the characters to say something interesting about them or us or our world. It’s a great book.

read Boundless on Amazon

  95. Imperium

Joshua Dysart, Doug Brathwaite, Scot Eaton, Cafu, Khari Evans, Ulisses Ariola (Valiant Entertainment)

Toyo Harada is a underratedly great villain, and Imperium is the story of him trying to impose his will on the world. Valiant books have, since their return early this decade, been pretty tightly intertwined, but most of their central narrative has revolved around Harada. He’s a great choice for that. He’s as big an egomaniac as Lex Luthor or Dr. Doom, but he’s got the benefit of operating in a world where the political rules are more like those of ours, which enhances everything good and bad about his character. Dysart and the art team give us an outstanding story about megalomania here.

read Imperium on Amazon

  94. X-Men: Second Coming

Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells, Mike Carey, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, David Finch, Terry Dodson, Greg Land, Mike Choi, Ibraim Roberson, Rachel Dodson, Sonia Oback (Marvel Comics)

Second Coming is the payoff to my favorite era of X-Men books so far, the Messiah Era. It starts out blazingly fast, and then plays out over the course of 14 issues and somehow speeds up as it goes along. It’s a straight up summer blockbuster action movie in comic form that does an excellent job blending voices, art styles and ongoing plots with the overall narrative of the crossover without losing any momentum.

read X-Men: Second Coming on Amazon

  93. Ultimates 2

Al Ewing, Travel Foreman, Christian Ward, Dan Brown (Marvel Comics)

Al Ewing is well on his way to stardom because of how good The Immortal Hulk is, but the cool kids all knew where he was going after he teamed up with Foreman and Ward to tell a story about the self-aware multiverse and cosmic entities of the Marvel universe in The Ultimates/Ultimates 2. This book is weird and gorgeous, and even if it leaned towards implying some big changes for the greater Marvel cosmology without ever seeing those changes bear fruit, it was still a terrific story on its own right.

read Ultimates 2 on Amazon

  92. Adventure Time

Ryan North, Shelli Paroline, Braden Lamb (BOOM! Studios)

A licensed property like Adventure Time is tough to get right. The cartoon is so inventive that even if you match what shows up on the screen, it’s still just a pale shadow because the creativeness of the ideas is the point. So it was a huge surprise when the comic nailed it - it was every bit as wild as the show, only it also captured the voices of the characters perfectly and delighted in being a comic in a way that made it a celebration of the medium. This was the first time North managed to get rollover text into a printed comic, and it works, man.

read Adventure Time on Amazon

  91. The Divine

Boaz Lavie, Asaf Hanuka, Tomer Hanuka (First Second)

The Hanukas do two things really, really well in The Divine. They do great scale shifts. The camera zooms from pulling in really close on an eye about to bleed to pulling waaaay back to show giant beasts roving what looks like a fantasy countryside, and each decision about where to put the camera serves the story well. And the coloring adds to the surrealness of the story. It’s bright and full of greens and pinks almost to the point of being disorienting, which is I think the goal of that palette choice. The story is excellent too, about Burmese (or I guess Myanmarese now) child soldiers defending the land of their gods from resource extractors.

read The Divine on Amazon

  90. Ivar, Timewalker

Fred Van Lente, Clayton Henry, Brian Reber (Valiant Entertainment)

Ivar is surprisingly emotional and a ton of fun. Tonally, it’s one of the most distinct Valiant comics - it threads the needle of Quantum & Woody comedy, X-O Manowar high adventure and Eternal Warrior mythmaking. Van Lente takes pieces from all of those genres and knits them together with a ton of humor to make a super entertaining comic. What’s not to like about a book that starts with the main character throwing up his arms and shouting “LET’S KILL HITLER!”?

read Ivar, Timewalker on Amazon

  89. Virgil

Steve Orlando, JD Faith, Chris Beckett, Tom Mauer (Image Comics)

What I liked most about Virgil is how little it felt like Orlando and Faith were shading the story. It’s simultaneously about how reprehensible Jamaica is towards gay people; crooked cops; and a love story; and a revenge story, and no one aspect overrules the others. Virgil is a dirty cop in Jamaica and also a gay man who loses his love and goes on a rampage. Every part of the story is given equal attention, and the final result is really, really good comics.

read Virgil on Amazon

  88. Memetic

James Tynion IV, Eryk Donovan (BOOM! Studios)

It’s shocking how prescient Memetic feels. It’s genuinely creepy horror work from Tynion and Donovan, but it’s also about a meme and the homogenization of culture, and it landed like, 3 years before those ideas really penetrated the cultural zeitgeist. Donovan’s art manages the tricky feat of nailing the genuine horror of the situation, from the shock on the characters’ faces to the gross-out body horror later in the book, but it’s also genuinely funny at times. That damn sloth meme has been stuck in my head for five years.

read Memetic on Amazon

87. The Manhattan Projects

Jonathan Hickman, Nick Pitarra, Jordie Bellaire (Image Comics)

Some books need long explanations to justify inclusion on a best books of the decade list. Some just need you to say “Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein gun down a space station full of FDRobots.” Guess which one Manhattan Projects is.

read The Manhattan Projects on Amazon

  86. O.M.A.C.

Dan DiDio, Keith Giffen, Scott Koblish, Hi-Fi (DC Comics)

O.M.A.C. is secretly the best New 52 launch title. Honestly, though, this book is and will always be an underrated gem: it’s DiDio, Giffen, and Koblish trying to do Jack Kirby with modern sensibilities. And it’s extremely, beautifully Kirby in so many different ways. I can’t believe it worked.

read OMAC on Amazon

  85. All-New Wolverine

Tom Taylor, David Lopez, David Navarrot, Nathan Fairbairn (Marvel Comics)

One of the best X-Men comics from the last ten years is also one of the most unexpected: it’s a Marvel book that steals DC’s traditional schtick about how to be a great legacy hero. Laura Kinney takes over Logan’s mask after her clonefather dies, and decides to make it a more outwardly and publicly superheroic mantle. Spoilers: she’s GREAT at it. Taylor gives her real growth as a character, and uses the best new character of the last 10 years (Jonathan the Wolverine and also Scout nee Honey Badger) to great effect. I was stunned at how much I loved this comic.

read All-New Wolverine on Amazon

84. Assassination Classroom

Yusei Matsui (Viz Media)

I’m not sure how I would briefly describe this book, and that’s part of why I love it. A monster destroys ¾ of the moon and says more is coming. But he gives mankind an out: Kill him inside of a year, and he’ll leave them alive. Then, and this is where it gets nuts, he takes over as homeroom teacher for a group of misfit teenagers and starts teaching them how to kill him. It’s basically Bad News Bears with a little more murder and some great manga art from Matsui.

read Assassination Classroom on Amazon

  83. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Robert Hack (Archie Comics)

The best thing about Chilling Adventures of Sabrina isn’t that it spawned a great TV adaptation on Netflix. The best thing about it is how faithful to the comic the TV adaptation is. Part of Archie’s horror renaissance, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a genre anachronism that revels in its horror story trappings and delights in placing wholesome Archie characters in it. It’s drawn well and smart and a lot of fun from start to finish.

read Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Amazon

82. Uber

Kieron Gillen, Canaan White, Digikore Studios (Avatar Press)

Early on in Uber’s run, Gillen recommended Antony Beevor’s comprehensive history of World War II as something he leaned on heavily when constructing this book. It shows: Uber reads like a military history, rather than your typical comic about “What if they had super powers in World War II?” The supersoldiers are treated like any other military technology - resources to be deployed, depleted, exploited and overcome. This is probably the most interesting treatment of super powers I’ve seen in a comic in the decade.

read Uber on Amazon

  81. The Spire

Si Spurrier, Jeff Stokely, Andre May (BOOM! Studios)

Simon Spurrier does two things better than almost anyone in comics: he chooses incredible artists to work with, and he (and the artists) put together some stunning worlds for their characters to live in. The Spire is a murder mystery set in a fantasy city with a rigid class structure, and he and Stokely make a city that I felt immersed in immediately upon starting the book. One other thing Spurrier and crew do really well: wreck their main characters and break your heart, and The Spire is some of his best work.

read The Spire on Amazon

  80. Aliens: Dead Orbit

James Stokoe (Dark Horse Comics)

James Stokoe could have drawn 100 pages of character models and it would be on this list. He’s an incredible artist who draws incredibly detailed everything. Everything! Rubble. Ribcages. Control panels. Inner mandibles. Giving him an Aliens book is the no-brainer of no-brainers - this is what HR Geiger would have drawn if he was raised on anime.

read Aliens: Dead Orbit on Amazon

  79. Shade the Changing Girl

Cecil Catellucci, Marley Zarcone, Kelly Fitzpatrick (DC Comics)

It takes a really gifted eye to see the absurdity in everyday life and expose that to your readers with only a modest tweak to reality. Zarcone and Castellucci use dropping Rac Shade’s madness vest and Loma the alien bird into the body of a comatose mean girl as their way to show just how silly teenage life can be, and it’s beautiful. Shade the Changing Girl and its follow up, Shade the Changing Woman, both do magnificent work of using insanity to take you through a rollercoaster of emotions.

read Shade the Changing Girl on Amazon

  78. Wuvable Oaf

Ed Luce (Fantagraphics)

I think the best part about Wuvable Oaf, the indie book about black metal San Francisco bears is just how nice it is. It’s a really sweet, funny courtship story about an ex-underground wrestler starting a relationship with a small, blood-drenched metal singer. I find myself recommending this book to a surprising amount of people.

read Wuvable Oaf on Amazon

77. Upgrade Soul

Ezra Claytan Daniels (Lion Forge Comics)

Ezra Claytan Daniels went for messed up, twisty sci fi right out of the gate, and it was a home run. Upgrade Soul is an ugly body modification story about trying to prolong one’s life unnaturally, and what happens if that’s not all really well thought out beforehand. It’s drawn really well: even now, the scene with the gauze coming off layer by layer, the pacing of it and the skill of setting that sequence up, is amazing.

read Upgrade Soul on Amazon

  76. Strong Female Protagonist

Brennan Lee Mulligan, Molly Ostertag 

“What if superheroes were real” is usually an exceptionally stupid premise for a comic, but there are plenty of ridiculous components to the superhero conceit that are worth examining. One of them is the value of superheroing - does flying around punching shit really actually fix anything? In Strong Female Protagonist, Alison Green asks that question, decides it doesn’t, and quits capes for college and activism in New York. This is a great story well told, but what I enjoy about it now is how New York it feels. It’s a really thoughtful take on superheroing, but it’s also a really good story that transports you to an age and a place.

read Strong Female Protagonist here

  75. Journey Into Mystery

Kieron Gillen, Doug Brathwaite, Ulises Ariola & others (Marvel Comics)

Journey Into Mystery shouldn’t have been successful. Loki wasn’t quite at the height of his powers yet, and while he was getting there, even now he can’t really carry his own book. It was also a legacy numbered relaunch coming out of a big summer crossover event. And yet, Kieron managed to take new kid Loki and use him to tell a story about stories and fate and myth that stands up there with some of the greatest Asgard stories ever told. What he does with the trickster god is actually sad and moving (and also generally hilarious - he writes a really fun Loki).  it It’s one of my favorite things he’s ever written.

read Journey Into Mystery on Amazon

  74. Kinski

Gabriel Hardman (Monkeybrain Comics)

Sometimes, a comic is just plain good. Sometimes, a comic prominently features the GOODEST BOY on a cover. Sometimes, as is the case with Kinski, a comic does both. Hardman is a master of the form, and Kinski is one of his most underrated works. It’s the story of a guy bored with his life and trying to save a black lab puppy - not especially complicated or deep, but enough to hook me in, especially with the VERY GOOD BOY on the cover. But his art is magnificent. It’s black and white, and Hardman uses just about every inking style and manner to help tell the story. It’s virtuoso stuff. I loved it.

read Kinski on Amazon

73. The Sheriff of Babylon

Tom King, Mitch Gerads (Vertigo Comics)

With a list like this, sometimes it’s not the full sweep of a story that gets it on, but the remembered moments. I’ve seen King and Gerads work together a hundred times since then (or at least it feels like that - time has no meaning anymore). It’s all been spectacular, but the scene with Chris and Fatima in the Saddam’s old pool sharing a bottle of vodka talking about pointlessness still stands out hard for me. The Sheriff of Babylon has gotten better with age, and it started out really, really good.

read The Sheriff of Babylon on Amazon

72. Genius

Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman, Afua Richardson (Image Comics)

If you call a book Genius, it damn well better be brilliant. Fortunately for us, it was. Bernardin, Freeman and Richardson told us the story of Destiny, a precocious and brilliant military mind born into South Central and using her strategic genius to bring down the corrupt cops who have been terrorizing her neighborhood. It feels like it was timely when it came out, but it doesn’t read like a political statement. It reads like a really good revenge story. Richardson’s art was sharp and well laid out, and is a huge part of why Genius was so good.

read Genius on Amazon

  71. Judas

Jeff Loveness, Jakub Rebelka (BOOM! Studios)

This book came out of nowhere for me. Loveness and Rebelka expanded on the story of Christ and Judas in a fascinating way. Judas is a whip smart comic that thinks around a lot of the unspoken corners of Jesus’s story. And it’s gorgeous: Rebelka draws the hell out of Hell. His backgrounds and settings are every bit as impressive as the storytelling accomplishment. Judas turned out to be an outstanding story.

read Judas on Amazon

  70. Midnighter

Steve Orlando, ACO, Hugo Petrus, Romulo Fajardo, Jr & others (DC Comics)

Sometimes I just want to see a man punch his own ears off to stop from hearing a killing word.

read more: The Best Comics of 2015

Orlando and ACO gave us one of my favorite fight comics of all time in Midnighter (and continued in Midnighter and Apollo). It’s clever and sexy, and it delights in being a comic the way all the greatest fight comics do. The flow of the fights is spectacular - these are some of the best punching scenes I’ve ever read. It’s basically an ultraviolent, morally indignant James Bond. It’s terrific.

read Midnighter on Amazon

69. Black Hammer

Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, Dave Stewart & others (Dark Horse Comics)

Something always feels off in Lemire’s best work. In a good way. And something feels really off throughout Black Hammer, which is the entire point of the story. The universe Lemire and Ormston create is a love letter to silver age DC books, but at the same time it misses those comic sensibilities a lot, and Lemire makes his characters mourn that loss on the page. It’s a really interesting structure for a story, paired with some terrific art from Ormston and some inventive fill-ins and spinoffs from David Rubin and Matt Kindt and others. Black Hammer is top to bottom a great book.

read Black Hammer on Amazon

68. My Friend Dahmer

Derf Backderf (Abrams Publishing)

I’m not usually one for true crime stories, especially not ones that try and humanize monstrous serial killers, but Backderf’s story of his old high school acquaintance, human eater Jeffrey Dahmer, is really good. Backderf’s art is very much of the underground comix style, which elevates the story, I think. Dahmer is disturbing and troubling throughout the book, but he’s also very much a weird gawky teenager, and in this art style, everyone is. The story humanizes him without excusing him, but I think the real reason it works is because it’s tinged with regret on Backderf’s part about the ways his relationship with Dahmer could have been different.

read My Friend Dahmer on Amazon

67. No Mercy

Alex de Campi, Carla Speed McNeil (Image Comics)

De Campi and McNeil took a book that could have been a lazy Lord of the Flies-but-with-social-media premise and turned it into a great character book. No Mercy takes a bunch of shitty teens on a field trip, and slowly turns several of them away from their shitty teen-ness and fleshes them out into an interesting dynamic and a great story. McNeil’s art is excellent: when they’re stuck in the desert, you feel hot and dry reading it, and every emotion these kids feel is beautifully shown in their face and their body language. This wasn’t a book I expected to come back to when I finished it, but it’s been a strong read even down the road.

read No Mercy on Amazon

  66. Runaways

Rainbow Rowell, Kris Anka, Matthew Wilson & others (Marvel Comics)

Rowell is a revelation as a comic writer. The way she juggles this huge cast is incredibly skillful writing. She’s got a good grasp on everyone’s voice and knows all the continuity of the old team cold. The book is vastly more enjoyable than the TV series as a teen hero soap opera, and Anka and Wilson make it way cooler to look at, too.

read Runaways on Amazon

  65. Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man

Chip Zdarsky, Adam Kubert, Jordie Bellaire & others (Marvel Comics)

Chip Zdarsky’s growth into one of Marvel’s most earnest writers was a surprising and outstanding development. I don’t think he’s done better work on any character than Spider-Man. It makes sense - Peter lends himself to stories that walk a tightrope between funny and tragic, and Chip is able to fine tune his characters and plots to nail both aspects. 

read more: The Best Comics of 2016

Zdarsky got to work with some amazing artists on this run: Kubert does some of his best work, and Chris Bachalo should draw all Sandman stories forever and ever. But the real standouts are Peter’s dinner with Jonah in #6 (drawn by Michael Walsh), and the last issue of Chip’s run (#310). Both of them are really granular Spidey character studies that show why Peter is such a terrific hero, show just how much Zdarsky gets him, and show just how good Chip’s writing can be.

read Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man on Amazon

  64. Ragnarok

Walter Simonson (IDW Publishing)

It’s Walt Simonson drawing a Thor comic. He already did the best Thor story of all time. This is more of the same. I don’t think I really need to go into greater detail here, right? I will, for the sake of argument: there’s a full page splash at the beginning of the first issue that has Thor facing down the Serpent of Midgard and it is gorgeous. You can almost count the scales on the serpent. 

read Ragnarok on Amazon

63. Mox Nox

Joan Cornella (Fantagraphics)

Cornella’s absurdist comic strips still, years later, make me die laughing. Mox Nox is a collection of his work that shows just how many situations you can put his ridiculous, Weeble-looking figures into that will shock you with their gore or make you shout laughing. 

read Mox Nox on Amazon

  62. The Valiant

Matt Kindt, Jeff Lemire, Paolo Rivera, Joe Rivera (Valiant Entertainment)

Valiant has published some consistently excellent comics over the last decade, but they hit a high point with The Valiant, an Avengers-esque team up of all the heroes of the Valiant universe that focused on Bloodshot, the Geomancer and the Eternal Warrior. It worked so well for two reasons: the relationship between Bloodshot and the Geomancer was incredibly well written and heartbreaking in the end, and the art from the Riveras was incredible. Paolo Rivera doesn’t draw anywhere near as many comics as I would like (that number is generally “nearly all of the comics”), so when he is on a book, you know you’re going to get some beautiful stories.

read The Valiant on Amazon

  61. One Punch Man

ONE, Yusuke Murata (Viz Media)

I didn’t even realize I needed a fight manga parody in my life, but then One Punch Man rolled through and I love it and want more.

read more: The Best Comics of 2017

Saitama trains himself to become a hero, and gets so powerful he can defeat horrifying giant monsters with one punch. Then he gets super bored because nothing is a challenge, and the rest of the first volume is light mocking of fight comics that I found immensely entertaining and really funny. It’s not going to tell us anything about ourselves as a society or have a bigger message than “heh this is pretty silly, isn’t it?” But sometimes that’s perfect.

read One Punch Man on Amazon

  60. Darth Vader

Kieron Gillen, Salvador Larocca, Edgar Delgado (Marvel Comics)

The way the Star Wars prequels neutered Darth Vader is a crime against a character. Miraculously, the move to Disney shifted him back from the hurt puppy dog teenager that the prequels turned him into (and the mystical waste of time that the Special Editions and the books made him) and into a merciless badass force of nature. That shift started in earnest in this book - Gillen and Larocca made him mad again, and a pissed off Sith Lord is a force of nature I loved reading about.

read Darth Vader on Amazon

  59. The Highest House

Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Fabien Alquiler (IDW Publishing)

Carey and Gross are a great team. Their work together on Lucifer is some of the best comics of all time, and the world they built in The Highest House is as good or better. It’s my favorite type of fantasy comic - one that builds a rich, full, beautiful world, and then tears it down through deft character work. It’s a fantasy comic that’s so easy to disappear into, both the world that’s created and the possibilities it opens up.

read The Highest House on Amazon

58. The Nib

Matt Bors & others 

“Mister Gotcha” is up there with “This is Fine” as probably my favorite quick comic gags of the decade. Bors is an extremely sharp cartoonist and a gifted satirist, and The Nib is a regular stop in my daily routine.

read The Nib here

57. The Wild Storm

Warren Ellis, Jon Davis Hunt, Steve Buccellato (DC Comics)

The Wild Storm stands on its own as an amazing comic series. It took everything great about the old Wildstorm world and updated it for a modern, more paranoid, more technologically advanced society. Davis Hunt drew some stunning action sequences and used panel layouts and pacing to incredible effect to propel the story. But the most interesting part of it to me is how it functions as a self reassessment by Ellis, a weird and fun sort of remix and update of his own prior work. It’s excellent.

read The Wild Storm on Amazon

56. House of X/Powers of X

Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, RB Silva, Marte Gracia (Marvel Comics) 

HoXPoX made it fun to be an X-Men fan again. It’s beating a dead horse at this point, but these books were tremendous accomplishments. Larraz and Silva vaulted to superstardom, Hickman rewrote the entire history of the X-Men, and Gracia made every panel sing.

read House of X/Powers of X on Amazon

55. Sex Criminals

Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky (Image Comics)

Qualifying a raunchy sex comedy as weirdly sweet almost seems cliche at this point, but Sex Criminals is the rare story that can match graphic depictions of Urban Dictionary sex positions, a story about people who can stop time when they orgasm, and brutally honest depictions of intimate relationships and make it all entirely relatable. It’s a wonderful story. But also I’m still mostly here for the comedy - Zdarsky puts so much detail into it that every splash page is like a Where’s Waldo of insane sex jokes.

read Sex Criminals on Amazon

54. The Nameless City

Faith Erin Hicks, Jordie Bellaire (First Second)

The Nameless City feels like if Avatar The Last Airbender was about class and not martial arts and the pressure of leadership. It’s one of the few graphic novel series that I remembered to put on a pull list, every volume improving on the last. Hicks’ art is gorgeously cartoony, detailed and loose at the same time, and it builds an engrossing world with fascinating characters that tells the story of a city and a people in major transition. It’s a series I can’t wait to share with family.

read The Nameless City on Amazon

53. Exit, Stage Left! The Snagglepuss Chronicles

Mark Russell, Mike Feehan, Paul Mounts (DC Comics)

I’ve said this a thousand times before, but it’s worth repeating: I don’t understand how the hell this comic got made, and my gast is further flabbered by the fact that it’s amazing. Exit Stage Left recast Snagglepuss as a ‘50s gothic playwright living in New York City; Huckleberry Hound as his novelist best friend; and Quick Draw McGraw as Huck’s down low cop boyfriend, and told a compelling story about fame and society that was equal parts clever, funny, sweet and sad. Brilliant and wry, Mark Russell is one of the best new additions to comics this decade. If you haven’t read this book (which doubles as a stealth period piece about the dawn of the gay rights movement in America I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE I’M TYPING THIS), you should go get it right now.

read Exit, Stage Left! The Snagglepuss Chronicles on Amazon

  52. These Savage Shores

Ram V, Sumit Kumar, Vittorio Astone (Vault Comics)

Ram V, Kumar and Astone do a wonderful job of building a story with a rich world that’s unlike most stories I’ve ever read before, and they do it with incredible skill. The period aspects of the story are lush and gorgeous, but Kumar and Astone’s art is magnificent, paced perfectly with a flow of movement that belies a storytelling skill that you don’t often find in small press superhero comics. The panel flow is really exceptional, and Astone’s colors make this vampire/demon battle sing.

read These Savage Shores on Amazon

51. The Dark Angel Saga, Uncanny X-Force

Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, Mark Brooks, Esad Ribic, Dean White & others (Marvel Comics)

X-Men comics have picked back up recently, but prior to HoXPoX, their pinnacle for me was the Dark Angel Saga. Specifically, Psylocke and Angel’s moment of eternal bliss as their world was destroyed around them. Jerome Opena and Dean White made the visuals so vivid that I could hear the wind roaring around Betsy and Warren, and Remender had done such a good job of building the duo’s relationship that I was almost in tears reading it for the first time. The rest of the run is essential reading: it has my favorite non-movie Deadpool and some of the best Apocalypse stuff since the Age of Apocalypse, but that moment is just so amazing.

read The Dark Angel Saga on Amazon

50. Wytches

Scott Snyder, Jock, Matt Hollingsworth (Image Comics)

Snyder is a terrific horror writer, and Wytches is by far the scariest thing I’ve ever read from him. That is probably due in large part to Jock and Hollingsworth. The story is dark Americana horror, pure and uncut Snyder right on the page, about monstrous ancient covens and their secret network around the world. Jock makes the normal humans look terrified and the Wytches stretched, shrouded beasts escaping from knots in trees to steal kids and ruin families, and Hollingsworth changes palettes deftly to match the tone of the panel (or even half panel, sometimes). Wytches is incredibly well made comics.

read Wytches on Amazon

49. Fantasy Sports

Sam Bosma (Nobrow Press)

Fantasy Sports isn’t complicated. It’s about a treasure hunter who has to beat a mummy at basketball to loot a pyramid. See? Super straightforward.

read more: The Best Comics of 2018

Bosma’s art is the star here. It’s somewhere between sports manga and Adventure Time. It’s vibrant and fun, full of great movement in a story that hums along. And it’s really accessible - it’s shelved closest to the ground in my house, so kids can pull it out and get hooked the same way I did.

read Fantasy Sports on Amazon

48. Sexcastle

Kyle Starks (Image Comics)

I don’t know if any comic in the last ten years has more quotable lines in it than Sexcastle. I have found a way to work “You brought a YOU to a ME fight,” and “Are you okay? Just kidding, fuck you” into more professional conversations than I’m comfortable with, frankly. Sexcastle is a hard riff on ‘80s action movies that has Shane Sexcastle, the badass killer and star of the comic, spouting bad pun catchphrases almost exclusively throughout the book. Sexcastle both loves and viciously parodies those movies, and the resulting comic is almost flawless. Starks is an absolutely hilarious writer, talented enough to get a shot on anything he writes, but nothing will be quite as surprising or as funny as Sexcastle.

read Sexcastle on Amazon

  47. G.I. Joe: Cobra

Mike Costa, Christos Gage, Antonio Fuso, Lovern Kindzierski (IDW Publishing)

It took IDW a minute to get going with G.I. Joe after they got the license, but once they did, these series turned into one of a couple of shockingly good, well-thought-out licensed comics they put out over the decade. Almost immediately, Costa and Gage put Chuckles in deep cover at Cobra Command and went hard dark on the tone. From there, they assassinated Cobra Commander, set off a nuke, and launched a power struggle to control the terrorist organization that included a Joe killing competition. Costa, Fuso, and Gage did an amazing job of juggling enormous casts and controlling for different voices. Everything from G.I. Joe: Cobra through the Cobra Civil War is amazing stuff.

read G.I. Joe: Cobra on Amazon

  46. Battling Boy

Paul Pope (First Second)

Battling Boy is unlike any other comic I’ve read in the last decade. I spent a good three hours trying to come up with a clever analogy for this book, like “Witch’s Night Out meets Thor in a Flash Gordon strip,” but they’re all grossly inadequate. Pope is one of the most unique minds working in comics. He puts more character in one grease smear on a face than a lot of creators can fit in long runs. Battling Boy is fine pulpy adventure comics that work for any comic reader.

read Battling Boy on Amazon

45. The Omega Men

Tom King, Barnaby Bagenda, Jose Marzan, Jr., Romulo Fajardo (DC Comics)

Omega Men is still, several years on, some heavy, heavy shit. The shock of the twist, hell the shock of the series still makes me smile. That it was a comic book that was advertised with Kyle Rayner seemingly beheaded on camera and beamed around the galaxy was stunning; that the seeming beheading wasn’t the most shocking part of the book is amazing. It’s a miracle this book happened (literally - it was cancelled and uncancelled midway through), but I’m so glad it did. It was ambitious and smart, and unlike anything we’d seen in comics in years at the time.

read The Omega Men on Amazon

  44. Lady Killer

Joelle Jones, Jamie S. Rich, Laura Allred (Dark Horse Comics)

Joelle Jones is a superstar now. I’m fairly sure that it started because of this comic, and I’m absolutely certain it’s deserved. Lady Killer is the story of a ‘50s housewife who’s an assassin on the side, and it’s everything the premise suggests. It’s grindhousey and funny and gory, but through it all, Jones’ art is amazing and Allred’s colors are perfect. It’s a lot of fun to read.

read Lady Killer on Amazon

  43. Infinite Kung Fu

Kagan McLeod (Top Shelf Productions)

Kagan McLeod’s story in Infinite Kung Fu is a little bit rote for the genre - it’s a kung fu movie put to page, nonsense and all. But my god the art. The pages are practically crackling with life. The big swoopy inks and the way McLeod makes the characters move and the way the fights flow from panel to panel and the scale of some of these fights and it’s all just incredible, incredible artwork. Even if the story is a little pedestrian, the art is some of the best I’ve ever seen.

read Infinite Kung Fu on Amazon

  42. Bandette

Paul Tobin, Colleen Coover (Monkeybrain Comics)

Bandette is about an adventuring teen art thief in Paris. It’s silly and cute and charming and gorgeous. It’s also extremely uncomplicated: this is an easy book to love because Coover’s art is lovely, and Tobin’s plots are clear and clever. I try my hardest to find some deeper meaning or hidden skill that the creators have that makes a book stand out, but Bandette is just a really straightforward, fun, nice book.

read Bandette on Amazon

41. Hawkeye

Matt Fraction, David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth & others (Marvel Comics)

Hawkeye launched David Aja into the stratosphere, and gave Fraction the juice to do whatever he wanted (like, for example, write a sci-fi gender flipped Odyssey adaptation comic in dactylic hexameter). It radically changed Clint Barton for a decade. And in a lot of ways, its influence still rings out now, because it’s just really good.

Aja is a madman. His art flows differently from anyone who came before, but it’s been mimicked so many times since, and even when imitators try and fail to live up to his standards, they still usually do something interesting. Fraction succeeded at a time when Marvel was going in a million different directions by pulling the camera way in on the Marvel Universe - focusing on an apartment building, making a street crime book with a regular guy and turning Kate Bishop from a supporting Young Avenger into one of the best characters in the Marvel library.

read Hawkeye on Amazon

40. Batman: The Black Mirror, Detective Comics

Scott Snyder, Jock, Francesco Francavilla, David Baron (DC Comics)

Scott Snyder is one of those creators I’ll follow just about anywhere, and it all stems from how ridiculously good his Black Mirror story was in Detective Comics. Back when Bruce was still traipsing about the world, turning the International Club of Heroes into Batman, Incorporated, Dick Grayson was back in Gotham being the best Batman and solving this dense, moody, disorienting crime. It was a deep Grayson character study, a deep Gotham character study, and a showcase for the incredible art of Jock and Francavilla.

read more: The Best Comics of 2019

Snyder did some incredible things with Bruce Wayne when he and Greg Capullo got control of the main Batman book post-New 52 (especially the last story arc - stunning stuff). But The Black Mirror is even better. Whenever someone asks me for a Batman comic gift recommendation, this is what I tell them to buy.

read Batman: The Black Mirror on Amazon

  39. Giant Days

John Allison, Lissa Tremain, Max Sarin, Julia Madrigal, Whitney Cogar (BOOM! Studios)

Pick any issue of Giant Days at random and read five pages of it, and I promise you will recognize every character who speaks immediately. Allison and the art team have that tight a grasp on conversational dialogue that this entire book was relatable all the way through. It’s a smart, funny comic about growing up that focuses on the growing you do in your early 20s, which is a breath of fresh air considering most coming of age stories stop at 16. Seeing the characters flourish into adults is part of what made Giant Days special, but it’s mostly the ridiculous skill of the creators.

read Giant Days on Amazon

  38. Berlin

Jason Lutes (Drawn & Quarterly)

Lutes has been working on this for 20 years and finished it in 2018, and you can see the unbelievable care and craft in every page. Berlin follows a couple of working class people through the fall of Weimar Germany in the late 20s until the Nazis take over, and even though it’s fictional, it’s incredibly interesting to see Germany’s collapse as it related to regular people, and not as big, momentous historical events. The history comes across as a much more jagged line. Lutes is wonderful at using the pace of layouts to tell the story, and his art is immaculately clean and clear.

read Berlin on Amazon

  37. The Underwater Welder

Jeff Lemire (Vertigo Comics) 

When Jeff Lemire draws his own stuff, watch out: you’re about to get something profoundly uncomfortable. And The Underwater Welder is precisely that. It’s so good at making you feel like something’s wrong.

read more: The Best Movies of the Decade

It works because it’s never completely honest about what the story is about. Jack is an underwater welder, like his father was, and he’s got a wife and a kid on the way. But he becomes obsessed with his father’s old watch, and that obsession is a focus for his panic about becoming a father. Lemire’s art is all rough-looking freehand and watery inks, perfect for a guy who spends most of his time in a diving suit. The atmosphere of The Underwater Welder is almost asphyxiating. I love it.

read The Underwater Welder on Amazon

36. Ms. Marvel

G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, Nico Leon, Ian Herring (Marvel Comics)

As I sit down to write this, I literally just came back from picking up the first collection of Ms. Marvel for a Christmas present for my niece. Wilson, Alphona, Sana Amanat, and Jamie McKelvie (who did designs for the character) created maybe the best fictional teenager in the last decade in Kamala Khan. It’s been a long time since I’ve been a teenager, but I think the response from actual #teens will back me up here: her struggles with time management, emotions, and awkward social interactions felt incredibly real. The art, from Alphona, Miyazawa and Leon was spectacular, doing an especially great job of showing who Kamala is through her powers. This is a great book to have around.

read Ms. Marvel on Amazon

34. Deathstroke

Christopher Priest, Carlo Pagaluyan, Jason Paz, Jeromy Cox & more (DC Comics)

It just ended, and at every point during its 50 issue run, Christopher Priest’s Deathstroke felt like it was made specifically for me. It was a sneaky family soap opera on par with the greatest X-Men stories, but with Priest’s signature banter and pacing to bring it to the next level. The art was always superb from Pagaluyan, and the editing team brought in some absolutely killer supplemental teams (Cowan and Sienkiewicz are always a yes), but it was the story and how it was presented that made this run really special.

read Deathstroke on Amazon

  34. Monstress

Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda (Image Comics)

Takeda’s art looks like an illuminated manuscript. Seriously, it’s so detailed and intricate that it makes me slow down when I’m reading, which is a feat, because I’m predisposed to blaze through comics. But that detail work is what makes her art special, and what pushes Monstress from very good to great. The world that Liu and Takeda built in Monstress is lush and rich and incredibly easy to disappear into, and it’s a consistent joy to read.

read Monstress on Amazon

  33. The Vision

Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Michael Walsh, Jordie Bellaire (Marvel Comics)

I’m pretty sure I spent more time shaking my head at the events of The Vision than any other book on this list. What Tom King did to this family is deeply, profoundly messed up. Walta, Walsh, and Bellaire were essential to building the eerie, uncomfortable atmosphere that pervaded this whole story, and the facial expressions especially helped land the twist in the middle, the plot point that shifted the story from “oh no that’s super messed up” to “aww that’s really sad and also super messed up.”

read more: The Best TV Episodes of 2019

What might be the most shocking part about it is how much of this run endured in continuity through the years: Viv Vision is showing up left and right, and Victor Mancha’s fate here is a big plot point in Rowell and Anka’s wonderful Runaways relaunch.

read The Vision on Amazon

  32. 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank

Matthew Rosenberg, Tyler Boss (Black Mask Studios)

This one is all about the patter. Rosenberg makes the kids sound so entertaining and makes their interpersonal dynamic so engrossing that you get wrapped up in the world of 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank easily. Tyler Boss’ art is terrific, selling the exaggerated expressions that kids make, where a smile often starts in their legs, and landing all the humor just as comfortably. It’s a comic that could have ended up as nostalgic tripe, but instead, 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank turned out great.

read 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank on Amazon

  31. Kid Gloves

Lucy Knisley (First Second)

Kid Gloves is amazing for a lot of reasons. It’s informative and moving and personal, with a lot of history and politics that I think are really important components to a larger conversation that the book can be part of. Here’s the thing about it for me, though: I started reading it at the library. About halfway through, I put it back on the shelf, walked up the street to a book store and bought a copy. I knew from how much I was talking to the book while reading it that it was something I wanted to keep on my shelf and refer back to in the future. And I feel really good about that decision.

read Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos on Amazon

  30. XKCD

Randall Munroe (Webcomic)

It didn’t inspire any stirring condemnations from legendary filmmakers, but I wonder if Randall Munroe’s half webcomic/half infographic didn’t have the biggest low key impact of any comic in the last decade. I feel like you’re vastly more likely to see an XKCD strip on someone’s desk, or tacked to the door of an office, or passed around on social media, than you are anything from Marvel or DC that isn’t designed to trigger the internet outrage cycle.

This is because Munroe is really good at cartooning. I mean, okay, he’s not going to paint you a Rembrandt, but his stick figures have a way of sneaking emotion up on you, through their shoulders and their heads. And he’s whip smart, too, but his comics help present his knowledge in an accessible, open way. XKCD has been in every iteration of blog reader I’ve had since 2010, and I’ll be checking in on it until it ends, because it’s terrific.

read XKCD here

  29. Two Brothers

Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon (Dark Horse Comics)

Ba & Moon do some amazing work in this adaptation of a novel from their native Brazil about two brothers, their doting mom, and the woman who comes between them. The artwork in Two Brothers is stunningly good and improves on the source material by taking some of the novels most impactful scenes and making them visually striking. Two Brothers isn’t a splashy comic, but it’s a damn good one, one that will stick with you for a long time.

read Two Brothers on Amazon

28. Lumberjanes

Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen, Carolyn Nowak, Carey Pietch, Maarta Laiho & more (BOOM! Studios)

Lumberjanes takes a lot of what worked about The Goonies and makes it smarter in a different way to give us one of the most fun and purest adventure comics in recent memory. It’s no surprise that Stevenson is kicking so much ass on She-Ra.

The book has been going for some time now, so the creative teams have shifted, but the art is remarkably consistent through the volumes, and it’s clear, sharp cartooning that’s exaggerated in all the right ways for a woodsy, camping adventure tale like this. Lumberjanes is another book with a huge cast that’s well managed, and it’s a lot of fun to read through.

read Lumberjanes on Amazon        

  27. Showa: A History of Japan

Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Technically, Showa is like, 30 years old. But it took 25 of those years for it to be released in the States, and there are no rules to this list, so I’m counting it.

Mizuki is one of the fathers of manga as a form, and as someone who came to his work after reading folks like Otomo and Urasawa, and decades after becoming familiar with anime, his work feels quaint and unsophisticated. Which is a really interesting pairing with the subject matter - Showa is a history of Japan in the Showa era, spanning the ‘20s through the late ‘80s, a period of massive transition for Japan that I mostly knew from broad strokes. He switches back and forth between a hyper-detailed realistic style that looks like (and sometimes is) tracing, and the cartoony manga style he uses to illustrate personal moments that tie into that history. It’s an incredibly effective storytelling technique and a useful way to bring the reader’s attention past the big picture and down to the regular peoples’ perspective of that big change. Showa is an incredible history book, and a masterpiece of the form.

read Showa on Amazon

  26. Copra

Michel Fiffe (Bergen Street Comics/Image Comics)

It’s still amazing to me that Copra can even get made. It started out as a...spiritual sequel to Ostrander/Yale/McDonnell Suicide Squad in that it was almost an actual direct lift of Ostrander/Yale/McDonnell Suicide Squad only with Doctor Strange and Clea added in. But it was done with weird indie linework and colored pencil coloring, with a big zine aesthetic that made it immediately compelling. And once I got into it, I realized that Fiffe had captured everything great about that Suicide Squad run but turned it into something dstinctly his own, and I’ve loved it ever since.

read Copra on Amazon

  25. Afterlife with Archie

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Francesco Francavilla (Archie Comics)

This comic should not exist. It should not be good. It certainly shouldn’t be one of the best comics I’ve read in the last decade. And yet, Afterlife with Archie remains incredible. In fact, it might be the purest, finest zombie story I’ve experienced in a while. The slowly building tension is a masterclass in mood. Aguirre-Sacasa does a great job of taking Riverdale’s existing dynamic and plopping it into a zombie horror story so you get something that is recognizably both things at the same time. Francavilla’s art is probably the least surprising part of the equation, in that it is incredible. And the fact that you can probably draw a straight line between some of the themes here and what ended up on your screens in Riverdale is...pretty insane. And amazing.

read Afterlife With Archie on Amazon

  24. Scalped

Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera (Vertigo)

The best thing about Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera’s Scalped is the cast. It’s a HUGE book, about an FBI investigation into corruption on a reservation that sends Dash Bad Horse back home undercover to investigate. Everyone Dash encounters, and everyone who’s conspiring to make life in Pairie Rose garbage, is a full character within two sentences. They all sound different, move different, look different. They carry the weight of a rough life in their posture and their cadence.

Superhero comics developed the distinctive costumes so artists could distinguish between characters easily. It’s hard to draw distinctive, consistent, recognizable people in street clothes, but Guera is amazing at it, and Aaron puts so much care and character into everyone who sets foot on the page that Scalped is impossible to put down.

read Scalped on Amazon

  23. Nancy

Olivia Jaimes (GoComics)

“Sluggo is lit” isn’t quite the cultural phenomenon it was when Olivia Jaimes, the pseudonymous cartoonist, first introduced it to the strip she took over in 2018. But it’s still damn funny. I’ll admit, I completely blew it on Nancy in 2018 - it hadn’t registered with me because I don’t get print newspapers and only have a passing knowledge of their comic strips anymore. But when I first saw it, I died laughing.

And then I took a closer look  at some of the comics - the one where Nancy steals the cookies from the top of the fridge by tossing them between panels to herself, or the joke about filler where the last panel is mostly an empty word balloon - and I realized that Jaimes, in addition to being funny as hell, really gets how to screw with the flow of information from comic to reader. She’s exceptionally talented, and Nancy is amazing work.

read Nancy here

  22. The Hard Tomorrow

Eleanor Davis (Drawn & Quarterly)

The Hard Tomorrow stressed me out, and then lifted me up at the end. It’s very much a comic about our current moment (and by “current moment,” I mean the singularity that the last four years have compressed into). It doesn’t capture the terror that some groups might feel, but it does a great job of conveying that background hum, like a cultural migrane, that makes everything more difficult in the world. And then, intentionally or not, it swings the story back around and pumps you full of hope and meaning with the last ten pages. It’s incredible comics work from Eleanor Davis, an amazing talent.

read The Hard Tomorrow on Amazon

21. My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies

Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Jake Phillips (Image Comics)

You can read any Criminal comic and come away happy. Okay, maybe not “happy” per se - My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies is an extremely unhappy comic, about a girl who meets a boy in rehab, gets him back on drugs with her and then goes on a trip with him, framed around her pretentious love of drug addicted musicians. It would be obnoxious if it wasn’t so incredibly well done and packed in with a twist at the end that makes it go from messed up to REALLY messed up. Everything Brubaker and Phillips have done together, back to Sleeper, has been superlative, but from the last ten years, I really feel like this is their best work.

read My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies on Amazon

20. Through the Woods

Emily Carroll (Margaret K. McElderry Books)

I don’t think there’s anybody doing slow, creepy, gothic horror like Emily Carroll right now. Through the Woods is a collection of short stories that’s full of dark blacks and loose line work, the letters worked into the art organically to amplify the creepiness and the stories built to scare. She comes at normal relationships and injects them with something horrific, but paces it so incredibly well that you barely notice it until the end, when something happens to finally make your skin crawl. Carroll is a gifted storyteller, and Through the Woods is some of the best horror stuff out there.

read Through the Woods on Amazon

  19. The Flintstones

Mark Russell, Steve Pugh, Chris Chuckry (DC Comics)

Anytime a comic can get a physical reaction out of me, it’s usually a sign that it’s a very successful storytelling endeavor. I think The Flinstones’ hold music on the suicide hotline joke is the loudest I’ve shouted “holy shit” at a comic in a decade. Mark Russell is the best satirist working in comics right now, and certainly in the past decade. Steve Pugh was equal to the task of packing every joke and sly look and absurdity implied by the dialogue. The Flintstones is one of the funniest books you'll ever read.

read The Flintstones on Amazon

18. Atomic Robo & Other Strangeness

Brian Clevenger, Scott Wegener, Ronda Pattison (Webcomic)

I love Dr. Dinosaur. I will buy anything Dr. Dinosaur is in, contribute to any crowdfunding campaign that gets me Dr. Dinosaur goods, and I will take every opportunity I can to share that “the light is for ambiance” page.

Clevinger and Wegener have created a near-perfect, accessible, entertaining adventure story with Atomic Robo. The writing is smart and sharp and Wegener does some outstanding action sequences. I don’t think there’s any comic I’ve been dedicated to for longer - I think I’ve been regularly reading Robo longer than I’ve had Batman on my pull list - and there’s no comic I recommend more frequently. Other Strangeness has two amazing Dr. Dinosaur stories and Jenkins, but you can pick up any volume and get the same high quality action adventure comics.

read Atomic Robo here

17. The Private Eye

Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, Muntsa Vincente (Panel Syndicate)

Vaughan, Martin, and Vincente made a beautiful, compelling comic book that was uncomfortably prescient.

Sixty years from now, the cloud bursts - all of the private data stored on the cloud gets released to the public. It destroys lives and relationships, and triggers an anti-internet backlash. And an anti-journalist one. It then follows an unlicensed journalist as he travels around solving a mystery in a world where everyone wears masks to throw off facial recognition tech.

The Private Eye was cyberpunk that inverted some cyberpunk formulae - it was bright and warm and shiny, distrustful of tech and very human, but it was still a grimy near-future full of people navigating a world that sucked. It was an incredible read and one of the comics I think about most, even five years down the road.

read The Private Eye here

16. Secret Wars

Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, Ive Svorcina (Marvel Comics)

I’m using Secret Wars as a stand in here for all of Hickman’s prior Marvel work from the decade, and really the entire story that started in Fantastic Four and paid off with the final Doom/Reed battle at the end of this story. “Epic” doesn’t even begin to describe a story that starts with the council of Reeds, breaks the Avengers, destroys the multiverse, then reforms it again out of a love of adventure. I reread these comics more than any in my collection because they’re beautiful and immersive and impossibly grand.

read Secret Wars on Amazon

  15. Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye

James Roberts, Alex Milne, Josh Burcham (IDW Publishing)

I still can’t believe how much I love this run of comics. I am even more flabbergasted at why: it was one of the most surprisingly thoughtful comics about sexuality and romantic relationships that I’ve ever read, and it came as part of a broader Transformers story (when paired with the story in Robots in Disguise) that had some of the best takes on gender identity and politics that I can remember.

Every word of that paragraph still makes no sense to me. I am continually delighted by this fact.

More Than Meets the Eye follows Rodimus and a group of breakaway Transformers as they search the universe for the lost Knights of Cybertron. It features a fascinating and touching relationship between Rewind and Chromedome (with Cyclonus as a third-wheel/homewrecker WHAT IS HAPPENING), and it has a deep dive into Ultra Magnus’s history as Cybertron’s premiere stick in the mud. Honestly, just take my word for it: this comic was incredible.

read Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye on Amazon

14. The Multiversity

Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Nathan Fairbairn & Others (DC Comics)

The Multiversity still contains my single favorite page of comic art from the decade: Frank Quitely breaking down Peacemaker kicking the hell out of a great lawn full of soldiers outside the White House. I can’t even begin to describe how technically fascinating that issue was or how breathtaking it still is to see. The rest of the series brought me great joy, but that issue might be the best single issue of comics I’ve read in the last 10 years.

read The Multiversity on Amazon

13. My Favorite Thing is Monsters

Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)

Everything about Emil Ferris’ debut work is absurd. The production value of the book is stellar. Her deft storytelling made me feel literally dropped into the comic several times, overwhelming me by the world she brought me into. And that this was her first published work is still, what feels like an eon later, ridiculous to me. My Favorite Thing is Monsters will make you feel like a ten year old girl, whether you’ve ever been one before or not, and that is some magical work.

read My Favorite Thing is Monsters on Amazon

  12. Here

Richard McGuire (Pantheon Books)

Here started out as a comic strip in 1989, and got blown out into a full graphic novel in 2014, and both are incredibly interesting experiments with the form of comics storytelling. It sets the “camera” pointed at the corner of a room, and then spins time out in both directions, showing us what that corner looked like 2000 years in the past, hundreds of years in the future, in the 1950s, today, and a bunch of other times. And the way that McGuire manages to tell a coherent story under those restrictions is masterful work.

read Here on Amazon

11. Hellboy in Hell

Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart (Dark Horse Comics)

There’s something beautiful about Mignola spending 25 years weaving just about every mythological cosmology from human history together, and then ending that whole story by having Hellboy walk across Hell, into his childhood home, and just disappear. It’s a very quiet, peaceful ending for what had at times been a loud comic in the past, but it’s a beautiful end that refers back to other work of Mignola’s, which lends the ending a kind of peacefulness that cuts through the sadness of the loss of this story. Hellboy in Hell is a really great ending.

read Hellboy in Hell on Amazon

10. Thor: God of Thunder

Jason Aaron, Esad Ribic, Dean White & others (Marvel Comics)

There is actually some debate in my mind as to whether or not Jason Aaron’s Thor run, stretching from the stunning God of Thunder through The Mighty Thor and War of the Realms and into King Thor, is better than Walt Simonson’s Thor. It’s probably still Simonson’s run, but the fact that there’s an open question should tell you how good Aaron’s story has been. The best Thor stories have a bigger point than “Can Thor beat up the Hulk?” Aaron’s has been “What responsibilities does being a god bring with it; how do they carry them out; and how does that impact us?” It’s masterful work drawn by a collection of incredible artists.

read Thor: God of Thunder on Amazon

9. Saga

Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples (Image Comics)

The best thing about Saga to me is that the characters have grown with me. That’s not necessarily why it’s one of the ten best comics of the decade - Fiona Staples is an utterly incredible artist who without fail puts something singularly amazing into each issue - but it’s why I care about it so much. Hazel, Marko and Alana have all grown beautifully as characters since issue 1, and the world is so inventive and different from what you always get in science fiction that it’s a joy to read every time a new issue drops.

read Saga on Amazon

8. Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit

Donald Westlake, Darwyn Cooke (IDW Publishing)

Darwyn Cooke is one of the most talented people to ever work in the comics industry. He’s still, years after his passing, an enormous influence on how people conceive of the DC universe because of The New Frontier. But it’s his adaptations of Westlake’s ‘60s crime novels starring Parker that might be his best work. The Outfit is the second and my favorite, but all of them are amazing pieces of comics storytelling. Cooke’s storytelling techniques bounce all over the place, but all work amazingly well. He especially excels at showing complicated heists - the way Cooke plays with time and sequencing makes these books an amazing read.

read Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit on Amazon

7. Prince of Cats

Ron Wimberly (Image Comics)

Wimberly’s Prince of Cats is pretty close to a perfect comic. Repurposing and adapting Shakespearean dialogue and patter to a hip hop aesthetic is, strangely, exactly what I want out of a story. Wimberly’s art is stylish as hell, with fantastic layouts and odd angles, and it is colored beautifully. It’s the story of Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet, but set in a city that’s a mishmosh of all five boroughs, in a time that’s anywhere from the mid ‘80s to present day. It’s a little bit Shakespearean tragedy, a little bit samurai anime, a little bit Planet Rock, and ultimately an amazing piece of comic book art.

read Prince of Cats on Amazon

6. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Ryan North, Erica Henderson, Derek Charm, Rico Renzi & others (Marvel Comics)

I love how Unbeatable Squirrel Girl never talked down to readers, and in a wonderful example of what superhero comics could be (and occasionally were), how Doreen was always trying to find a way to solve problems that didn’t involve violence and would endure. Her supporting cast was terrific, guest characters were phenomenal, and Henderson has impeccable comic timing. And the book was surprisingly experimental and innovative - the zine issue and the choose your own adventure issue are two of the best single issues of comics I’ve read this decade, but even without them, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl will go down as one of my favorite comics of all time.

read The Unbeatable Squirrell Girl on Amazon

5. Hark! A Vagrant

Kate Beaton (Webcomic/Drawn & Quarterly)

Beaton is one of the smartest, funniest cartoonists out there. Hark! A Vagrant catches the best of the early decade webcomic ethos - it’s loose and fast, about anything and everything and just funny as hell. She’s got bits about Tesla, a ton of jokes about Austen and classic literature, idiot Victorian chimney sweeps. All of it lands because Beaton’s got a sharp eye and a strong voice for absurdity. I think my personal favorite remains Straw Feminists.

read Hark! a Vagrant here

4. Hip Hop Family Tree

Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics)

I’ve watched several documentaries since reading this and interrupted them, going “oh shit, I already knew this from Hip Hop Family Tree.” Piskor’s brief history of the birth and first couple of phase transitions of one of my favorite art forms is informative, smart, funny, and informed deeply by his love of comic book culture, which only enhances some of the stories he tells about early hip hop, which was also deeply informed by comics. And in retrospect, the fact that HHFT ended up circling back on superhero comics, giving us X-Men: Grand Design is too perfect for words.

read Hip Hop Family Tree on Amazon

3. Mister Miracle

Tom King, Mitch Gerads (DC Comics)

I’m pretty sure Mister Miracle is the best comic I’ve ever read as it came out. This is King and Gerads operating in peak form. Everything about it, from the content to the pacing to the characterization, was absolutely perfect. And the ambiguity of the ending, how it showed a way forward in dealing with trauma and how it inadvertently turned into a poignant love letter to the (at that time recently) departed old guard just made it all stick even harder. I loan this out to friends having kids, because I love Mister Miracle and I want everyone else to find their way to loving it, too.

read Mister Miracle on Amazon

2. Smile 

Raina Telgemeier (Graphix)

I came to Raina’s world late. I have a niece who’s brilliant, and I was looking for a way to get her into comics so I’d have someone at family gatherings to talk to about this stuff. I knew that these books were popular, so I grabbed one at a bookstore and started on it. Twenty minutes later, I was walking out of the store with Smile and Sisters, and my niece finished both of them in about six hours and started asking for more. Raina tells a hell of a story, and Smile deserves to be on this list just based on craft, but it’s this high because she’s single-handedly hooking a new generation into our favorite medium. I will always appreciate that.

read Smile on Amazon

1. March

Rep. John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions)

I don’t think I could have landed on a different comic here if I tried. March is a unique combination of craft, relevance, and timelessness. Powell’s art is staggeringly good, full of gorgeous storytelling. And when I think about moments from comics that have stuck with me the most, I keep coming back to the bombing of the Freedom Riders’ bus at the end of volume 1. I knew it was historical and that still scared the hell out of me. Kudos and thanks to Rep. Lewis, Aydin and Powell for making an incredible book.

read March on Amazon

Read and download the Den of Geek Lost in Space Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Dec 30, 2019

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[coeurdastronaute]

Essays in Existentialism: Comic Con II

Previously on Comic Con

The halls were full. The crowds were alive and the excitement was absolutely addicting, coursing through the convention center like its own entity, sweeping through hallways and meeting rooms, infecting everyone it came in contact with, and the stars themselves were not immune.

“Do you know why I love this?” Clarke sighed and smiled dreamily.

“Because you’re a dork?” Raven supplied.

“Because--”

“Because my girlfriend is geographically locked in the same place as I am. Contractually, even,” Lexa answered, leaning against the doorway to the tiny green room behind the main stage.

“Lexa!” Clarke smiled so big she was convinced her face was stuck that way.

Before she could fully brace for it, Lexa felt arms around her neck and her girlfriend tackling her with affection. It was one of the greatest feelings in the world, and she would gladly give up all sleep and even take an early flight just to have a second of that.

Two weeks wasn’t anywhere close to the longest they’d been apart, but any kind of time and distance just felt long. Clarke squeezed her girlfriend tight, inhaling all of her as gluttonously as she could, not caring at all what else was happening.

All around them, the green room ebbed and flowed with people coming and going, with handlers rushing along guests and panels and taking pictures. But neither Thor nor Harley cared at all.

Both of their assistants quickly went about adjusting schedules for the inevitable begging and pleading that came when they got together.

“I missed you so much,” Lexa smiled into Clarke’s shoulder.

“Dinner tonight, right?”

“Definitely.”

“Maybe after the Heroes and Villains panel we can do some looking around?” It was said with that kind of pout that Lexa knew she’d give into in a minute. And then the eyes.

“Costumes?” she groaned.

All Clarke could do was grin.

“She’s incredible. One of the most amazing directors I’ve ever worked with,” Clarke gushed on the panel, earning a squeeze on her arm. “We had so much fun making it.”

“There were many days spent on wires though, where you were not as excited,” the director teased. “The fight scenes, though. Clarke actually scared two trained stunt doubles.”

“I get a little close, sometime,” the actress shrugged, earning a smile.

Deep in the crowd, Lexa smiled, familiar with the descriptions of Clarke having to apologize profusely to a few guys she got  slightly too eager to pummel with her magic hammer.

My girl is lethal. Check out her panel for Thor 2’s trailer unveil. You won’t be disappointed!- @-Woods

A picture appeared attached to her words, that depicted Clarke at the panel. The second appeared of her with blood streaming down her face, over her chin, her nose broken, a smile wide and bloody with thumbs put up to signify she was alright.

“Is there any truth to the rumors of a DC/Marvel crossover?” a fan asked from the line of questions as soon as the panel started to wrap up.

“I’ve never actually thought it a possibility,” Clarke shook her head, adjusting in her seat. “I’m honestly a little nervous to work with Harley Quinn, or Lexa Woods. But I know we have a lot of things in store for Thor.”

“So no comment?”

“I don’t make the deals, I just wield the hammer.”

The crowd chuckled at her answer, though didn’t accept it much.

“Would you want that though?”

Nervously, Clarke adjusted again and thought about the question while one of her costars hopped in and said something about constantly expanding.

“Lexa is amazing. What’s she’s done with the character is amazing. I’m in awe of her, and truly, I’d be daunted to work with her.”

“Next question is a bit broader on the themes--” the moderator interrupted the train of thought, clearly stearing them back toward the task at hand.

Lexa watched her girlfriend on the stage and she smiled and blushed to herself because it was important and she never actually heard those kind of words of support. Clarke was viciously protective, but to hear her describe her craft in those kind of ways, was just mesmerizing, and it made Lexa a little confused.

I’m just madly in love with her #ThorlyQ- @-Woods

It was a rarity that she got a minute. And she couldn’t say agents and studious didn’t constantly give her warnings and tell hr to keep down the love for the competition, but Clarke long since ignored it, instead constantly being her girlfriend's biggest fan, being the fan of every female hero or star or crew member.

It didn’t help that she cut out a meet and greet to go to Lexa’s panel. It didn’t help that she was so damn excited about it that she took to wearing a Daddy’s Little Monster shirt. It didn’t help, but Clarke didn’t care. She was very in love with her girlfriend and her talent and her promise, and she loved to be that person.

“I feel very protective over Harley,” Lexa explained, her hands held out and moving to emphasize her words. “I’m protective over who she could be, and I hate that her relationship is deemed iconic. It should be infamous in the way that all terrible things are. A cautionary tale.”

“But this movie explores that relationship, doesn’t it?”

“It does. But we are very careful in how we handled it. Some want to call it Harley’s weakening. I call it a rebirth, and that’s how we went at it,” she nodded, motioning for the director to help.

Clarke took a picture of the panel and smiled to herself.

“She’s just so brilliant, isn’t she?” she beamed to Raven.

“Sure.”

“Thanks,” she smiled, undeterred by her friend’s disinterest.

Harley Quinn for president. @-Griffin Clarke wrote, smiling to herself as she attached a convincing picture of

The panel continued, winding down. Raven tugged at her friend’s sleeve to get her somewhere on time.

“The helmet is too bulky. How do you wear this?” Lexa complained, adjusting the plastic toy that kept falling in her own eyes.

“How do you wear all of this makeup,” Clarke frowned in the mirror.

There was an answer, or at least she thought she had one, and then Lexa looked up watched her girlfriend adjusted the tights and short, short short short shorts. She always knew that Clarke liked her uniform, and now she understood it. The helmet fell over her eyes again.

“You look good. Great. You look really great,” she managed, shyly peeking from beneath the wing helmeted visor.

“Not so bad yourself, God of Thunder.”

Regaining herself, Lexa smirked and twirled the toy hammer. She was nervous, for many reasons, but she was very in love, and that was enough. She would follow whatever crazy scheme her girlfriend would come up with.

“Shall we, my lady,” Lexa offered her elbow.

Got to dress up as my favorite hero! @-Woods. Lexa posted the picture of her in a helmet and her girlfriend dressed as herself.

Finally got to do ComicCon up right @-Griffin. Clarke put up a few minutes later.

“It was a good year. I liked the trailer,” Lexa grinned, arm around her girlfriend’s shoulder as they made the way down

“This was our last time together for like three months.”

“We have a few days.”

“Not long enough,” Clarke complained, holding the hand that was near her shoulder. A yawn came despite herself.

“Hey, you know how you kept saying how ou liked my work, and stuff? You know that I love watching you, and I’d be down right afraid of working with you, too, right?”

“No, I mean… I don’t know. You’re just…. You’re good, Lex. I do alright.”

“They might try to compare us, but that’s not what we do.”

“I know. I’m just. You blow me away,” Clarke promised, kissing Lexa’s knuckles as they walked toward the car waiting to take them home.

“You knock my socks off.”

“You’d make a pretty good hero, just so you know.”

“I like being bad a little more,” Lexa chuckled, kissing Clarke’s temple.

“Me too.”

[halloweenfor]

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[vampykitty-kun]

Hi! I'm really interested in reading comics/graphic novels about or featuring the Batkids, and you seem like you know about that kind of thing (or at least more than I do, although it's a low bar), so do you think you could give me some suggestions to get started with? Also, I've seen some DC stuff at the library with "Death of the Family" on it but some is Batman and some is Batgirl and I think I saw a Teen Titans one and are they all connected or something? I'm confused. Thanks!

Yes! I do know quite a bit about comicsin the BatFam area, I just unfortunately can’t recommend anythingthat came out in the last 2 years as I’ve not read it. But 1989-2015I can give LOTS of recommendations.

For the most part any title can be astandalone, but titles do unfortunately get wrapped up in companywide events at times. But if you read the GN rather than theindividual comics they try and keep events to their own combo storybooks and character titles to their own.

This is such a huge list that I’mputting it under the cut so you click to read it instead of everyonegetting spammed with a HUGE list of things…

Here is what I’d recommend:

-Jason Todd as Robin II (Later known asRed Hood): It seems as though the majority of Jason writers presentday neglected to actually read his original issues, because they basetheir knowledge and opinion of him on what readers in the 80’sTHOUGHT of him, and unfortunately at the time many people hatedJason. Much of the hate was for a Robin in general as at the timeplenty of people thought Bruce should be on his own. No Batgirl (seethe Killing Joke) and no Robin. So the hate was for the role ingeneral. And then you had Robin fans that hated him just because theydidn’t want anyone trying to replace Dick’s role even though Dick hadmoved on to Nightwing. Jason as Robin issues are Batman #408-428, andNew Teen Titans Vol2 #19-21, 24, 28-31. I’m sure there were issues ofDetective Comics, but I have no idea which. In recent years much ofthese issues are in GNs but some of the issues are not, so you mayhave to look those up individually to read online or buy them instores with older issues. These GN are- Batman: Second Chances(Batman Issues #402-403, 408-416, and Annual #11), Batman Ten NightsOf The Beast (Batman Issues #417-420), DC Comics Classics Library:Batman- A Death In The Family, Hard Cover (Batman Issues #426-429,440-442, New Teen Titans Vol2 #60-61). this edition of “A Death InThe Family” contains both the death of Jason and the introductionof Tim, which was a story focused around Jason. So it’s a 2-for-1deal. There’s also a GN called Batman: The Cult and Jason’s the Robinwith Bruce in that story as well though I’m not sure where to placethat in the chronology.

-Tim as Robin III (Later known as RedRobin): Tim had an excellent run as Robin. He had 3 mini-seriesbefore he had an entire run of his own that spanned 183 main issues,not counting team ups or annuals. All while also appearing in theother Batman, Nightwing, and Batgirl titles. Plenty of issues werecompany wide tie-in issues but the rest were all put into their ownGNs. Robin: A Hero Reborn (Batman #455-457, Robin Mini-series1 #1-5),Robin: Tragedy & Triumph (Detective Comics #618-621, RobinMini-series2 #1-4), Robin Mini-series3: Cry Of the Huntress #1-6 isnot in a GN that I know of, then the rest of his main run in FlyingSolo, Unmasked!, Fresh Blood, To Kill a Bird, Days of Fire andMadness, The Virtual Cell, Wanted, Teenage Wasteland, The BigLeagues, Violent Tendencies, and Search for a Hero.

Likewise…

-Dick as Nightwing in his solo title(Vol2): 153 issues not counting team ups or annuals. Like with Robinmany of these issues are tied in with company wide events, and therest are in their own GNs. I recommend the 2014-present editions asthey have a bit more in them, better paper/graphics, and are wayeasier to find, but they haven’t remade all of them yet. Nightwing:Blüdhaven, Nightwing: Rough Justice, Nightwing: False Starts,Nightwing: Love and Bullets, Nightwing: The Hunt For Oracle are thenew editions. Continuing from there the older editions are:Nightwing: Big Guns, Nightwing: On the Razor’s Edge, Nightwing: YearOne, Nightwing: Mobbed Up, Nightwing: Renegade, Nightwing: Brothersin Blood, Nightwing: Love and War, Nightwing: The Lost Year,Nightwing: Freefall.

-Batman Knightfall: One of the classicBatman stories, in which the main bad is the villain Bane, whoseriously injures Bruce. This story spans three GNs: Broken Bat, WhoRules The Night, and Knightsend

-Batman Cataclysm: Another classic. Amassive earthquake hits Gotham and decimates the city. This can befound in one GN, thought look for what I think is the 2012 edition ofthe book not the one one as they included a lot of previous cut storyin the newer edition.

-Batman No Man’s Land: FollowsCataclysm. Essentially Gotham is covered in rubble and a massiveterritory war breaks out between BatFam, GSPD, and several separategroups of Gotham’s baddies. It spans 4 super thick GNs in the 2012newer edition (don’t bother with the older editions) but also has areally enjoyable novelization if you would prefer to read it inwritten format!

-Batman Hush: Essentially Bruce vs Hushand sometimes Clayface, and a story that unintentionally set up JuddWinick to bring Jason back to life lol…one GN in more recenteditions but was previously 2 smaller GNs. I do not know if there isa difference but generally larger book versions have a bit extra inthem.

-Batman Under the Red Hood: Jasonreturns as the Red Hood, sending Bruce on an emotional rollercoaster, while Joker and Black Mask end up roped in. Lots of peopleinvolved. Like Hush this come in one or two book format. I have thesingle book format. This story was adapted into an animated movie,one that also takes a few moments from “A Death In The Family”,but the beginning part was highly modified to make it a stand alonefilm, so several key details are removed. I do recommend watching themovie, but after reading both “A Death In The Family” and thecomic version of “Under The Red Hood”, so you get the fullexperience.

-Batman War Crimes, War Drums, and WarGames (WG is three GNs long): this connects into both Robin and RedHood. This is unfortunately where Stephanie (Spoiler, brief Robin IV,Batgirl) “dies” and there’s a massive war against Black mask.It’s five GNs total.

I pretty much have to recommend anyBatman Titled GN that comes after that as it goes more into Hush,Damian comes in and there’s a lot of plot to cover there, Bruce“dies” and the mantle is picked up by Dick, and it was a heck ofride until the reboot happened.

Outside of main Batman titles aroundthat time I have to HIGHLY recommend the following:-Batmanand Robin: Basically Dick and Damian’s team-up book series. Itspanned three GN with Morrison, and one after him totaling four. Wealso got more Jason here, and his sorta Batgirl type sidekickSasha/Scarlet. Admittedly it was weird because Morrison thought itwould be fun to give Jason red hair (something the main version ofJason never had, but had in issues for another version of Jason thatwas scrapped before any issues I mentioned in this post) and bulk himup. But if you can gt around that the actual plot on the Jason endwasn’t too bad and had some gems. But the Dick and Damian interactionand banter is the treasure here.

-Batman Streets Of Gotham: Again moreof Dick and Damian as Batman and Robin. But here we get Thomas Elliot(Hush) who surgically had his face changed to look like Bruce, and hefill Bruce’s public role under very close watch. We also get Damian’slittle friend Colin Wilkes (Abuse) who ends up close to him. He turnsinto a giant bulky rage man good guy :)

-Red Robin: Tim’s new solo series thatstarted after Damian took up being Robin and Dick went from Nightwingto being Batman. It’s 4 GNs long and was amazing. I can’t stress thatenough. I still mourn it ending. You get Tim on his own, you get himgoing up against/working with/outsmarting/impressing Ra’s al Ghul.You get Prudence Wood, one of Ra’s assassins that ends up liking andworking with Tim. You get Tam Fox, and Stephanie, and Conner Kent.

-Batgirl Vol3 (Stephanie Brown asBatgirl): Stephanie came back from faking her death, took back upSpoiler, only for Tim to demand she stop being Spoiler. He shouldhave been more specific, and she DOES drop Spoiler but then becomesBatgirl with previous Batgirl’s (Casandra) blessing lol. Spanned 24issues in three GNs but they are hard to find. Obviously there isCasandra’s run as Batgirl but i’ve never actually read it so I findit wrong of me to suggest it before I have so it’s up to you if youwant to hunt those down as well. But Casandra’s run was 73 issuesVol-1 (7 GN) sand 6 issues Vol-2 (which is in a single GN)

-Teen Titans Vol3 (Tim, Conner, Bart,etc) spans twelve GNs and had its ups and downs, but if you’re a teamfan this is a good series to read.

-Catwoman: A few different runs, andsome stand alone books. They’re all good pre-reboot. Read them ifyou’re a Catwoman fan :)

Now as far as books NOT in the main runof pre-reboot comics I also REALLY need to recommend the following:

Batman Year One: Bruce’s first year asBatman. Also Gordon’s first year on the job. One GN. Awesome and alsoadapted into an animated movie.

-Robin Year One & Batgirl Year One:These come in separate books or both in one big book. The Robin inmention is Dick and the Batgirl is Barbara. Both are fantasticstories.

-Huntress Year One: Huntress’ originstory. This is the Huntress that is NOT Bruce’s daughter from anotherEarth, this is the Mob associated one that was also featured in theTV series Arrow.

Superboy / Robin World’s Finest Three:two tiny GNs that tell the story of Tim and Conner’s first meeting.They end up going against Metallo and Poison Ivy.

JLA: World Without Grown-ups: This is astory spanning again two tiny GNs. Where Tim (Robin), Conner(Superboy), and Bart (Impulse, later known as Kid Flash) team up whensuddenly all the adults are in one dimension and all the underagepeople are in another.

Red Hood: The Lost Days: the story ofwhat happened between Jason’s resurrection and when he came back toGotham in Under The Red Hood. It’s one GN.

There are also some alternate universe stories that came out pre-reboot called Elseworld’s stories. Here are some good ones:

Batman:Brotherhood of the Bat: Alternate Universe what-if type story. Thisstory is if Talia had joined Bruce in Gotham and abandoned her fatherRa’s and his ways. The story is centered around their son, TallantWayne. This was an AU created before Damian entered the comics andthus one of many stories where Bruce and Talia’s son had a differentname. Bruce is dead and Tallant has to face his grandfather. This wasone thin GN but did have a sequel…

Batman: League ofBatmen: takes place after the above and spans two GNs to finish thestory.

Thrillkiller Batgirl & Robin: 3 issue AU where Barbara and Dick are the first vigilantes in Gotham in the 1960′s and go up against a FEMALE Joker. Bruce is a legit Detective. Every bit of this story is PAINTED and it’s amazing. It is followed up by a sequel.

Thrillkiller ‘62: Takes place where the above left off. But now Bruce is Batman alongside ‘Batgirl’. I won’t spoil the events of the above to give goo detail here lol.

Superman: Speeding Bullets: AU where Baby Kal-El crashes into Earth, where he is discovered by Thomas and Martha Wayne. The couple decide to adopt Kal-El, and name him Bruce. Fuses the two characters together. Thomas and Martha still die. “Bruce” becomes a flying Batman and later Superman.Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Pretty much the most popular and longest AU that DC did. Spans 1 thick GN or multiple tiny ones. Not the greatest of art/setup but still good. Think of this as an AU Future Fic taking place after Jason died and Bruce retired instead of Tim coming along. Then he comes out of retirement to be a total badass. I do NOT however recommend any of the sequels or prequels because they are just BAD. This was adapted into TWO animated films which I honestly think I recommend more than the GNs due to the art.Post Reboot we hit the New 52. It had its up and downs. Nothing BatFam was particularly terrible but very little was amazing. personally the first 4-6 volumes of GNs for any given series was worth a read but not necessarily a buy. I read all the BatFam titles and the only ones that were MEH for me were Catwoman and Teen Titans. Red Hood and the Outlaws wasn’t for everyone, but I personally enjoyed it other than some details like Jason suddenly having magic??? and Kori having some personality issues but I was glas she wasn’t ditzy if that makes sense, and I really loved her character design even if I wish she at least had a touch more clothing on (once she was in a space suit and it was amazing). Suicide Squad isn’t technically BatFam but it had Harley in it in the New 52 and it was amazing even if I hated her visual re-design. Talon was a branch off of a Batman story line, and a specific character got his own title that spanned 2 GNs and was enjoyable.

Past that any Gns involving Batman The Animated Series are great, so are the Young Justice GNs.

I also have a huge love for the Batman Beyond show and Comics, but after the reboot they messed that up too.

[iwriteabitoffanfiction]

Ten, Fifteen, Twenty!

Just another little one shot I wrote way back before Christmas.

Relationships: Stiles/Lydia

Word Count: 6163

Rating: M-for some language

Summary: Stiles and Lydia through the years. ___________________________________________

Ten! The first time Stiles Stilinski saw Lydia Martin was a month before he started his last year of elementary school. He and his best friend Scott McCall were throwing a baseball back and forth in their quiet Cul-de-sac, when they saw the moving truck pull up in front of the house right next door to Stiles’. The boys stopped to watch the men hop out of the truck and go to the back. Then they saw a blue SUV pull into the driveway.

Stiles is pretty sure he stopped breathing when the pretty redhead climbed out of the back seat. She looked to be the same age as them. She wore a blue dress, and her hair was plaited in one long braid that sat over her shoulder. From where he stood he couldn’t tell if her eyes were blue or green, but would later find out they were a bright shade of emerald. She smiled when she saw her new home and Stiles thinks it’s the prettiest smile he has ever seen.

He is one hundred percent certain that he fell in love with Lydia Martin that day, even if he didn’t really know what love was. All he knew was that every time he saw her after that, his heart would beat faster, and his ability to use words disappeared. Stiles and Scott continued to watch on as the two big bulky men started carrying furniture into the two storey house, with a its cream coloured bricks and dark blue tin roof.

Like any normal ten year old boys, they soon got bored of watching the goings on of next door. So they both ran inside Stiles’ house to tell Stiles’ Mom that they had new neighbours. After animatedly describing the family of three, Mrs Stilinski made them sandwiches and poured them both a glass of juice. Then Stiles and Scott ran out the back to climb the treehouse there, that his dad built, so they could sticky beak into the neighbours yard.

Before long Scott had to head home for supper. So the boys said their goodbyes and Scott headed back to his house. Stiles stayed up in the treehouse for another hour, hoping to get a look at the pretty girl who had moved in next door. Just as his mom called him inside, the neighbours back door opened. Stiles crouched behind the railing (because he didn’t want to come off as creepy) before peeking over the top. There she was walking down the steps with a fluff ball in her arms.

She placed the dog on the ground and then for the first time Stiles hears her voice. He swore it sounded like angels singing.

“Go on Prada, time for pee pee.”

Then his mom called his name again, this time getting the girls attention. Stiles had no choice but to reveal himself. So he took in a deep breath and stood up. His moving caught the girls eye and she looked up to the treehouse. Their eyes locked (Stiles couldn’t move). She smiled at him (Stiles couldn’t breath). Then she waved before picking up her dog again and heading inside. Stiles stood there for what felt like eons before he heard his mom again.

“Stiles!”

He quickly climbed down the steps. Jumped from the third last rung and raced inside. As he sat eating his supper, he couldn’t help but think, this had been the best day ever.

The next time her saw her, was two days later, when he and Scott were watching movies in Stiles living room. There was a knock on the door that made both the boys turn and look. Stiles made to move to answer, when his mom ducked her head in the room, saying she had it. The boys went back to watching their movie. Stiles could just make out another ladies voice. Then he heard that angelic voice speaking again.

He literally leapt off the couch and ran towards the front door. Only slightly composing himself when he reached the entryway. There she stood, on the threshold of his door, dressed in denim shorts and a pink tee, with converse on her feet. Today her hair was up in a high ponytail and Stiles couldn’t stop drooling. Just as Stiles started to walk towards the door, his mom was ushering them inside. Stiles panicked and ran back to the living room.

Two minutes later, the older lady and the girl were standing in the doorway to the living room.

“Stiles, Scott, these are our new neighbours.”

Both the boys turned and stood to face the newcomers.

“This is Mrs Martin and her daughter Lydia.” Stiles mom said introducing the duo.

Lydia? Lydia! Beautiful. Stiles thought to himself.

“This is my son Stiles and his best friend Scott.”

“Hi.” Scott said waving to the pair.

For some reason Stiles’ mouth wasn’t working. He was trying to speak, but he’s pretty sure he looks like a fish trying to take in water. Lydia hides her face behind her hands as she lets out a small chuckle. Scott just looks at his friend dumbfounded. His mom must’ve said something, but Stiles hasn’t a clue what it is. All he knows is that Lydia is being ushered into the living room to sit with the boys, and his mom and hers had made their way to the kitchen.

He’s pretty sure Scott is telling Lydia all about the movie they’re watching, but Stiles’ mouth still refuses to work. He somehow gets his body to move and sits back down in the sofa, Scott beside him. Lydia opted for the armchair. They sat and watched the rest of the movie in silence. Stiles would occassionally look to where Lydia was sitting, only to find her looking back. When the movie finished Lydia turned to him with a determined look on her face.

“Can I see your treehouse?”

Stiles and Scott share a look. Is she crazy? Boys only allowed. It’s their fort, their hideaway where they do boy things. Like read comics, and play pretend. No girl has ever been in their treehouse before. Well it’s not technically their treehouse, it’s Stiles’ treehouse, but because Scott is his best friend, it kind of is their treehouse. After a few beats and a few more looks shared between the two boys, Stiles turns to Lydia with a smile on his face.

“Sure.” It’s the first words to leave his mouth since she arrived.

Scott hits his leg, and looks at him wide eyed. Stiles just shrugs and stands. He heads towards the back door and Lydia is following close behind. Scott catches up to Stiles and pulls him off to the side, just as they walk out the door. Stiles turns to Lydia and holds one finger up to say hang on a sec and then moves towards the steps of the house, with Scott still gripping his arm tightly. When Scott checks to make sure they can’t be heard, he rounds on Stiles.

“Dude, are you crazy or something?” He starts whispering to Stiles. “She’s a girl. No Girls Allowed in the treehouse remember. It’s our number one rule.”

Just before he responds he feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns to see Lydia standing right behind him.

“Everything ok?” She asks with her hands clasped.

Before Scott can argue again, Stiles grabs Lydia’s hand and helps her up the ladder.

Lydia comes over every day after that and plays with the boys in their treehouse. It took a disgruntled Scott three days to be okay with that arrangement. But when Lydia proved to not be a girly girl, he relented. In turn making Stiles very happy. They find out she loves comics and that she prefers Marvel to DC. She is not afraid of getting dirty and would rather pitch a baseball with them, than play with the numerous dolls she has upstairs in her room.

Stiles, Scott and Lydia’s Moms become quite close too, spending afternoons having cups of tea, or whatever it is adults do. A week after Stiles first showed Lydia the treehouse, Scott and his Mom head off to Florida to visit his grandparents. In this time, Stiles and Lydia became very close. Spending everyday together, riding their bikes together, going to the park together and every afternoon they would come back and they would go up into the treehouse.

One night, a week before school started, their parents let them sleep in the treehouse. Like together. They stayed up late telling ghost stories and talked about the new school year. Lydia told Stiles she was nervous about starting at a new school, until she met him and Scott and now she was excited. Stiles tells Lydia all about the teachers at school. He tells her funny stories about stuff he and Scott get up to.

When they’ve exhausted all topics of conversation, Stiles goes to turn the lamp off. Lydia grabs his hand and Stiles has to do everything he can not to freak out. She looks at him with a desperate plea in her eye and asks if he can leave it on. Stiles just nods because she’s still holding his hand and he is still trying not to freak out. She slowly lets his hand drop and Stiles is pretty sure he will never, never wash his hand again.

“Are you and Scott going to be okay having a girl hanging around you?” Lydia asked as she climbed into her sleeping bag.

He hadn’t really thought about it much. He wondered how the other guys in his friend group would feel about having Lydia around. They would probably tease him and Scott mercilessly about it at first, but Stiles believes that they would all come around in the end. She had that affect on people. Plus there are a couple of girls in their friend group already, what will one more matter? He climbed into his sleeping bag and did up the zip before answering her confidently.

“Of course.” He replied turning on his side so their faces were level.

She gave him a smile that made his heart rate soar. They talked a little bit more, yawning in between their sentences. It was pushing close to midnight and after spending the day at the public pools, they were both exhausted. Stiles watched Lydias eyes close. She was as perfect in sleep as she was awake. He fell asleep with a smile on his face, revelling in the fact that him and Lydia were sleeping in the same proximity.

Once school started back, and like he predicted, the guys gave him and Scott a hell of a time for the first three days. It took Lydia throwing a punch at an older boy that made them all stand up and take notice. The older boy made the mistake of calling her carrot top. He never saw it coming. From that day forward the rest of Stiles’ guy friends treated her as if they’d known her their whole lives. That day also cemented Stiles’ feelings for her.

Who wouldn’t love a girl that was pretty and could throw a punch?

She was popular. The girls flocked to her as if she was a celebrity and the guys all fell in love with her. She became fast friends with Allison and Kira, but she always referred to Stiles as her best friend. She would come to him with everything. She would help him with his homework. They rode their bikes to school together and always ended back at Stiles’ place afterwards so they could hang out in the tree house. Scott would often join them.

The years went past and they were still as tight as ever. She was there for him when his mother passed away. He was inconsolable for a long time, but Lydia was there for him every day. When her father walked out of their lives, Stiles bought her icecream and the notebook. They sat and watched the movie with Lydia curled up next to him. They went to their school dance together and it was the happiest night of his life.

Then Lydia discovers make up, designer clothes, and other boys besides Stiles out there, that pay attention to her. Every week she would come to the tree house gushing about a different crush she had, completely oblivious to how Stiles felt. He couldn’t tell her this of course, so he let his heart break a little more everyday, but he would put on a brave face and let her talk about boys that weren’t him.

~

Fifteen! By the time they’re in the second half of their freshmen year in Highschool, Stiles is still one hundred percent in love with Lydia Martin, but Lydia Martin was gushing over Jackson Whittemore. The school douche bag. Biggest man on campus, well, at least in their year. Stiles being the best friend in the world, would plaster on his bravest smile listen to her rave on and on about how fabulous Jackson was, or how Jackson had smiled at her that day.

When Lydia rushed to the treehouse one day and announced Jackson was taking her to the dance, Stiles was sure a part of him died. At the end of that dance, Lydia and Jackson were official and Stiles took a back seat to the guy who liked to bully him. He soldiered on though, even as he and Lydia seemed to drift apart. They would still meet up at the treehouse every now and then, and Lydia was absolutely adamant that Stiles was still her best friend.

Heading towards the end of freshman year and Stiles had started to change. He grew a few inches, he beefed up a little in the arms, grew his hair out a little and for the first time ever, girls were taking notice of him. They would smile shyly at him in the hallways, they would bat their eyelashes at him when they walked past him in the library. It was all a little scary, but exciting at the same time. But the one girl he wanted to notice him didn’t.

During that summer he turned sixteen and got his drivers licence. His dad bought him a jeep for his birthday. He had a decent party too, that Lydia of all people organised for him. He spent the night surrounded by girls and Lydia spent the night wrapped up with her boyfriend. After everyone started to leave, including the douche bag, Lydia saunters up to Stiles with a sad look on her face. She nods her head in the direction of the treehouse and Stiles follows her without question.

They climb the ladder and sit down with their legs hanging over the edge.

“Did you have a fun night?” She questions a little solemnly.

“I did.” He answers looking down at the dissipating crowd.

“You sure were popular with the girls tonight.” She states finally turning to look at him.

He turns when he feels her eyes on him.

“Yeah, well, it’s the swooshy hair.” He jokes trying to coax a smile out of her.

It works, she chuckles a little before leaning her head on his shoulder. A soft breath leaving her lips.

“Why don’t we hang out as much anymore?” She asks quietly.

“Well because you have a boyfriend, who hates me by the way.” He replies.

Her head shoots up from his shoulder and she settles him with a quizzical look.

“No he doesn’t.” She scoffs.

Stiles quirks his eyebrows sending her a ‘are you kidding me’ look.

“Do I have to remind you how much pleasure he gets from needling me everyday, or how he likes to embarrass me in front of the whole school?”

“You’re exaggerating.” Her hands cross against her chest, a touch of anger in her voice.

“I’m really not.” He says back.

There’s silence as Stiles looks back down to the scant few people who are left in his backyard.

“Well it’s not like you make much of an effort to get to know him.”

“Excuse me? Are you being serious right now?” He asks, anger now rising in his chest. “Why would I want to get to know the guy who has practically bullied me my whole life?”

“Because he’s my boyfriend and as my best friend you should support whoever I’m with.”

Stiles laughs, like actually belly laughs, causing Lydia to set him with a scowl.

“I wouldn’t hold your breath Lydia, hell will freeze over before me and Jackson ever become friends.”

She doesn’t answer, she just stands up and storms back down the ladder. Stiles watches as she stomps across the lawn, through the gate and back to her house. He hung his arms over the railing of the treehouse and let out a heavy sigh. It was their first fight. If you could really call it that. More like a turning point in their friendship. And while Lydia and Jackson were together, Stiles and Lydia literally only saw each other in passing.

It’s not like he didn’t try to apologise for the night of his birthday. Not that he thought he had to apologise, he hadn’t asked her to be friends with the biggest bully in school. He sent her text messages and, he even stood knocking on her door for half an hour one day. But when Lydia Martin bears a grudge, you don’t ever get off easy. So the rest of the summer he and Scott drove around Beacon Hills and spent their days without Lydia.

He tried again when school went back, but she avoided him everyday. Even when they shared the same classes. His heart hurt and he wasn’t sure he would ever be anything with Lydia Martin again, let alone best friends. So when the new girl in school, Malia, asked him to go to the movies one night, he pushed down his feelings for Lydia and said yes. By the third week of classes, Stiles had a girlfriend and the distance between him and Lydia was insurmountable.

Scott and Allison had started dating during the summer and so the four of them spent a lot of time together on double dates. It was a tricky situation for Allison as she was still very close to Lydia, so they came to an agreement. Her name would never be mentioned when they hung out. Scott was of course in Stiles’ corner, because you know they’ve been friends their whole lives, plus he hates Jackson just as much as Stiles does.

When thanksgiving comes around that year, Stiles’ dad informs him that the Martins as well as the McCalls, the Argents and of course Malia, will be joining them for dinner. Stiles tries everything to change his mind, but the Martins are just as much ingrained into the parents lives as Lydia is - was - in Stiles’. Other than school, they had stayed completely away from one another. She very rarely sat at lunch with them now, and Lydia had moved seats in the three classes they shared.

So now they sit at opposite ends of the table in the Stilinski dining room not a word spoken between the two of them. Stiles conversed with Scott, Malia, his Dad and Mr Argent for most of the night. While Lydia kept close to Allison and her Mom. Malia is the only one at this table that doesn’t know the history between Stiles and Lydia, so therefore when she addresses Lydia, in her somewhat brash way, Stiles notices Lydia bristle a bit.

“So Lydia, Scott tells me you guys all pretty much grew up together.” Malia states.

Lydia sends her a curt nod.

“So how come you don’t hang around us at school?”

Stiles cringes at the question and Lydia sits up straighter. This is not exactly a conversation he wants to have over Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone here pretty much has a fair idea of what happened between them, but they’re not one hundred percent clued in. Stiles’ eyes slowly drift to Lydia’s direction and he recognises the smile she has on her face. Oh boy. Here we go. Her eyes flit quickly to his and then she leans a little over the table.

“Why don’t you ask your boyfriend.” She replies with a slight sneer to her tone.

Malia looks between the two, confusion on her face. Everyone else is silent as they wait for world war three to start. He wasn’t about to sit there and let him get the best of him. He presses his lips together in a tight line, before putting on his best smile, sending Lydia a look of indifference and spite. He turns to his girlfriend, grabs her hand under the table, places a soft kiss to her cheek before turning back to Lydia and speaks.

“Because Lydia is dating a moron.”

“Stiles!” Both his Father and Ms McCall shout in unison.

The wide eyes and look of pure indignation from Lydia is enough for him to almost regret his words. Almost. There’s silence for a long time as nobody can actually look at anyone. It’s the scraping of her chair that gets everyone’s attention. All heads fly up at the noise. She takes a sharp inhale and that noise alone stabs at his heart. They’ve never said a nasty word to each other, yet here he is dissing her boyfriend.

She stares at him with watery eyes and he tries to send her, what he hopes is an apologetic smile. She straightens up, her head held high, with her lips mashed together to stop her from crying, then she walks out of the room. He releases Malia’s hand under the table and lowers his gaze, when he hears the door slam shut loudly. He hears the mumbled whispers of everyone around him, but it’s Scotts voice and the scraping of two more chairs that makes him pay attention.

He looks up to see that Ms Martin and Allison have followed Lydia out the front door. He ignores the piercing looks from his dad, Melissa and Malia, instead focusing his best friend who is now ushering him in to the living area.

“Stiles….you know I hate Jackson just as much as you, but….Lydia.”

“I know man ok, I’ll apologise, but it infuriates me that she just doesn’t see it….doesn’t see how much of an asshole he is.”

Scott just nods in agreement, but it doesn’t stop Stiles from ranting on.

“He treats her like some sort of possession. She isn’t herself when she’s around him, like she is trying to pretend to be something she’s not.”

“Yeah, I get it. She’s certainly not that girl we met all those years ago.” Scott agrees. “But I don’t think insulting Jackson is going to get you in her good books.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll apologise and then it will go back to us not talking again.” He relays with a defeated tone.

They return to the dining room. Stiles apologises profusely to everyone and then suggests taking Malia home. She doesn’t question him about the nights events, for which he is truly thankful. His mind is preoccupied with Lydia the whole way back to Malia’s house. The music from the radio the only sound filling the jeeps cab. He again apologises to her when he walks her to her front door. She just smiles a sad smile, pecks him on the lips before heading inside.

He ambles up the stairs of his place and throws himself on his bed once in his room. He stares up at the ceiling, scolding himself for his behaviour. He lays there ruminating over his situation. If he wants Lydia back in his life, he’s going to have to make an effort with Jackson. He cringes at the thought. He reaches into his pocket for his phone and opens up a new message. He finds her name and let’s his fingers hover over the keyboard.

To Lydia - I’m sorry. I was totally out of line. - S x

He hits send and then throws it off to the side. He jumps up quickly and heads for the bathroom not expecting a reply. He washes the night and it’s events off, as the water beats down on him. He continues to ponder his predicament and how to make it more bearable. He doesn’t have to be around Jackson all the time. He could just catch up with Lydia in their classes and after school. Once back in his room his decision is firm.

~

Twenty! It wasn’t until they started junior year, that Stiles repaired his friendship with Lydia. That was when she finally saw Jackson for the asshole he was. Stiles had broken up with Malia the next day after that awful thanksgiving. She was pretty cool about it, but that’s just Malia, she’s quite blasé about everything. Lydia came to Stiles on the second day of school, apologising and begging for him to be her friend again. Her best friend.

He didn’t take much convincing, he welcomed her back with a hug and a ruffle of her hair. Since then they were pretty inseparable. Even ending up at the same college together. They were back to hanging out together, studying together and face timing Scott together. It was the two of them against the world. And everything was going well until eight months ago. Stiles still hadn’t told Lydia how he felt and Lydia had a new boyfriend.

He’s a junior and Stiles has learnt that Lydia has a type. He’s as much an asshole and a bully as Jackson was. At least Stiles was able to tolerate this one. So with his feelings hidden down deep inside, because there was no way he was going to risk losing Lydia again, he stood by and watched Lydia be with someone that wasn’t him. She would probably never want to be with someone like him.

He goes to frat parties with them, football games with them, pretty much everywhere. Being the third wheel had become his job. Obviously being sick of having Stiles around all the time, Aiden had tried to set Stiles up with his friend Cora, but it was never going to happen, at least he got another good friend out of it. Cora was the the only other person besides Scott, who knew about Stiles’ feelings for Lydia.

His light at the end of the tunnel came in the form of a weeping Lydia, standing at his dorm door. She collapsed against him, staining his shirt with her tears, as she explained how she found Aiden and some bimbo making out in Aidens frat house. He guided her inside, sat her down on his bed and swiftly looked for a box of Kleenex. Sitting down next to her, he hands her the tissue and let’s her get all her tears out.

“Why do I always end up with assholes?” She asks him through soft sobs.

He’s not sure how to answer that, so instead he just shrugs.

“Why can’t all boys be like you. You’d make the perfect boyfriend. Why are you single again?” She questions.

“Haven’t met the right girl I guess.” He answers lying through his teeth.

He could hardly tell her the right girl is sitting right next to him, and that if she gave even the slightest hint that she was interested, he would ask straight away. But she never has and he has lived with that heartache for many years now.

“Well any girl would be lucky to have you.” She states leaning her head on his shoulder.

What about you? He thinks.

Instead he pulls up their favourite movie on his laptop, and grabs the half a tub of icecream out of the refrigerator. They lean back against his headboard, with Lydias head on his chest and his arm around her shoulder, as the opening credits for Star Wars scroll up the screen. If this is all he gets from her, he’ll take it. Maybe one day he will be brave enough to tell her the truth, but right now, he just concentrates on being her friend.

Two weeks later he is having coffee with Cora and telling her everything that happened that night. She’s currently grilling him out, for not taking a chance when the opportunity presented itself.

“The perfect window and you blew it.” She scolds, shaking her head.

“C'mon Cora, she had just broken up with her boyfriend.”

“You’ve been pining over this girl for half your life, just fucking tell her already.” She orders, leaning back in her chair and sipping on whatever connection she was drinking.

“I know I should, but I’m so scared, and you have absolutely no idea how scared I am of losing her friendship.” Stiles tells her, nervousness lacing his voice.

“Stiles, if you don’t tell her, you’re never going to know.”

And that was all that was said about the subject, as Cora rose from her chair and headed out of the crowded cafe. He sat there for a good long while, as he thought over his options. There were three. One, he could continue pining after her, happy in the fact that they are best friends. Two, he could tell her how he feels and she never speaks to him again. Three, he could just fucking man up and tell her and maybe, just maybe she might like him too.

With his decision made, he heads out of the cafe and straight towards Lydias dorm. It’s time. Ten years he’s felt this way about her, he can’t go on not knowing if he has a chance. He pushes through the double doors and takes the two flights of stairs, two steps at a time. When he finally reaches her door, he takes in a deep breath, steels his nerves and knocks. When there’s no answer, he knocks again, still to be only met by silence.

With his confidence still peaking, he takes his phone out of his pocket and brings up her number. He quickly types out a message and hits send before he can lose his nerve.

2.36pm - Hey, where are you? I’m at your dorm. Need to talk. S x

He leans against her door, as he rolls his cell over in his hand, waiting for a response. It doesn’t come straight away, which has Stiles pacing the floor in front of her door. When he still hasn’t heard from her after ten minutes, his confidence wanes and he heads back to the staircase completely defeated. As he exits the dorm building he takes one last look at his phone. Still nothing, so he shoves it back in pocket and with his head hung low, he makes his way to his dorm.

It’s hours later, when Stiles is finishing off an essay that is kicking his ass, when he finally hears back from Lydia. His phone buzzes next to him, he stares at it for a good few seconds, before finally swiping it and reading her reply.

7.42pm - Sorry, was out with some people from my bio class. What’s up? L x

Leaning back in his chair, he reads over the words a few times. His confidence is now completely shot, but he knows he still has to tell her. He can’t go on anymore without her knowing.

7.48pm - Really need to talk. Can you come over?

7.48pm - Sure. Give me twenty minutes. Are you okay?

7.49pm - I will be. See you soon.

She replies with a thumbs up emoji and Stiles’ heartbeat starts to become erratic. He puts away his homework. Tidying up the loose sheets of paper. Then he frantically starts to tidy up his room. He makes the bed, throws his dirty laundry basket into his closet, changes out of his sports shorts and tank and then sits on the edge of his bed fighting off a panic attack. When he hears the knock on the door, he tries to get his breathing in check.

He moves off the bed and slowly makes his way to the door. With one last deep breath he turns the handle. When he pulls the door open, she’s standing there in faded blue jean shorts and a sweater that’s too big on her. Her hair is in a loose braid over her shoulder and she’s wearing that smile he loves so much. So much for getting his heart rate under control. She is breathtaking, even in her simple outfit.

“Hi.” She’s says as she pushes into the room.

She flops down on his bed and it takes him a while to get his legs to move. He closes the door, takes another deep breath and turns and leans against it.

“So, what’s up?” She asks, leaning back on her elbows, her feet only just hanging over the edge.

She looks at him with her wide emerald eyes and cheeks a bit rosy from the chill in the night air. She’s so beautiful, he thinks, as he tries to remember the speech he had prepared. With his heart racing and his mind reeling he slowly closes the distance from the door to the bed. He sits at the top, leaning against the headboard, his legs stretched out before him. She sits up and crosses her legs and looks at him expectantly.

This is it. It’s time to man up.

“C'mon Stiles, your text sounded urgent.”

He swallows the lump that sits in his throat and begins his well rehearsed speech.

“We’ve known each other a long time yeh?” She nods. “We’ve been best friends for years.”

“The best of the best.” She adds her smile wider than before.

“Okay, so I kinda need to say something and I need you to not interrupt, because I’m nervous as hell and that won’t help.”

Her lips form a pout and her brows raise in confusion, she nods again.

He decides just to put it all out there.

“I love you Lydia, and not just the best friend kind of love. I’ve been in love with you for half my life.”

Her eyes go wide, but she remains silent like he requested, so he continues.

“That first day when you moved next door, was quite possibly the best day of my life. We became friends, then best friends, and slowly you completely filled up my heart.”

“Stiles….” She tries to say but he gives her a pleading look that has her clapping her mouth shut.

“Then I watched as you started noticing other guys, other guys that weren’t me and my heart would break a little more every time. It killed me when we weren’t talking and I was an absolute ass for letting you slip through my fingers.”

He notices that her eyes are welling up a little with tears, but he soldiers on anyway.

“That day when you came to my locker and begged for us to be friends again, I thought maybe I would have the courage to tell you, but I didn’t. So I continued to be the best friend, while I pushed my feelings down, knowing that you probably were never going to be interested in me.”

He takes a much needed intake of air and then boldly takes her hands in his.

“I love everything about you Lyds. Your smile, your eyes, your hair, your genius level brain, your scowl….everything.”

One tear has fallen down her cheek and it takes every bit of will power Stiles has, not to wipe it away with his thumb.

“I don’t expect you to feel the same and I will totally understand if you don’t want to be friends with me anymore, but I just couldn’t keep it bottled up anymore. I’m sorry.”

She squeezes his hand tightly, and then pulls one away so she can swipe at the tear that is sliding down her now flushed cheeks. She closes her eyes and Stiles wonders if this is it. Has he finally gone too far and driven her away? Will they ever be able to go back to where they weren’t? He’s done it. He has completely ruined their friendship with his stupid words. He’s just about to jump off the bed, when she climbs into his lap and takes his face in her hands.

“God I’ve been waiting to hear those words from you for so long.”

And then with his eyes wide from shock, she joins their lips together in a deep, breathless kiss. He’s so shocked at first, that he doesn’t respond, but when she tilts her head slightly and squeezes his face tighter, his shock disappears and he moves his mouth over hers. His hands that were sitting by his side, find purchase on her hips. He’s so delirious from the kiss, that he nearly misses the words she whispers against his lips.

“I love you too.”

~