#riot grrrl case

[superman86to99]

Adventures of Superman #514 (July 1994)

"THE FALL OF METROPOLIS," Part 4! Metropolis is invaded by aliens! And werewolves! And Nazis! And Lois Lane dies! And Professor Hamilton loses a limb! Only one of these things ends up being true by the time the issue is over.

Metropolis is still in ruins after the explosive events of Action #700 (it's not like they can magically fix it from one issue to the next, right?) and on top of that, the city is now covered in so much fog that it's giving me Superman 64 flashbacks. But this is no regular fog: when some armed preppers walk through it, one of them suddenly hallucinates that his friends are alien invaders and kills them in a panic. Elsewhere, three soldiers are affected by the fog and start seeing everyone around them as "commies," the Viet Cong (so "commies" again), and werewolves (communist ones, presumably).

Superman stops a soldier from shooting a rabbi/imaginary werewolf, but the soldier sees him as a vampire while the rabbi thinks Superman is a Nazi (both solid Elseworlds premises).

While trying to contain all the people tripping balls around Metropolis, Superman runs into Lois, who's just chilling in the middle of the ruins. Just as Superman comments that he seems to be immune to whatever is making people hallucinate their worst fears, that trigger-happy prepper from before appears and shoots at them, thinking they're aliens (well, he's half right).

Superman just lets the bullets bounce off his chest... not noticing that one bounced in Lois' direction, fatally injuring her. NEXT: Reign of the Lois Lanes?!

Making matters worse, Ma and Pa Kent happen to stroll by, having seemingly traveled to war-torn Metropolis just to tell their son what a disappointment he is. Then Lex Luthor shows up too, with his luscious red locks inexplicably restored, and tells Superman none of this would have happened if he hadn't stolen Lois and Metropolis from him. Lex finally concedes that Metropolis is "Superman's city," but only because, as Superman just noticed, the city is full of nothing but corpses now.

Meanwhile, Professor Hamilton is having a tough time too: a prostitute has just shot him in the arm because she hallucinated that Hambone was her abusive pimp. Hamilton is rescued by a white-haired young lady who smacks the prostitute with a plank of wood. Ham and the girl jump into his car to escape the crazed crowd around them, but then he hallucinates his worst fear: not being able to operate a vehicle because the controls are too complicated.

"Also, I'm naked!"

The girl jump-starts the car's engine and they speed away from the crowd -- only to realize that being in a speeding car with someone who's hallucinating at the wheel isn't such a brilliant idea. They end up driving the car off a pier, and right before they do, we see that Ham happened to have a box full of something called "synthetic enzymes" on his back seat...

Back to Superman, he angrily flies into the sky with Luthor, who morphs into his old school bald self and goads Superman into killing him. Superman refuses to give in to hatred and delivers a speech about rebuilding a better, Lex-free Metropolis, causing Luthor to fade away, as does Lois' corpse. Right then, Hamilton and the white-haired girl come to tell Superman that they've figured out how to stop the hallucinations: no, not "facing and overcoming your deepest fears," but simply spreading that convenient "synthetic enzyme" throughout the city to negate the fog's effect.

(This is why I never leave the house without synthetic enzymes in my car since reading this issue.)

Superman makes the enzyme rain down over Metropolis and everything goes back to normal... except for Professor Hamilton who, to quote Arrested Development, is now "all right," because he lost his left arm. Superman and Hamilton figure out that the crazy fog was another one of Luthor's "fail-safes" in case he was ever defeated, like the killer robots that have been attacking Metropolis over the past weeks (Man of Steel #35 and Superman #91).

But there's still one fail-safe left, and it's a big one...

TO BE CONCLUDED!

Creator-Watch:

This month's issue of Adventures is guest-drawn by Peter Krause, who coincidentally also guest-drew Adventures and Superman exactly two years ago during the Agent Liberty two-parter. We'll see a little more Krause in the near future via another Adventures issue and the Metropolis S.C.U. miniseries… and maybe a LOT more in the not-so-near future if our plans to cover his Power of Shazam! ongoing series with Jerry Ordway in our newsletter come into fruition. (Don is a big fan and I've always been curious about it because 1) it's Ordway and 2) José "Gangbuster" Delgado is in it.)

Plotline-Watch:

The loss of Professor Hamilton's arm will be the longest-lasting consequence of Metropolis' destruction. (It will also be used to turn him into a villain after this era, but we won't be covering those issues and I'm glad.) I like that good ol' Ham is so absent-minded that he seems to have forgotten about his missing arm like five minutes after they amputated it. He also forgot that his hair is supposed to be grey, apparently.

There's a dark irony to Hamilton losing a limb after being shot by a prostitute, considering that Adventures #425, his second appearance, was about him kidnapping a "strumpet" at gunpoint out of desperation after Luthor stole his invention. He did his time and got his shit together after that, though.

Yes, Luthor's final fail-safe is the Awesome Kryptonian Battle Robot, which was built in ancient Krypton, sent to the Phantom Zone, ended up in the Fortress of Solitude (where Professor Hamilton used it to play tag with robots), and was most recently used by the powerless, recently resuscitated Superman to walk from Antactica to Metropolis during "Reign of the Supermen." I guess Superman sorta lost track of it after that, but to be fair he did have a lot on his mind at that point.

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Dr. Kitty "Rampage" Faulkner tells Superman that right before Project Cadmus was destroyed (as far everyone knows, anyway), they used some fantastic sci-fi technology called a "modem" to send S.T.A.R. their info on the cure to the Clone Plague. Despite Luthor being a dick in and out of Superman's hallucinations, Superman still makes sure he's delivered to S.T.A.R. at the end of the issue so they can apply the cure (though we already know he won't stay there for long).

"Mardis" up there is Dr. Jean Louis Mardis from the recent S.T.A.R. Corps miniseries, who is somehow still employed by S.T.A.R. despite trying to pass off alien tech as his own inventions, accidentally turning a bunch of regular people into superpowered freaks and nearly causing an AI to conquer the world. S.T.A.R., which has also employed Hamilton in the recent past, seems to be big on second opportunities.

As far as I can tell, that white-haired young lady who has a weird amount of protagonism in this issue Never Showed Up Again. [EDIT: k9feline reminded me in the comments that she DOES show up again, with her rock band! Shame on me.] Given the color of her hair, her surprising skill with machines, and the fact that she keeps calling Professor Hamilton "pops," I'm gonna assume she's supposed to be his secret lovechild (with a prostitute?).

Big Belly Burger sighting! "Eat 'em!"

Shout Outs-Watch:

Big belly shout outs to our supporters, Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, and Dave Shevlin! Join them (and get extra articles) via Patreon or our newsletter's "pay what you want" mode!

And now, stick around for The Don Sparrow Show:

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We open with the cover, and it’s a pretty affecting one, a pieta style pose with a massive Superman mourning an apparently grievously injured Lois Lane.  Very emotional, and pretty restrained, in terms of '90s-excesses—in the hands of a lesser artist, the idea of Lois’ tattered clothes would be treated as titillating rather than sorrowful, so it’s an effective choice that Barry Kitson makes here.

The cover is all the Kitson we get, as the interiors are handled by Pete Krause, a terrific artist, and soon-to-be companion of Jerry Ordway on the excellent Power of Shazam! series.  Though I think his sharpest work is ahead of him, his pencils are solid throughout this issue, an interesting middle ground between the shadowy slickness of someone like Stuart Immonen (indeed, I don’t remember Krause ever looking so much like Immonen), and the pure linework of someone like Tom Grummett. The shot of Superman rescuing the old man is a great one.  Our introduction to Lois Lane in the story is also a cute panel, as Superman greets her with a (fairly wide) open mouth kiss.

The image of Professor Hamilton getting shot in the arm is something of a mixed bag—the expression of pain is great, but it also doesn’t actually show him getting shot (the drawing appears to indicate that he was only grazed by the bullet) but we later learn that the injury is so severe his arm must be amputated. [Max: I also got the impression that the injury wasn't so severe, but the girl does mention that Ham spent "hours" looking for Superman without getting medical attention, so that didn't help.]

The smoke is well used as a framing device for the dream sequences, as both the cause of the hallucinations, and a good way of demonstrating the dream like quality that feverish fantasy lends.  The panel of a majestic Lex II is particularly well done.

The best panel in the book might be on page 16, where an enraged Superman flies Lex II up up and away, and Lex’s roses fall to Earth, giving a real sense of height and motion. 

The pages where Superman puts Hamilton’s cure into action are great, as Superman soars into action, and creates a water spout to deliver the cure.

Finally, I always love seeing the Mignola-designed Kryptonian battle suit in action, and it’s an efficient piece of storytelling that Lex picked it up when it was just abandoned on the harbour in the "Reign of the Superman" storyline.

I’m not generally a fan of dream sequences as I often find them to be indulgent writing, and also inconsequential plotting—they rarely mean anything more than actual dreams do.  But this issue on the whole wasn’t as frustrating as some fever dream issues can be, as Karl Kesel deftly uses Superman’s nightmarish doubts to fuel action that did matter to the plot.

SPEEDING BULLETS:

Though the film is decades away, the alien infected soldiers from Jeff Scully’s chemically induced reverie look for all the world like the Orcs from the unrelentingly terribly 2017 movie from future terrible Superman writer Max Landis, Bright.

I can’t remember a time when a one-off character got so many name mentions as Jeff Scully, who gets identified no fewer than three times in the book.  I wonder if it was a buddy of Karl Kesel’s perhaps.  [Max: Since he's obsessed with aliens, I always took it as a little X-Files shout out.]

Then on the other end of the spectrum, we’re introduced to the lady in the headband who pulls a Thelma and Louise off a pier with Professor Hamilton, but in spite of having pages of dialogue, is never given a name, that I can find.

The “baker to alpha” soldier is a dead ringer for Pork Chop Hill era Gregory Peck, in my estimation.

I’m not entirely sure who I’d cast as Emil Hamilton, but in the final pages of this story, he looks a lot like Awakenings era Robin Williams to me.

I had forgotten exactly how Hamilton lost his arm, I just remember that he suddenly had a robot arm.  It’s a bit odd that a high tech character like him loses his arm to plain old gunfire.   

Am I alone in being confused why the toxin was able to affect Superman’s super-efficient system?  Though he needs to breathe, traditionally, he’d never show much vulnerability to gases in past stories. [Max: I guess it's possible that Lex intentionally designed it to be strong enough to affect Superman, and the military rejected it when they were like "uh, why does the budget include a $100 million 'Kryptonian respiratory system research' item...?"]

GODWATCH:  A very overt reference to the almighty from our Holocaust survivor elderly man, thanking both God and Superman for dispelling the fear toxin—complete with a literal and symbolic rainbow after the storm.

One wonders if Lex’s weaponized fear toxin was in any way based off of Batman villain Scarecrow’s concoction.  Seems like a missed opportunity, though it’s a pretty jam packed issue. 

[asexual-spongebob]

I wanna hurl, hurl, hurl on zorority girlz!!

I wanna zpew, zpew , zpew on fraternity dudez!!!

[clown-around-and-find-out]

hi guys this is my cool new punk band we're called the Cool Trans Obliteration Brothers. theres four of us and nothing could ever go wrong. check out our new song it's called My Shitass Microwave Blew a Fuse Which Resulted In My Great-Aunt's Untimely Death Due to a Mining Accident. hope you stream! wait Our lead singer did what

[lesbianlenas]

riot grrrl as a music genre frustrates me so much…..like there is so much potential there in the punk roots & exploring women’s frustration & anger w their oppression plus the way that women in the 90s were using it as a way to organize and share feminist thought like they hadn’t since 2nd wave feminism ended and yet soooo much of it is choice feminist and individualist which just dilutes all of it ESP if u look at more modern day riot grrrl which doesn’t explore women’s oppression so much as it does just promote choice feminism (not every band obvs but the more well known ones yes). it’s just like how are you going to create this genre of music that calls out women’s oppression and women’s issues and then also use the same genre to essentially say that femininity is not oppressive to women and that it’s empowering……..i just feel like riot grrrl was a great opportunity for women to actually reject femininity and they not only didn’t do that but overall blamed misogyny for the mocking of femininity rather than realizing that femininity was invented very much to mock women (even more so now)…….basically riot grrrl is extremely hit or miss for me lmao

[jasmancer]

at the end of the day riot grrrl wouldn't exist without bell hooks and Poly Styrene. their work was foundational not only in terms of feminist philosophy from the both of them, but in the case of Poly Styrene, her performance style as a feminist punk artist.

it just kills me that a movement that has been so thoroughly (and justly) associated with White Feminism was built off the work of these brilliant black feminists with every intent to be intersectional in theory. but in practice it only created space for white women and actively alienated nonwhite women ESPECIALLY if they spoke up about it. the fact that the sistah grrrl riots even had to be created by and for black women because they were so alienated both from the general white male population of hardcore/punk spaces AND the riot grrrl spaces made in response makes me crazy!!!

riot grrrl did a lot in terms of making feminist education and art more accessible to young women and teaching young women how to organize for their rights but in terms of intersectionality riot grrrl failed big time. went the way of 2nd wave white feminism with little resistance. the road to hell is paved with good intentions and all that.

I just. it had good bones. yknow?

[uispeccoll]

#VoicesFromTheStacks

Riot Grrrl and the Jen and Sarah Wolfe Zine Collection

On their 1995 track, “Criminal Boy,” female pop punk band Bunnygrunt begs the question: ‘what is a girl to do?’ The song chronicles a tough sister’s plans to break her all bark and no bite brother out of the slammer, which serves to be a fitting parallel to how the Riot Grrrl feminist movement of the 1990s got its start.

By the ’90s, the male-dominated U.S. punk movement, prominent in cities like Seattle and Portland, had been long ignoring the women participating in and moving forward the empowered anarchist agenda underlying punk music, media, and culture.

The Riot Grrrl Movement, aptly named and noted by its signature growling triple “r”, emerged as an opportunity for women in the punk scene to reclaim and redefine their identities as “girls” through expressions of anger, rage, and frustration. This subculture combined feminism, punk music, and politics by addressing issues of assault, patriarchy, anarchism, and female empowerment. The growth and success of the movement can be attributed to the multiple modalities used to spread their message: music, zines, art, and other DIYs that served as vessels for political activism.

Zines can be simply defined as self-written, often self-published and self-distributed “magazines” of narrow focus, created out of a desire to share. In the case of Riot Grrrl, this included, but was not limited to, punk and feminist literature, social commentary, news, gossip, music reviews, and other topical articles and musings.

The University of Iowa’s Special Collections and Archives’ Sarah and Jen Wolfe Zine Collection provides a dynamic, wide-ranging, and intimate glimpse into the zines created and distributed during the Riot Grrrl era. Donors of the collection, sisters Sarah and Jen Wolfe, were active Riot Grrrls throughout the late ’90s and early 2000s, with Jen playing bass for the band Bunnygrunt in 1995–1998 and later publishing her own zines: Bunnygrunt and Panophobia. The sisters also operated their own mail-order distribution service, out of Iowa City, Septophilia, for zines and records both, leading to their large collection of various independent, underground, and occasionally personalized zines.

With an established interest in the DIY and communal nature of zines, the Wolfe sisters have curated a thorough and impressive collection that will continue to provide insight of a first-person narrative in both collecting and creating at the height of the Riot Grrrl movement. To learn more about the Jen and Sarah Wolfe Zine Collection, the complete finding aid can be found here.

– Kaylee S., Special Collections Olson Graduate Assistant and M Clark, Instruction Graduate Assistant

[thedelicatearcher]

☆finnick odair masterlist☆

☆finnick odair who helps you study for your finals

☆finnick odair who breaks up with you after seven years together

☆finnick odair who loves making home improvements to make your life easier

☆finnick odair who loves doting on his partner, but also loves being doted on back

☆finnick odair is a sucker for affection from his romantic partner

☆finnick odair loves knitting and crocheting

☆finnick odair loves dancing with you on the living room floor

☆finnick odair loves being taken care of when he feels sick

☆finnick odair survives the mutt attack but is left with scars

☆finnick odair loves showering with his partner

☆finnick odair can’t stop writing poetry about you

☆finnick odair loves gifting you flowers with symbolism

☆painting finnick odair's nails

☆finnick odair likes going to sleep early

☆fair dates with finnick odair

☆finnick odair’s love language is physical contact

☆baths with finnick odair

☆finnick odair lets you braid his hair

☆finnick odair reacts at your bad haircut

☆you and finnick have a jewelry stand in the district four’s market

☆finnick odair loves having his back rubbed

☆finnick odair makes embroidery friendship bracelets

BLURBS

☆finnick odair has a bed full of plushies

☆finnick odair and classic maritime romance

☆finnick odair searches for your comfort when has nightmares

☆finnick odair's hair after the rebellion

☆finnick odair calls you cupcake ironically

☆finnick odair had a lemonade stand as a kid

☆finnick odair loves receiving forehead kisses

☆finnick odair's favorite ice cream

☆finnick odair is a hydrated king

☆finnick odair is an expert at poker

☆finnick odair loves being the little spoon

☆finnick odair is bad at making pancakes

☆finnick odair has a pair of shark slippers

☆finnick odair has a baby blanket

☆finnick odair wanted to be a firefighter as a kid

☆finnick odair gets sunburned very easy

HEADCANONS

☆finnick odair with a partner who loves animals

☆finnick odair goes dress shopping with his partner

☆finnick odair with a musical partner

☆finnick odair had braces as an adult

☆sick finnick odair

☆finnick odair with a partner who has dyed hair

☆finnick odair with a tattoed partner

NSFW

☆finnick odair eats you out

☆one of your favorite activities is sucking finnick off after his nightly shower

☆finnick odair doesnt't mind being submissive in bed with you

TWEETS

☆tweet #1

MODERN FINNICK ODAIR

☆finnick odair is a sucker for romcoms

☆finnick odair is a passionate duolingo user

☆finnick odair loves minions

☆finnick odair considers himself a fashion connoisseur

☆finnick odair doesn't want to wear his retainers

☆finnick odair loves cats

☆finnick odair and johanna mason watching garfield

☆finnick odair has a stanley cup in every color

☆finnick odair has protective cases for every device

☆finnick odair and the sims 4

☆finnick odair has a spiderman toothbrush

☆finnick odair is an excessive emoji user

☆finnick odair loves watching cake boss

☆finnick odair is a menace playing roblox

☆finnick odair gave everyone a kenough hoodie

☆finnick odair and peeta mellark love water parks

☆finnick odair calls the property brothers to remodel everlark's home

☆finnick odair and animal crossing

☆finnick odair & costco

SWIFTIE!FINNICK

☆finnick odair loves knitting and crocheting for his swiftie gf

☆finnick odair loves fearless

☆finnick odair and surprise songs

☆finnick odair is a swiftie

☆more swiftie!finnick thoughts!

☆finnick odair & eras tour

ODESTA

☆finnick and annie call themselves gamers

COMING SOON !!

☆finnick odair fluff alphabet

☆finnick odair's struggle after telling his story in mockingjay (requested)

☆finnick odair with a rockstar partner (requested)

☆finnick odair and a riot grrrl fan hcs (requested)

☆swiftie finnick odair and rock gf (requested)

☆swiftie finnick and rock gf go to the eras tour (requested)

☆finnick odair with reader dealing with trauma after being taken to the capitol (requested)

☆finnick odair with virgin reader (requested)

[the-sixth-lisbon-sister]

updated intro ♡♡

꒰ঌ ₊˚⊹ riot grrrl⠀ ֗ ₊ ་ ♡ queer⠀໒꒱

♱ ֗ ₊ media : zero day, the dirties (2013), yellowjackets, elephant, menhera chan, the virgin suicides, ginger snaps, donnie darko, but im a cheerleader, jennifers body, scott pilgrim, rocky horror show, totono, saya no uta, nso, the passenger, nd any and all slashers. ⠀

☘️ music : bikini kill, jack off jill, mommy long legs, hole, babes in toyland, the smiths, xray specs, bratmobile, be your own pet, slutever, dazey and the scouts, kmfdm, ethel cain, car seat headrest, lunachicks, tears for fears, etc etc.

⌣ ֗ ₊ fave cases *𓈒 the lizzie bordon murders, brenda ann spencer, kip kinkel, and p much any serial killers. im also very into researching cults ♡

🌀🦋 spacehey , letterboxd ,

[aromanticbastards]

thinking abt the whole "transmascs only make sad ukulele music" thing again in the context of how in so many cases punk made by/with transmascs tends to just get filed under riot grrrl/"female fronted" etc. how the erasure and the resulting tendency to file away anyone who doesn't shout "i am a man" while kicking and screaming just ends up another story about a woman.

in harder, male dominated genres people have the understandable tendency to try to get the women in it to be heard, but that shouldn't come at the cost of transmascs, and i am so fucking tired of everyone acting like being a loud transmasc is inherently less revolutionary than being a loud woman. and, to come back to my original point: some of yall are just really bad at looking for transmasc music, and should, frankly, shut the fuck up about it.

[edgylesbiangurl]

When I was 12-13 I was literally obsessed and hyperfixated over Big Time Rush both the band and the show (not to mention that I always preferred them over 1D or Justin Bieber) and James was my favourite, I always thought he was the cutest especially with his hair in season 1-2.

Now that I know I'm a lesbian looking back me liking him might have been a sign of comphet considering the women I'm attracted to now, starting with Kate Moennig as Shane in the L Word, with her it's the typical case of "Do I wanna be her or do I want to be with her?"

Not to mention that I also have a crush on Brody Dalle from the Distillers, I love punk and riot grrrl women in general and I think she is one of the most lesbian looking straight women ever.

[superman86to99]

Adventures of Superman #515 (August 1994)

Massacre in Metropolis, Part 2: the ice cream heist turns fatal! As seen last week, Massacre and his wormy little sidekick, Skimmer, have come to Earth to steal ice cream for a space mobster, but Skimmer ends up doing all the work while Massacre goes straight to punching Superman. In fact, Massacre cares so little about completing the mission that he punches Superman right into the spaceship carrying all the ice cream, causing it to come crashing down and explode. Superman, Massacre, and Skimmer survive the explosion but the ice cream, sadly, does not.

Massacre gleefully pummels Superman, who's having trouble punching him back -- Massacre always seems to know exactly what his next move will be and act accordingly. After deducing that Massacre doesn't have psychic powers (otherwise he'd be taunting him with stuff like "I bet Lois is making out with Jeb Friedman right about now!"), Superman figures out that he's predicting his moves by "sensing nerve signals," whatever that means.

What's important is that Superman deliberately misses Massacre with his heat vision in order to drop a wall on him from behind by surprise, and then just starts beating the crap out of him while Massacre is too distracted to sense any nerves or whatever. The massacrer has become the massacred!

Meanwhile, Superman's own wormy little sidekick, Jimmy Olsen, is taking photos of the fight from a rather flimsy-looking half-destroyed bridge, as a worried Lois looks on. Skimmer, who is also worried about his guy losing (and ending up stranded on Earth), sneaks up on Lois and takes her hostage. Lois, however, is pretty used to being kidnapped by "meta-weirdos" by now, so she quickly frees herself...

...at which point the entire bridge starts collapsing due to a blast shot by Massacre. Superman is able to save Lois and Jimmy, but Skimmer is buried by the rubble and it looks like he's about to go the big Ben & Jerry's in the sky. Supes wants to take him to a hospital (it's Metropolis; they probably have a whole unit for aliens crushed by debris during fights), but a weirdly emotional Massacre says no. He says Skimmer may be a bug but he's his bug, so he wants to transport him to a "xeno-med" instantly, which is his only chance of surviving. Superman agrees, and as Massacre disappears with Skimmer, he says something about having "learned his lesson well."

On the final page, we see that, after leaving Skimmer at the space hospital, Massacre retired from punching and now works a normal office job at a space insurance comp-- wait, no. He actually just let Skimmer die while he sat on an asteroid, thinking about how he's glad his little pal is dead now, because that means his rivalry with Superman is now personal.

(No, he's not cheekily winking at the camera, he just got a swollen eye from the fight.)

Creator-Watch:

As with Massacre's first appearance, artist Barry Kitson is credited as plotter in this issue, with regular writer Karl Kesel handling dialogue. You can sort of tell they're working Marvel style (art goes first, then the writer figures out what the characters are saying) because the narrative style is WAY more action-driven than your average Kesel comic, and some of the dialogue has a distinct "OK, what do I make them say in this one?" vibe to it.

This might explain why parts of the fight feel repetitive, as Don Sparrow points out (but I'll let him talk about it in his section below!).

Plotline-Watch:

When he goes off to take photos of the fight, Jimmy leaves his clothes-scavenging partner Lucy Lane with the white-haired girl from Adventures #514, who turns out to 1) be named Case and 2) want to be a rock star. In fact, she and some friends are currently looking for instruments in the wreckage of a music shop so they can form a band called the Riot Grrrls and play at the upcoming Metropolis benefit concert. They're nice enough not to ditch her, but Lucy doesn't really fit in with the group; she's more of a Tiffany person, as we find out.

Lucy apparently doesn't realize that the "Babe" mentioned above is Jimmy's old friend Babe Tanaka, now a big death metal star (as mentioned in Man of Steel #36), whom she should probably remember from that time they were both turned into vampires and almost slayed by Robin. Or maybe Lucy does remember Babe but she's playing dumb because she's still jealous of that time two years ago when she saw her "kissing" Jimmy at the hospital...

The Massacre/Doomsday comparisons continue. Don Sparrow says: "Massacre gets more of a push, with still some more Doomsday invocations, as Lois' fretting establishes that Superman had an easier time fighting Doomsday than he did Massacre." Because, you know, he could actually lay a punch on Doomsday. Lois' concerns turn out to be misplaced (one distraction and Massacre turned into a punching bag) but I think we should cut the girl some slack; she did just watch her guy get beaten to death a few month's ago, in the comic's timeline.

After successfully ricocheting his heat vision to drop that wall on Massacre, Superman thinks: "And Ma said Pete and I were wasting our time in that pool hall!" Imagine young "aw shucks" Clark Kent and Pete Ross angering redneck hustlers by being inexplicably good at pool. Why wasn't that included in the World of Smallville miniseries?! Why wasn't the whole mini about that?!

Plug-Watch:

SPARROW ALERT! Don will be appearing at SaskAssemble AND Sask Expo Regina in September, so if you're from those parts, go there and confront him about his shameless Jimmy Olsen apologism.

If you're using League of Comic Geeks (sort of a Letterboxd for comics), I've started an account where I'm slowly posting blurbs from our older blog entries in the corresponding Superman '86 to '99 era issues, so feel free to follow along! I'll also be (briefly) commenting on the non-Superman comics I do read from time to time, including the '90s DC stuff I scour for Superman references for the Super Titles Round-Up posts. Be warned that you might suddenly see like 40 Zero Hour crossover issues show up in your feed...

Shout Outs-Watch:

Riot Grrrl-loud shout outs to our supporters, Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, Dave Shevlin, and Dave Blosser! Join them (and get extra non-continuity articles) via Patreon or our newsletter’s “pay what you want” mode!

Oh yeah, Don is also appearing RIGHT HERE AND NOW:

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We start with the cover, and it’s a little bit of déjà vu, a conceptual mirror image to last week’s Superman #92, where Massacre was decking Superman.  On this week’s cover, Superman is striking back.  Apart from the reference to the previous cover, this one is fine, but maybe a little stiff and static.

Inside the book, we’re greeted almost immediately with a big old explosion as Superman, Massacre, and Skimmer’s ship crash back down to the rubble that is Metropolis, miraculously hurting no one important.

An odd thing in these fire-lit pages is that aside from slightly curlier hair, it’s hard to tell Lois Lane apart from “Dis”, one of the Riot Grrrls. The image on page 4, though, of Superman’s fighting stance in the flames against Massacre, is a good one.

The art team seems to thrive at drawing teeth, which are prominently featured in a sequence of panels on pages 11 and 12.  Say what you want about intergalactic villain Massacre—he takes care of his chompers.

The battle scenes here are well-drawn—generally Barry Kitson is a terrific and consistent penciller—but there is something repetitive about the fighting.  Apart from Superman’s heat vision bank-shot, it’s literally just a slugfest, with the fight choreography just being haymaker after haymaker. 

It’s not only visually a bit repetitive, but seems to forget that Superman learned to fight smarter (using his flight, heat vision and arctic breath more to his advantage) in his second fight with Doomsday. 

To this point, Skimmer seemed like a harmless hanger-on, so it’s a bummer to see him go full villain, threatening (and very nearly groping) Lois Lane.  Nice to see Lois do some hand to hand combat to free herself, and her dialogue about not being a damsel in distress is in-character.

The images of Massacre crying are unintentionally hilarious, as is Superman’s stern, vice principal like admonishing that so long as Massacre continues killing, they’ll remain enemies, BUT HE’S FREE TO GO. [Max: I always took the "crying" as a side effect of the beating, since it's only in one eye and it's the one that looks swollen on the final page. Maybe Massacre's blood is white? Or maybe Kitson intended it as blood but the editors toned it down to avoid implying Superman punched someone's eye off.]

I suppose Massacre staying would threaten Skimmer’s survival, since Massacre says he’s taking off to tend to his care, but still, this seems super weird and casual after they’ve built Massacre up as an unstoppable killing machine for three issues. 

SPEEDING BULLETS:

You might be sitting there thinking an excessive amount of time is being spent on the characters Azuki, Case, Dis, Margo and Sinda forming a band, a band called the Riot Grrrls.  If that’s what you’re thinking, you’d be right.  [Max: Maybe once Kitson learned he'd be plotting the issue he said "Awesome, I can turn it into a backdoor pilot for my Riot Grrrrls comic pitch!"] Aside from taking up a lot of panels and not really advancing the story, I also have to chuckle at the on-the-nose band name, which Is also the name of a Pacific Northwest punk movement or genre.  Calling your band Riot Grrrls would be as literal as naming your band “Seattle Sound” or “Grunge Music” in 1994.  On the plus side, Dis mentions Bessolo Boulevard, which we’ve established is a reference to the adopted name of tragic 50’s Superman, George Reeves.

I had thought that Case’s mention of “Shonen Knife” was some kind of in-universe slang (the Legion books were always establishing future slang terms, as were off-worlders like Lobo, whose expression “Feetal’s Gizz” became almost like a catch phrase, or in Batman Beyond, the young people called things “shui”, an apparent abbreviation of the principle of feng shui) but that’s just because I wasn’t sufficiently hip to know that Shonen Knife was an all-girl Japanese pop-punk band.  In our universe, even!  So Case was dismissing her lyrics as being too close to a Shonen Knife song.  Which one?  I have no idea.

A little later in the story, the Riot Grrrls take up two more full pages to scavenge the rubble of a music store, called Tom N’ Nancy’s Music Mart.  I believe this is a reference to frequent Karl Kesel collaborator Tom Grummett, and his wife, Nancy Grummett (a celebrated potter/artist in her own right, in these parts).  [Max: And the store seems to be located in Grummett Ave., too!]

There’s also pop culture references, one to Teen Talk Barbie, the controversial 1992 Barbie doll who famously said “Math class is tough” (among 270 other less offensive phrases, including “I’m studying to be a doctor”) earning the ire of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.  The doll is misquoted in this issue as having said “Math is hard.”  Lucy Lane also shows her pop culture illiteracy when Margo mentions lead singer/vampire harpy Babe Tanaka, and Lucy asks if she’s anything like Tiffany.  Pop singer Tiffany (nee Tiffany Darwish) was largely out of the public eye by the mid-90s, and a far cry from a Riot Grrrl.

Seriously, it’s just so weird to try to give Massacre a heart, like he’s a big softie at the end!  [Max: Whether he was crying or not, I still think he should join the Riot Grrrls and write a heartfelt song the sad passing of Skimmer.]

[fear-is-truth]

i can imagine singer reader. her origin story is dating rodrick in hs, and for a few of their gigs, they let her sing on stage which led to them gaining much more traction (obvi a girl with a gorg voice!!!).

loded diper never made it past highschool, and honestly they never intended it to. but, now !reader has a band. and i can just see it all so clearly, and i fear i am not making this ask clear at all but i can't think of how to word it.

INTRODUCING… SINGER!READER

faded loded diper shirt, sleeves torn off. flannel shirts (stolen from her boyfriend), chunky rings, silver. nails painted blacked or chipped, depending on the day. torn fishnets, combat boots and converse. black eyeliner, done by rodrick (she insists he does a better job than her). monster energy in hand. hole, bikini kill, joan jett—riot grrrl anthems. keychains hanging from her bag.

it all started in his parents’ basement. sticky floors, tangled cords, and amps turned up way too loud. rodrick let her sing one night as a joke, but the second her voice hit the mic, everyone stopped laughing. even him.

they started letting her on stage for a few gigs. she was known as “the girl” in the band. the reason loded diper started pulling bigger crowds. the guys teased her about it, but they all knew the truth—people weren’t coming for the music. they came for her.

they stayed together, even after loded diper fell apart. high school ended, rodrick got into college and even managed to get a part-time job—something she never thought he’d actually do. the bandmates drifted off.

but she didn’t stop. couldn’t stop.

she still has the loded diper shirt he gave her, the sharpie had faded, but she never got rid of it. keeps it folded in a drawer with her other relics from high school—the setlists scribbled on notebook paper, a few grainy photos, the drumstick he broke during one of their best shows.

now, she has a band of her own. inspired by hole, bikini kill, avril lavigne and joan jett. monster energy cans scattered across their shared apartment. a lipstick-stained coffee mug on the amp. her guitar case is covered in stickers, but her favourite says, “don’t be a groupie, be a rockstar”

she’s the one chasing her dream now, playing shows in sweaty little venues while he works and drums in his free time. her boyfriend shows up to every gig, leaning against the back wall with his arms crossed, pretending he isn’t as proud as he is. sometimes, rodrick still misses being on stage with her. watching her take over the crowd while he kept the beat behind her. but he knows this is her moment, and he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

 fear-is-truth — all rights reserved. do not modify, repost, translate, or plagiarise my content.

[itsaskyfall]

₊˚♡ Kinderwhore Lookbook ♡₊˚

Finally made a lookbook lol anyways had fun making these, Her name is Milly Rutherford, her favorite artist is Babes in Toyland, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Mars Argo and Jack off Jill, she likes playing guitar and reading horror novels, her looks are very inspired by kinderwhore, and riot grrrl. Big inspo from Kat Bjelland and Courtney Love.

Link for all the ccs below!  ₊˚

LOOK #1

Hair  ♡  Bonnie hair

Dress  ♡ Alyssa dress

Necklace ♡ Skeleton love necklace

Shoes ♡ Black mary janes

Eyeliner ♡ Liner 16

Lashes ♡ 3D Lashes

Lipstick ♡ Real time lipstick

LOOK #2

Shoes ♡ Platform boots

Dress ♡ Peter pan collar dress

Acc ♡ Guitar case

Stocking ♡ Ripped stockings

LOOK #3

Shoes ♡ Platform boots

Dress ♡ Jenny dress

Stocking ♡ Freya Tights

LOOK #4

Dress ♡ Silk slip dress

Acc ♡ Biker Jacket

₊˚♡ ₊˚ Huge thanks to all the CC Creators ₊˚♡ ₊˚

[poppletonink]

10 Things I Hate About You Review

★★★★★ - 5 stars

"But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all."

Katarina Stratford does not conform to everyone else's ideas of teenage normalcy: she doesn't wear things based on what's trendy, she likes indie rock music and feminist novels and most importantly, Katarina Stratford does not want to date. On the other hand, her sister, Bianca does want to date. After their father decides that Bianca can only date when Kat does, a boy named Cameron (who has a crush on Bianca) comes up with a plan to pay someone to date Kat.

I love the characters in this film so very much. Kat is a feminist icon who I've idolised ever since I first watched this masterpiece. Bianca annoyed me at first but the whole punching Joey in the face thing was very cathartic for me, so she increased her placement in my favourite character ranks. Patrick Verona is amazing, and all of the Kats in the world know that not falling for him is a very trying task. Cameron, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of Patrick and yet he's extremely sweet and endearing - a hopeless romantic at heart (and a definite James Potter variant for sure).

It is safe to say that generally speaking feminism and rom-coms do not go hand-in-hand skipping down a flowery hill (what with most rom-coms being Chick Flicks, a controversial genre in the eyes of feminists everywhere). However, 10 Things I Hate About You manages to meld together these two assumedly opposing topics into an amazing masterpiece. It discusses a horrible idea formulated within society - that idea being that a woman cannot be in a relationship with a man, whilst retaining her status as a feminist. The irony of it is that feminism is about equality and yet we put this boundary between men and women, both of whom can be classified as feminists, and say 'No, you cannot date and wish for equal rights.' That's what is so wonderful about 10 Things I Hate About You: Kat Stratford is a feminist icon in her own right (what with her love of Sylvia Plath and riot grrrl bands, and her blatant "Well I suppose being male and an asshole makes you worthy of our time" comment) and yet she is also the star of a rom-com. She's a feminist who simultaneously "gets the guy".

Aside from the amazing characters and the amazing feminist representation of 10 Things, one of the best things about it is its music. Music plays such a big part in 10 Things, from it playing to represent the character's emotions to Kat wanting to start a band. The soundtrack overall is amazing, with riot-grrrl bands galore and Joan Jett as the queen of rock 'n' roll. Without a doubt my favourite musical moment of 10 Things is Heath Ledger singing "Can't Take My Eyes Off You"- it's one of the most romantic moments and an important part of Kat and Patrick's journey.

In case it could not be gathered from my prior statements, this modern, feminist adaptation of Shakespeare's Taming Of The Shrew is one of my favourite films of all time - on par with the likes of Dead Poet's Society and Clueless. It's wonderfully witty, romantic and heartwarming, and furiously feminist all in one - and if that does not convince you to watch it, then I don't really know what will.

[the-whirlwind-system]

Can we request Fischer and Colby Frey (AKA the Frey twins) , in that case, then, please? They’re from HPMA aswell, i just figured I’d ask before going again (I did read through everything I just wanted to be sure I didn’t miss anything or read anything wrong, I tend to get really excited with that kinda stuff).

— @alterpackzzz-paradise

First Name: Fischer & Colby

Last Name: Frey

Age: 16

Gender: Cassboy, Cassenby, Gender Apathetic

Pronouns: He/Him

Sexuality: Aroace, Frayromantic, Romance-Indifferent, Sex-Indifferent

Species: Human

Source: Harry Potter: Magic Awakened

Roles: Apathy Holder

CisIDs: CisBully, TrisBritish, TrisIrish, CisTwin, CisIdenticalTwin, CisSlytherin

TransIDs: TransSelectiveMutism, TransEvil, TrisAbuser

Other Labels: Monogamish

MBTI: ENTP

Emojis: 😈 🤬 🥊 💀 🚷

Aesthetics: Brutalism, Gothic, Punk, Grunge, Industrial, Anti-Fashion, Riot Grrrl, Streetwear

Personality Traits: Mean-spirited, Antagonistic, Bullying, Competitive, Unempathetic, Hostile, Manipulative, Arrogant, Self-centered, Confrontational

Hobbies/Interests: Competitive sports, Video gaming (PvP), Pranking, Debating, Martial arts, Trash talking in sports or games, Billiards or pool, Extreme sports, Card games (like poker or blackjack), Fantasy sports leagues

Silly Quirk: Randomly goes mute for no real reason

Kins: Catkin

Faceclaim: 

[bladeforgrrrl]

( hunter schafer , she/her , twenty five )   hey , is that  VIOLET SCHWARTZ  walking around town with some pep in their step  ?  last i heard , they joined a band called static avenue as their   DRUMMER  — which totally tracks . they've always been known for being + COMPASSIONATE , - RECKLESS   &  for listening to LETTERBOMB by GREEN DAY on repeat . it's a bit annoying , really . maybe you'll think about them the next time you picture CUTOUTS FROM NEWSPAPERS AND GLITTER GLUE RESIDUE EVERY YOU LOOK AFTER A NIGHT OF ZINE MAKING; BURSTING OUT LAUGHING IN AN OTHERWISE SILENT ROOM; WAVING UP AT THE NIGHT SKY JUST IN CASE SOMEONE’S LOOKING DOWN; WIPING A NOSEBLEED AWAY ON A CRISP WHITE SHIRT; YET ANOTHER PAIR OF BROKEN DRUMSTICKS, SORRY! or when you hear someone yell  UNSTOPPABLE FORCE  .

read more below, freaks + geeks ↓ 

the basics.

name: violet jennifer schwartz

pronouns: she/her

gender: trans woman

sexuality: lesbian

occupation: praying for death behind the counter of a 7/11 and drummer for static avenue

family: mother ( louisa schwartz nee. williamsberg ), father ( christopher schwartz ), older brother ( christopher schwartz jr. or just 'chris' )

residence: currently living in the basement of her older brother & his boyfriend's house.

style: bright colors, 90's grunge, maximalist, spaghetti straps, tube socks that never match, riot grrrl shirts, glittery statement pieces, pins & badges, chunky shoes.

about.

likes: making men angry, pressing flowers, strawberry flavored candy, zine making, the thrill she gets from running to the bus stop, the simpsons, converting girls to feminism, shoplifting (mainly from her own work)

dislikes: desaturated colors, action movies (snoozeville!), people who underestimate her, cold pizza, the smell of smoke, the taste of toothpaste, crowded buses & trains, the texture of velvet, narcs!

music taste: listen here

bio.

violet, really, was born on her eleventh birthday. nothing before that really matters. that was the day she sat in a pillow fort with her cousins and decided that she was supposed to be a girl. the name - violet jennifer - didn't come with the realization she was a girl though. violet spent a good few years sticking it out with her deadname while she tried to work the whole thing out. she thought she was alone. she had no fucking clue what a transgender person was. all she knew is that she was a girl. that the doctor and her parents had gotten something really wrong. she got along with her cousins who were girls. she never related to her dad or her older brother. the only thing she had in common with them was that she knew she liked girls too.

one thing about violet? she never took 'no' for an answer. so, sure, she coudn't tell her parents she was trans. not yet. it wasn't safe. but she had been savvy enough to sit in the back of the public library and do as much research as she could. then she was about to get a bus into chicago, to meet other trans people. because, to her shock, there were others? other people who felt like she did, who were living their lives and had jobs and friends and families? people who had cis friends who were smart, worked in medicine, and were able to violet's hands on puberty blockers. violet didn't ask how legal that all was, and she didn't care to find out. and violet met riot grrrls. girls, lesbians most of them, who started fights with men and didn't dress to please anyone, and make magazines about feminism and lgbt rights and anti-racism. it changed her life. it made her feel seen and heard. and then violet was introduced to hole. and when she was sixteen, violet's name was uncovered. violet jennifer. after two hole songs. it was perfect.

the schwartz's weren't over the moon about finding out they had a daughter. violet ripped the bandaid off and came out to all of her family during christmas when she was sixteen. sure, her cousins already knew, and she was pretty sure her big brother, chris, had clocked on to it as well - but all the adults in violet's life were shocked. which confused violet considering she's been dressing in girl-mode for a good two years now. when everyone had been sent home, violet sat through a screaming match with her parents as they tried to work out what they had done to fail their child like this. violet just shrugged. she didn't know why she was the way she was. she just...was. she knew her parents had been kinda cool when they were her age - they had been in a band together - but age had molded them into total loser narcs! but eventually they conceded, reluctantly called violet by her name, started introducing her to people as their daughter (although it was through a grimace). and that was good enough for violet. she'd tell them she was a lesbian another time.

throughout high school, violet learned how to fight back. people didn't bully violet, despite her being a pretty big target, because they knew they'd come to school next morning to find a wasps nest in their locker, or maxipads covered in hot sauce stuck to the hood of their car. violet was happy to keep to herself, listen to her bikini kill and jack off jill and make her zines in the school library. she had her friends in the city she could email now thanks to the new library computer. she had her riots and gigs and things to keep her busy.

and then she graduated. although she had to rush the stage and scream into the mic to stop her teacher from reading out her old name. violet didn't really have any plans for her future. she had hobbies, sure. not a lot of career-driven paths. she couldn't make zines for a living. chris had moved out a few years prior, studying something fucking boring as hell at community college and working at a blockbuster video. he was able to get violet a job. which she got fired from. same with the job at pizza hut. and every other job in town. eventually, she found herself crashing at chris' place to get away from her parents and found herself staying. chris and his roommate (who, suspiciously, happened to be chris' old T.A from college who had one dangly earing, three cats and loved elton john...violet didn't push) cleaned out the basement and bought a cheap bed frame from a garage sale. it wasn't such, but it was home.

now with a job at 7/11, that she has yet to be fired from - score!, violet found herself stuck. she didn't know where she was supposed to go from here. she didn't have any true calling in life, not that she could see. then, while riding her bike home from work one night, violet crashed into a telephone pole. she was fine, just a little scraped and banged up. but when she stood up, she saw a sign from god. a literal sign. a piece of paper taped to the pole advertising a band that needed a new drummer. tryouts tomorrow. violet had never played the drums before, but her dad had and she'd stolen a pair of his drumsticks to carry around in case she wanted to poke at something. and she knew the drum sections in every bikini kill song off by heart. so, she quickly practiced them on a series of vhs tapes the next morning before she went to audition. and god smiled on her that day, because - despite all odds - she got in.

drumming came second nature to violet. she could hear the rhythm in everything and was able to translate it to the drums. plus, band practice gave her a whole knew crowd to sell her zines too! she always brought her zine about lesbianism - panty raiders - to rehearsals. violet was finding her footing. she could see it all now: world-wide music domination! oh, yeah, she could sense good things coming for static avenue.