#so if it reads weird thats why

[hakugreenfinch]

Iggy the Stray Dog - ch1

Author: Otsuichi

Original concept: Araki Hirohiko

Originally published: JOJO Magazine 2022 Spring

*** This is a fan translation made purely for entertainment. Please do not repost/reuse/etc without my permission and credit! ***

The plane lands at John F. Kennedy International Airport. In the air, a haze like light yellow smoke drifts, one could not see anything too far away.

I show my passport to pass immigration inspection at the airport. I collect my check-in baggage and catch a yellow taxi. My destination is the Speedwagon Foundation headquarters, located in Midtown Manhattan. I estimate it would take about thirty minutes from the airport by car.

On the way there, the driver keeps wiping the sand gathering on the car’s windshield. Wait, sand? Taking a closer look, even the back seat window is covered in what looks like light yellow sand. I speculate the hazy sight I saw from the airplane must have been the fault of the sand dancing in the air.

„Does sand usually pass over New York this time of the year?” I ask the driver. It wouldn’t be odd for tiny specs of sand to get caught up in the desert wind and travel tens of thousands of kilometers to faraway countries. The driver throws a glimpse at me from the rearview mirror.

„It’s been like this for half a year now, it happens every now and then. I wonder where on earth it came from... Sir, can I ask where you’re from?”

„From Egypt.”

„Thought so! I was sure based on your clothes. This song called „Walk like an Egyptian” is very popular recently in this country, do you know it?”

„No, I haven’t heard it.”

„Well, it’s everywhere. I’m sure some radio station is playing it this very moment!” The driver turns on the radio as he speaks, and music starts playing. It isn’t the song we just discussed but it is a lively music filled with energy, very much like this country. „Welcome to the United States, Sir! Are you here to sightsee?”

„No. I must do some work at the request of my American friend.”

„Wow, good luck with that!”

The taxi drives up on the highway and before soon I can see a bridge before us. Crossing East River, the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge is lying across from the Wards Islands and finally reaching Manhattan Island. I bet my driver wouldn’t even imagine that I of all people would visit this country to capture a stray dog.

***

According to the Speedwagon Foundation’s reports, it was first observed at a New York corner store. One morning as the owner pulled up the shutters of his store, he found that some of the shelves were vandalized. As he evaluated the damage, it seemed like someone had been inside.

In the dark, he heard a noise resembling chewing.

The owner grabbed a mop that happened to be at hand and stepped closer, ready to attack with the handle. Then, he realized what was hiding in the shadows – a small dog of roughly 30 cm height. It was a Boston Terrier. The middle of its head, its nose and mouth were white as well as around its neck, while its eyes, ears and torso were black. Drool was dripping from the skin hanging over on both sides of its muzzle.

The Boston Terrier stopped chewing and stared straight up at the store owner. It was eating coffee flavoured chewing gum.

The store owner swung the mop at it in an attempt to chase it outside, but the dog clung to his head with an astonishing jump, rampaging as if it was trying to tear his hair out, and finally farted before his face and ran away. The store owner testified that it smelled like rotten eggs. Apparently it is quite common among dog breeds like Boston Terriers to breathe through the mouth and fart a lot but thanks to it doing so in front of the man’s face, its private parts flashed before his eyes and he could tell the dog was a male.

Only one thing remains a mystery about this incident – until the store owner opened the shutters in the morning, it should have been impossible for anyone to enter the store. There was no other entrance and the windows had been closed shut. How did the Boston Terrier get inside then?

Upon closer inspection, the Speedwagon Foundation found that a ceiling tile had come off, that’s where he could supposedly enter. But was that even possible for such a small dog? A dog normally couldn’t even have gotten above the ceiling.

Since then, multiple incidents have taken place in various areas of Manhattan of a stray dog stealing chewing gum. One time it was a newspaper stand in the office district, another time it was a store in the harbour from where the Statue of Liberty could be seen where the candy shelves were raided and robbed completely of coffee flavoured chewing gum. If tourists decided to chew some, a stray dog would jump in from outside of their field of vision and run away with the strip of gum. The culprit was always a Boston Terrier. Even if people ran after him, they never managed to capture him.

Countless complaints have been sent to New York City Hall and as a result, pest control was set to work. There is a number of small private pest exterminators in Manhattan, taking care of rats and bats at the request of citizens, but stray cats and dogs also aren’t unusual for them to take care of. The animals they capture are sent off to shelters and put down.

The city commissioned several of these contractors. The „stray dog hunters” collect information on the Boston Terrier’s sightings and jump in their cars carrying huge nets, just like in “Ghostbusters”. However, not even they succeed.

When they chase him down and attempt to corner him, grains of sand start flying around out of nowhere. The sand clings to the men’s faces and get in their eyes, robbing them of their vision while the Boston Terrier runs somewhere far away. The inexplicable sand phenomenon has been reported in other cases as well.

In the nothern parts of Manhattan, on street corners that tourists should never get anywhere near, a fight broke out between rival mafia gangs. At first, it was just an exchange of insults but it soon escalated into guns being pointed at each other. At the sound of the first gunshot, a nearby restaurant’s windows shattered, but no further shots echoed after that.

As the gangsters tried to pull the triggers of their guns, for some reason they just didn’t move. Upon taking a closer look, they saw that they were completely clogged with sand. Thanks to the sand that got inside the machines, they simply couldn’t move properly or shoot bullets.

Could it have been the work of some natural phenomenon? No, that wasn’t it. A Boston Terrier was spotted not far away, sunbathing as he took his noon nap. The sand clogging the guns was his work. He thought that the noise of gunshots was disturbing his nap and thus, who knows how, he made sure that the gangsters’ guns malfunctioned.

He has some sort of power that allows him to manipulate sand.

The Speedwagon Foundation and I hold the same opinion.

I read through the reports concerning the Boston Terrier in a room of the Foundation’s headquarters. On the outside, it seems to be an old-style stone building, however on the inside it is a modern office building. It appears that my face and name are already familiar here since no security guard stops me at the entrance.

Outside my window, the many buildings of Midtown fill my sight, their silhouettes line up across the scenery obscured by sand as if they were ruins in the desert.

„Does this dog have any friends? Dogs usually gather into packs.”

A staff member of the Speedwagon Foundation answers my question.

„It appears he only moves around by himself. However, several reports state that stray bitches had served him. It looks like other dogs have also noted his oddness. For instance, in front of a certain downtown shop there are big dogs that bark all day but whenever this Boston Terrier passes by, they pull in their ears and tails and hide away. He’s not even one third of their sizes and yet those huge dogs are terrified of him! Some even call him the king of stray dogs.”

I pick up another report. This one is summarizing the tales the „stray dog hunters” told.

One day, a vermin exterminator received a request from the city to capture some wild dogs. It happened when the man had locked the dogs up onto the tray of his truck and took a cigarette break in the driver’s seat. He heard a rustling sound, as if sand had been falling down. Taking a closer look, sand had piled up under his seat. It reached up to the man’s ankle, and no matter how much he struggled, it soon reached up to his waist. He tried to open the door and escape but by then the sand has already reached the height of his shoulders, rendering him unable to move. At last, the driver’s seat had been covered in sand up to his neck.

With a thump, the car began to shake and he saw the dogs that were supposed to be locked up on the tray fleeing the truck, one after the other. He later checked the tray and found that although he had locked it up, the door seemed to be damaged.

Through the car’s windscreen, the man covered in sand caught a glimpse of a Boston Terrier. The dog crossed in front of the car calmly, just as if he was looking down at humans, mocking them.

„Was he looking for friends?”

„He might have simply been acting on a whim. Here is some additional material.”

The Speedwagon Foundation staff member shows me another several pages long document. It seems to be a pedigree paper, a registration certificate with a thread diagram and the owner’s name.

„We have confirmed that he ran away from somewhere. It looks like he belonged to a wealthy man in a kuxurious mansion.”

„How do you know?”

„We asked around about a Boston Terrier that loves coffee flavour chewing gum. It wasn’t easy, though...”

According to this man’s story, the time a wealthy household’s pet dog ran away and disappeared and the time this Boston Terrier was first seen in Manhattan line up. The house’s butler confirmed that without a doubt, this dog had a bizarre obsession with coffee flavoured chewing gum.

„At this house, they used to call him Iggy.”

„Iggy, huh...”

Iggy, the odd dog with the power to manipulate sand.

He must be hiding somewhere around Manhattan even now.

„We, the Speedwagon Foundation also took part in the stray dog hunt to help capture him but it was all in vain. It would be a problem if nobody manages to catch him...”

„He probably wants to avoid falling back into that man’s hands.”

Fear confuses the mind. Just a couple of months ago I met a certain man. That man wasn’t human, he wasn’t something that was supposed to be real, something that was supposed to exist. He showed up and called out to me in an intoxicating, beautiful voice.

With a disgraceful shriek, I ran away.

I haven’t returned to my hometown since then.

I shove a bunch of reports inside my suitcase and stand up.

  I leave the Speedwagon Foundation’s building. Midtown is a prosperous area even on the island of Manhattan. Skyscrapers are towering on each side of the main street, their highest floors disappearing into the clouds. All kinds of people dressed in all sorts of clothes are crowding the streets and a variety of languages can be heard. I even see quite a number of Arabs just like myself.

I stop a taxi passing by and sit in the back. I give my hotel’s name to the driver, apparently it is right around Central Park. It’s a top notch hotel booked by the Speedwagon Foundation. The driver, a fat white man, takes a look at me from the rear-view mirror and, without saying a word, steps on the gas pedal.

The Speedwagon Foundation was established by a man named Robert E. O. Speedwagon. They are dedicated to studying medicine, pharmacology, archeology and ecology among others, working for the sake of people’s livelihood and welfare. The founder, Mr Speedwagon has already passed away but by means of his will, my American friend and his family get to enjoy the Foundation’s support.

After just a while, the taxi arrives before my hotel. The driver stops the taxi’s fare meter and sticks his hand out to me.

„Seventy-five dollars.” An arrogant attitude rings from his voice.

„Seventy-five dollars? There must be a mistake.”

Just now, I took a taxi from the airport to Manhattan but this price was higher than the fare I paid that time.

„No, it’s seventy-five dollars. Look at the meter, it says seventy-five, doesn’t it?”

The white driver points at the price shown by the liquid crystal screen on the instrument panel with a thick finger. It is the meter displaying the fare. Certainly, it says seventy-five dollars. It is probably overcharging to rip off tourists. I’ve heard of a trick that, by modifying the meter, made it show an unfairly high fare.

„I’m afraid your meter is broken. That’s why it is displaying such an odd number.”

The driver taps it as if to test it and clicks his tongue.

„This is the latest model, I just got it recently. There’s no way it’s broken. If you’ve got that, pay those seventy-five dollars.”

„No, I’m certain it is broken. There, take a look at the screen. Isn’t the display a bit odd?”

„...the hell, what’s up with this?” The driver sounds puzzled. The liquid crystal screen is flickering. He starts sweating – the temperature inside the car is rising. It is me, using my powers just a little bit.

A charred smell begins to waft in the air. The meter is burning up from the heat on the inside until nothing shows up on its screen anymore.

„It’s smoking!”

From the gaps of the machine, white smoke is leaking. The driver lets out a scream as he sees it and tears the door open, getting out of the car. I take my bags and step outside as well.

„How on earth...?! It was brand new,” the driver yells, checking the meter inside the car through a window. The heat melted the screen and the surrounding devices look charred as well. I take out some banknotes and offer what I think to be an appropriate amount to him.

„From Midtown to here the fare should be this much. Your meter was broken, that’s why it was showing an odd number.”

„Aah, yeah... I guess that’s what it was.”

Frankly, the driver doesn’t really look like he cares, he is rather disheartened. Even now, he seems to be on the brink of crying. He is a bad person and he deserves no sympathy. Have I not heated the meter up just enough to damage it, he would have scammed other tourists. The Old Testament’s Exodus said so – an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

The driver puts a cigarette in his mouth, he probably needs a smoke to calm down. I hold out my hand in the cigarette’s direction, pinching its end between my thumb and index finger. The man looks up at me, tensing up. I am taller even than most Americans.

„Your job should come first. That’s what they say in my hometown. From now on, live an earnest life!”

Heat arises between my fingers. The end of the cigarette lits up in red, smoke rising up. Making sure it did, I let go of it. The driver stares at the light, dumbfounded.

„Are you a magician?”

He must think that because I lit a fire without a match or a lighter.

„No, I’m a fortune teller.”

Picking up my baggage, I walk away.

The hotel is a building with a feeling of historical importance and dignity. Stepping through the front entrance, I get overwhelmed by a magnificent lobby. Each and every lighting fixture is like a piece of jewelry. At the reception desk, I make arrangements regarding my accomodation. I put down my name and passport number on a form. The receptionist takes a look at it, and calls out my name with a smile.

„Mr. Mohammed Avdol! We’ve been expecting you.”

[gibbearish]

love when ppl defend the aggressive monetization of the internet with "what, do you just expect it to be free and them not make a profit???" like. yeah that would be really nice actually i would love that:)! thanks for asking

[vintrage]

fire cannot kill a dragon BITCH

[ryuubff]

shuake week 2024

day 5: royalty

(a continuation to this)

[obsob]

a very needed redraw of my lovers print! now with better blanket and chunkier cats

[creekfiend]

people act like being intentionally whimsical is inherently more annoying than being intentionally serious but why. suppose my temper is just naturally whimsical.

[carpathiians]

sketches

ref

[croakings]

i apologize for mithrunposting incessantly but honestly if any of you expected better of me you shouldn't have

anyway i get it and some of the failguy jokes are funny. i can tell that nothing i've run into is even malicious. but also it would be really cool and awesome if there were simply less posts calling a disabled person a failure or baby or a dog or whatever for needing accommodation or extra help, especially when like. hey did you know the source material very on purpose did not do anything remotely like that. critical thinking question: could there be some reasons these phrases are not great, potentially

[ganondoodle]

(idk if anyone wants to keep hearing my opinions on totk book stuff but-)

apparently it says that rauru DID have kids, multiple even, which yeah... is kinda necessary for zelda to even be connected to them so much so that sonia can SENSE a blood connection (which, even with all the excuses with magic, is just a little too far for me to suspend my disbelief bc its over, OVER, ten thousand years worth of generations that seperate her from them that one lil touch of the hand can sense that (feels more like an attempt to make you care about them or .. see them as zeldas "better" parents just bc they exchange a few nice words, i never got the feeling they were 'better' parents and its also kinda disrespectful to her actual parents, like sure rhoam wasnt the best but i wouldnt call rauru better just bc he was polite)- i could see maybe the light power of hylia or sth but since its the coolest dude that ever lived rauru now that had it which still doesnt make sense and makes me unreasonably annoyed and she can sense BOTH of their powers in her? nah) the fact theres NOTHING about them in the game itself is just so ... no way they planned any of this

i dont think theres anything they can do or say that wont make be believe they either

are making it up alla 'fix it in post' mentality trying to hastily explain stuff the game never bothers to do to try and appease fans or let it appear as if they thought about it at all

something went really REALLY wrong during development, which kinda seems likely given how the game turned out (im sorry i cannot let go, its not just the writing, the game design too and how little was changed in the map while being so damn expensive, i dont know how people dont feel scammed q_q)

given that they (allegedly) spent the last entire year of development on polish (where??? where????? huh??? like it would make it more understandable (EXCEPT for the price) if there was alot of trouble, which was also bc it got delayed and ... turned out like this, but they dont want to say it, especially given their reputation, with that quote i have heard way too many times 'a delayed game blah blah') i just??

are they just gonna go and do it like they did with kashiwa (kass)? "they uuuh where flying around the whole time ony cool sonau tech maschines, you just dont see or hear from them ooooorrr they were uuuuh out of the country at the time" (sending invitations to other continents to join their glorious kingdom ;) )

(bet they are also gonna say they did all the stuff like ... moving the shrines around (lol?) and lifting the islands up into the sky- which is still weird bc ... didnt they also say they were living in the sky before coming to the surface?? so where?? did they park all their islands on the surface and the mystery kids had the keys so they had to repark them back into the sky after they returned off camera?? xD also why are the islands so different as an environment if they where from the surface? like even the STONE up there is different- and if they were first in the sky then on the surface and the nback in the sky .. why is there not a single yellow tree or grass in the past- you cant really argue that it changed bc they were up there so long bc .. nothing else changed, the suddendly and totally always there sonau buildings are largely in prime condition, only some slightly moldy, and what we see of the glorious past looks barely any different from the present, aside from like ... some standard trees shuffled, no castle yet and that glowy uwu filter DESPITE that stupidly long time frame between it)

[life-of-eris]

HOOOO BOY Phantomarine has me by the throat rn. I have... hm. Hm.

So like. This is the We Love Girl Crimes website, the Sad Little Meow-Meow Defence Brigade website. Of course we love Cheth and Cheline, these two are laser targeted for an audience who loves morally grey badasses. Both are AMAZING, in terms of both design and characterization.

But I think I like Cheline more?

Which really wasn't the case until This Page. Firstly because, well, we've seen more of Cheth! He's our call to action, he got a KILLER mini comic about his state of mind, the author has shown us what's under his sharp and snarky exterior, and it's a very sad god who feels alone but still desperately loves his charges and wants to help, even if they hate him. Mwah, wonderful.

But Cheline FUCKING HATES humans. At first I thought it was a programming issue, for lack of a better word? Like, some kids just come out fucked up, yanno. Or maybe she really was The Devil. But like, fuck dude, I wouldn't want to be the caretaker of the things that killed my siblings either! Of course she fucking hates people! Of course she has utter contempt for the species that destroyed her family. It's a little weird that Cheth leaves it at fucking with the dead, frankly, he could be So Much Worse than just kinda... Being spooky to people on boats?

Because here's the thing. That kind of bone-deep (heh) hatred comes from a place of love. Cheline loved her siblings. Even Cheth, I think! Six dead, and Cheth was getting too friendly! In a twisted sort of way I can totally see how shattering him seemed like the better option at the time. He won't be around, they can never be as close as they were again, but he's not DEAD. And so what if she has to kill a few meat bags and tell some lies to keep it that way, her brother is orders of magnitude more important than the Odious Fucks she has to keep churning out. They'll make more. It's fine.

It's been heavily implied that Pavel has a spooky resemblance to one of the dead gods, right down to the name. And Cheline is looking for excuses not to hurt him, even though it's in her best interest to Get Rid of That Fucking Thing as soon as possible. She's bantering with his mom, showboating a little, having a smoke break while all of her plans may be falling apart at that very moment to spend time with a mortal she claims to hate. Until a couple of pages ago, she even seemed to be enjoying watching Vanna puzzle things out. Until the half-breed was mentioned.

And even though it WAS a reasonable guess to make, given the info Vanna had, Cheline just UNLOADS all of this fucking, ancient elder lore, things that have been forgotten for five thousand years, things we the audience and presumably the people of that world have no POSSIBLE way to know, because fuck THAT ONE in particular! Fuck her corpse and fuck her memory! And it's such a violent reaction- Cheline, I think, is even more emotional than Cheth, and in a way I think that kind of implies that when she loves, she loves with all she's got, to the point of destruction.

Anyway this has been a very long and rambling way to say that Cheline tickles the same part of my brain that Lucretia Taz did, and I cannot WAIT to find out of her expression in that last panel is "ah shit I may have gotten away from myself" or "that's right worm you fucked up!" Both are FUCKING AWESOME, I LOVE CHELINE SO MUCH

[themyscirah]

What runs/stories do you recommend for someone starting WW? Could you please be specific (/nicely)

Yeah ofc!

My Wonder Woman Starter Recs (specific style 😎)

First stops: for an initial introduction to Wonder Woman, I'd generally recommend going to at least one of three places first. These three are:

Wonder Woman: Historia: The Amazons by Kelly Sue DeConnick

Wonder Woman: Year One by Greg Rucka

Wonder Woman: the Hiketeia by Greg Rucka

Of these I generally recommend reading Historia first, as it's a retelling of the origin of the Amazons as a race and how Diana came to be (so it essentially starts from the beginning) and is also the most recent of the them (if that means anything). Something to note about Historia though is that it's a DC Black Label book, so it's events aren't strictly canon in the main DCU and there are some changes and new elements present. I don't think this is something that should discourage anyone from reading it though, it's the best WW origin story out there, and even in strict main canon over the years her origin is one that has had many fluctuations and small (& sometimes big) changes. WW:Historia is three prestige format (longer) issues.

You'll notice the third book there is WW: The Hiketeia. Hiketeia is a great book if you're looking for a view into Diana as a professional and experienced hero. It's a graphic novel so standalone and not too long, and has a great Diana and really interesting plot (Diana vows to protect a young woman and finds herself pressed against the wheels of Greek Tragedy). This is also the first work with Diana done by Greg Rucka, one of her most prolific and loved writers. A sampling of this work (and also Historia) I think gives a good guide to where to go next in terms of runs on her main title.

Wonder Woman: Year One is the second book on the list up there, but I'm mentioning it last here as it's a bit more complicated in terms of format. Unlike other year one books, WW: Year One is actually a series of issues on her main title, showcasing Diana's arrival to man's world in Rebirth (and also current p sure) continuity. The issue numbering for this one is strange (only the even issues 2-14 on WW (2016)) so I recommend looking for this in trade form if possible.

These 3 books I think give a taste of some of the best standalone stuff in the Wonder Woman mythos, and give the reader a good idea of where they may want to go next in terms of longer runs on the title. So I'll break that down here as a Step 2.

STEP 2: WHERE NEXT?

Here I break down some highly recommended runs based on what they have in common with the standalone books from step 1. As a rule, these runs are going to be much longer than the above and generally more connected to the wider DCU and other books. Look for the italics to see the introduction to each new work. Explanation paragraphs follow after each italic/bold rec.

Curious about Greek mythology in WW and the Amazons' origins after reading Historia? Liked the prescence of a supporting cast and Diana learning about Man's World from Year One? Willing to read a longer run? I recommend: Wonder Woman by George Pérez

George Pérez's time on Wonder Woman totally reinvented the character after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and is fundamental in establishing many core concepts of her lore. At 62 issues, 2 annuals, and a 4-issue crossover event at the end (War of the Gods), it's definitely a commitment to read, but it's the most enduring and well-loved run on Wonder Woman for a reason--it's just that damn good. Lots of focus on mythology (although with a lighter tone than Historia) alongside Diana learning her role in relation to Man's World & establishing herself as a hero and ambassador. Pérez's run also has almost-certainly the most expansive and developed supporting cast in WW comics, something that really drives the emotional core of the series, especially in later issues. Obligatory note that this series was written between 1987 and 1992 and contains some very occasional aspects that I thought were in some way dated/uncomfortable etc. while reading (details of Cheetah's origin, depiction of the Bana-Mighdall, Hercules) but despite that I still highly, highly recommend this run. The word fundamental cannot begin to describe it.

Liked the experienced Diana of the Hiketeia? Interested to see her attempt to balance the high stakes responsibilities of an ambassador and superhero? Looking for some really badass moments and fights? Haven't read enough terrible tragedy? I suggest: Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka 2003 EDITION.

Some of Diana's coolest moments of all time are collected here. Also one of her most controversial. The 1st Rucka run is very much the story for anyone who liked the Diana of the Hiketeia and the tragedy of that and Historia. 2003 Rucka Diana is a Diana tested, forced to make decisions that are anything but easy, and live with the consequences. She's extraordinarily capable, but her enemies know that and are prepared to that end. This run, along with the Pérez run, rank among my favorite Wondy comics of all time (those and Historia are my top 3). This run is such peak Diana, especially in terms of sheer badassery. Her final confrontation with Medusa is in my opinion perhaps the greatest Wonder Woman fight scene of all time. Her encounter with Athena in the second-to-last issue breaks me every time. Cannot recommend this book more.

*a note abt this run is that it is more context-dependent than the other ones listed here, as it's the run that finishes out the Wonder Woman vol. 2 book and so has some guest appearances from characters introduced in other prior runs (Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, Cassie Sandsmark, and Vanessa Kapatelis, to name a few). I read this run before knowing much (if anything) about any of them, and still enjoyed it a lot, so I wouldn't be worried about this really but just thought I'd mention it.

Rucka's 2003 run is published from Wonder Woman (1987) #195-226. You can also find it in trade and I believe(?) omnibus. Sometimes the Hiketeia is included in collections of this series, as the 03 run is thematically similar in many places, just with a much deeper look at Diana and the world & with higher stakes.

Liked the specific characters and plot threads of Wonder Woman: Year One? Want to see what happens with Diana's exile, or learn more about Barbara Ann? Want a Diana in between the extremes of young and highly experienced? Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka 2016 EDITION may be for you.

...yes I'm putting ANOTHER Rucka book on here. He writes a great Diana, what can I say. This run is the same one that Year One came out of, just the follow ups to that story and versions of the characters. I have this run listed as separate from Year One though, as there's some really big time skips since the events of that first volume. A lot of time has passed since then, and there's more history between the characters, not all of it without drama. This run continues to be weird with the numbering, as well as some artist changes, so I definitely recommend looking into reading this in trade format (physical or digital) if at all possible. My recommended reading order is WW 2016 by Rucka vol. 2 "The Lies" (Wonder Woman: Rebirth Special #1, followed by 2016 main title odd numbered issues 1-11), then Rucka 16 vol. 3 "The Truth" (odds 13-23) then Godwatch (evens 16 through 24) followed by 25? But The Truth and Godwatch combine near the end so that doesn't really work either. This run is so good but recommending it is such a pain because the numbering is so all over the place. On God I never know which order to read this in. Going to revoke my previous statement and say read it as Rebirth Special 1, then only odds 1 through 11, then from 13 through 25 normally. That may lead to some weirdness as you read because the two stories take place at different times and have different art styles, but they come together at the end pretty dramatically so I think it's less confusing to read it this way? Maybe? So strange bc this is one of the go to good starter runs and yet it's set up so unintuitively. If someone has a better way to read this then let me know and ill edit, ik this explanation is super confusing bc neither way to read it is totally ideal imo and I feel I definitely read it in a weird order.

Going to call that a good rundown of some of my greatest recommendations in terms of Wonder Woman comics. If anything wasn't fully clear here or anyone (not just anon) has questions or wants to talk abt WW comics/my choices feel free to send as many asks or dms as you want. Have a good day everybody, & as Diana says, may the glory of Gaea be with you <3

[lovvelorrn]

i think i’m entering a new hyperfixation and oh man it’s fucking bridgerton

[satorisoup]

people will think im ordinary until they say one (1) thing about tmnt and all of a sudden im explaining the entire lore starting from the 1990’s movie & why donatello is the best turtle i fear… T^T

tag limit fights me… i must yap… please listen… SOB </3

[wayward-wren]

The Dalek Invasion of Earth novelization featuring most cursed sentence ever.

[prototypelq]

The Most Unreliable Narrator I Have Ever Seen

soooooo I had a Cyberpunk-obsessed phase pass recently, and this time Johhny Silverhand's character caught my eye. His story, more specifically, and how... inconsistent he seems, depending on each source.

In the game, Johhny acts like a bastard for most of the game. He panic-rages on his first meeting with V, throws many threats around, but is later beaten into the background with the blocker pills Misty gave to V. Even Johnny's friends' are well, they react Loudly to his return. Y'know, make it known his presence alone provokes a lot of anger from them.

Even during his first appearance, when V gets thrown into Silverhand's memories of his SAMURAI concert, the only real thing V recalls is the all-consuming rage that he felt, which he tried to shout out through the microphone, but it never felt like enough.

And doesn't this sound weird then, that the only thing Johnny does throughout the game after that first meeting is help V out? He learns about the Smasher guy hideout at the docks (he does that through dubious means but that's Johnny for you), he helps V out when the seizures become worse, he calmly agrees to Any decision V makes, despite V clearly Not being in any real state to oppose him in the finale of the game, he plans the whole thing with "Alt" so V can get his body back at Johnny's own expense, from the beginning, and he doubles down on that claim at the end of the game.

Do you see the dissonance? The egoist rockerboy that admitted to using his friends to getting what he wants, and the downright self-sacrificing hero and a friend that is Johnny at the end of the game? People change, sure, but this divide is very massive and too sudden, so I wanted to dig into that. And what I've stumbled upon, with the help of canon Cyberpunk materials like the Red sourcebook (or, more specifically, LayedBackGamers' reading of the canon books and his lore videos on different topics), is that

Johhny Silverhand from Cyberpunk 2077 is the Most Unreliable Narrator I've Ever Seen.

Count with me here:

Johhny's personality in general. No matter what your interpretation of him his, it's impossible to ignore that Johhny is very much a people person and he exploits that knowledge and charisma to suit his own goals. If you choose to trust him, then you might have already been played.

2) Johhny has been alone, only his lovely self for 50+ years inside the Arasaka chip. Don't ask me how he is still even remotely sane, I haven't got a clue (hopefully the time as a construct without outside stimulation flies differently and he hasn't felt those 50 years in real time). The thing to mention here, however, is that, being alone with your thoughts and emotions for a long time, having nothing else for entertainment, is a great opportunity to rewrite your own memory of events or emotions you've felt.

3) Lack of a body. The aforementioned constant rage, that was the dominant emotion is Johnny's life (before Alt, at least, if Never Fade Away is anything to go by, and I mean, that's literally a love ballad), is a symptom of his PTSD from his too-young years serving in the corpo war, same as his signature silver hand. I'm not a specialist here, but I do know PTSD, especially for war veterans, is a physiological illness just as much as it is a mental one. Johnny's body literally had trouble living normally after that experience, and knowing this bastard - he never managed to treat that. Existing as a personality construct frees him from the many bonuses of being corporeal, but it also free him from the physiological side of PTSD. His day-to-day existence is fundamentally different from that of the Johnny Silverhand that the world knew 50 years ago, so yes, as a 'time traveler' or a source of information and comparison about the 70's and 20's of cyberpunk world Johhny is not a good source.

4) The chip with Johnny is literary inside the head of another person. The characters in game question, multiple times, just which decisions is V making on his own, and which of them might be Johnny's doing. Not consciously, no, but V and Johnny are clearly not your simple neighbours. They are not your 'close friends that start subconsciously copying each other' too. It is quite possible that the chip with Johhny is adapting to the 'hardware' it is running on, so it is specifically implementing parts of V's personality into Johnny, to minimize the 'friction' between the personality and the body it is supposed to inhabit. Everyone say hi to existential horror)

5) How does Soulkiller ever work? Is there data on how much the resulting engram actually resembles the person it tried to copy? How did the process of copying Johnny go? I can answer the last one - very badly.

Death of Johnny is told in excruciating detail in the Cyberpunk sourcebooks. Johnny died on the floor of Arasaka tower, torn in two by a shotgun blast from Smasher. There is no information on how much time it takes Soulkiller to create the engram from the brain, but it better have finished doing that before Johnny's brain started dying from a lack of blood and oxygen, and he clearly didn't have much time either, considering bisection is not the best for bodily fluid preservation, so it's a wonder the engram even works properly. Plus, during the initial heist to steal the chip with Johnny, the chip was damaged further before the idiots decided to stick an unknown harddrive into their heads to preserve it. Basically, it's nothing short of a miracle, that engram-Johnny is actually a whole damn person, that he can function, think and feel properly (well, as much as Johnny can do those things)

It is very sad that V can't talk to Johnny about this, as the man does blame himself over things he hasn't even done, and he had done enough emotional damage to himself and people around him without that kind of burden on top of it.

6) Johnny's memories are literally false. The attentive reader had to pick this up in my previous point - didn't Johnny die in the hands of Arasaka after they interrogated him? Nope. Nope, and I can say that confidently because,

(drumroll please)

Cyberpunk tabletop sourcebooks! Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the Cyberpunk universe and the TTRP series of games, has worked closely with CDPR writers during the production of the 2077. He oversaw everything, and he says that 2077 is in the same cyberpunk universe too, it's not an 'alternate reality' or anything.

Johnny Silverhand died while trying to buy time for his friends to escape, from a shotgun shot from Adam Smasher. That's it, he died on that floor, there was noone to interrogate, no rooftop helicopter he ran for.

The sequence of 'memories' we see from Johnny's POV in the game is a mishmash of two different assaults on the Arasaka towers, yes towers there were two of them. There is a great video explaining all the small and Major details Johnny's version of events got wrong, because we have the sourcebooks and the text inside. You may accuse me of holding a 'holy canon' argument ... and well, yeah, this is kind of holy knowledge, as it was written for gamemasters.

Still, some of the things in Johnny's version are Major, and while the media certainly covered the whole story extensively with corpo propaganda (oh, btw, Johnny didn't bomb anything, he probably didn't even know there was a nuke involved, he is literally just a scapegoat), there are some holes that a citizen of this world might know and wish to poke. The aforementioned Two Arasaka towers, or the absence of the legendary solo Morgan Blackhand from Johnny's story. Interestingly enough, there is a radiostation of Maximum Mike in-game, who is actually just pretty much Mike Pondsmith, and he does propose a couple of questions the 'official' version of the attack doesn't cover (like, where would a rockerboy even get a nuke, he might have been popular, but that's not just something you find without military contracts, and that means corporations). Another thing is that since Arasaka owns Soulkiller and has had the engram for a couple of decades, it is quite possible they are the ones responsible for messing with Johnny's memories.

So uh, yeah, Johnny is the Most Unrealible Narrator I have ever seen. Johnny of 2077 is most certainly not the Johnny of 2020's, but this might be a good thing. Maybe the 'real' 2020's Silverhand could never have made the progress the engram did, or become such a good friend and companion for V, or maybe he could have done those things too. We'll never know. I really love this story anyway.

[xiewho]

oh ym god if youre taking recs.....kim dokja..maybe..

have a lovely day ur art is wonderful

i miss this trio so much i wish i could read orv for the first time again