#theories of relativity

[samasmith23]

Mystique and the Theories of Relativity

A little over half a year ago, I marathoned the entirety of both the 90s X-Men crossover event, Age of Apocalypse, as well as its direct prequel Legionquest in giant-sized hardcover format. One issue from the Legionquest omnibus in particular which greatly stood out to me was Theories of Relativity from X-Men Unlimited (1993) #4 by Scott Lobdell & Richard Bennett, due to how it heavily fleshes out one my personal favorite supervillain in comics, Raven Darkhölme, aka Mystique!

Although the 4-part Wolverine: Get Mystique arc by Jason Aaron & Ron Garney’s still stands as my personal favorite Mystique storyline, Theories of Relativity is easily a very close contender! If you want to hear more about my praise for Get Mystique, here's a link to the essay "The dualistic rivalry of Wolverine & Mystique" which I posted here a few weeks ago:

Theories of Relativity is quite notable in that it not only reveals for the first time in-continuity that the X-Men member Nightcrawler (aka, Kurt Wagner) is indeed the biological son of Mystique, but it also showcases the long-awaited family reunion between Mystique and Kurt along with the latter's adopted sister/fellow X-Man Rogue (aka, Anna Marie), and half-brother/anti-mutant bigot Graydon Creed. The issue's plot centers around Nightcrawler & Rogue investigating the assassination of a US general who sold weapons to the anti-mutant hate-group "the Friends of Humanity" and its leader Graydon Creed. They soon discover that Mystique killed the general in order to send a message that she's out for Graydon Creed’s blood after he hired his father Sabretooth (aka, Victor Creed) to assassinate Raven in a previous miniseries. Nightcrawler & Rogue are then cryptically sent to the latter's old Mississippi hometown where she was adopted by Mystique. However, the two are then intercepted by Creed who reveals that he is not only Nightcrawler's step-brother, but that they are both Mystique's biological sons. She had abandoned Creed when she discovered that he was not born as a mutant, and she threw an infant Nightcrawler off a waterfall whilst fleeing from an angry mob that perceived them both to be demons (Nightcrawler's was born with his blue-fur, while Mystique accidentally reverted back to her true appearance due to the pain of childbirth).

While X-Men Unlimited #4 is not a perfect issue by any means since some aspects like Mystique's foresight about Nightcrawler & Rogue specifically showing up to prevent her from killing Creed felt rather contrived, overall this was an emotionally powerful narrative which shines a spotlight on one of my favorite characters in not just the X-Men franchise, but in comic books as a whole!

Theories of Relativity effectively illustrates what makes Mystique such a complex and multilayered villain! True to her nature as a shapeshifter, Mystique is a woman of contradictions. On the one hand she's perfectly willing to sacrifice the lives of other people if it either means preserving her own life, or if said-person fails to fulfill her own agendas. But on the other hand Raven is portrayed as being capable of showing genuine love and affection towards individuals that she see parts of herself reflected in.

This dichotomy is most effectively demonstrated through the contrasting relationships between her two biological sons and her adoptive daughter. While Mystique expresses zero regrets regarding her cold mistreatment and abandonment of Graydon Creed & Nightcrawler, she conversely shows legitimate love towards an abandoned and orphaned Rogue, with Raven stating that she could relate to Rogue’s inability to physically touch others due to her own history of utilizing her shape-shifting powers to prevent others from touching her. Raven even goes as far as to claim states that both Rogue and her then-late wife Destiny (aka, Irene Adler) were the only people she ever felt genuine feelings for.

These conflicting aspects of Mystique’s personality are elements of the character which have always made her such a nuanced and compelling villain to me. Elements which have carried over into the modern era, such as with Wolverine: Get Mystique emphasizing Raven's duplicity and willingness to unashamedly sacrifice others in order to fulfill her own interests, while it’s direct prequel X-Men: Messiah Complex emphasized said-villainous traits as simultaneously being derived from Mystique's selective love for individuals like Rogue & Destiny.

In a broad sense, one could interpret Mystique’s hardened exterior and boastful pride of seemingly only caring about for herself as yet just another contradictory facade. A metaphorical form of shape-shifting that Raven's developed over the past century she's been alive for as a self-preservation mechanism which allows her to prevent others from hurting her, consequently hiding elements of her true self from the rest of the world in the process.

This is an interpretation which Theories of Relativity supports through its climax, wherein Mystique surprisingly sacrifices herself so that Rogue can save Nightcrawler from death despite referring to her son as "unwanted" earlier in the issue. Yet another contradiction in Mystique's facade, one which heavily reminded me of the plot twist from the Wolverine Goes To Hell storyline wherein Raven betrayed the Red Right Hand after helping them banish Logan's soul to Hell upon discovering the organization's plans to manipulate Wolverine into unknowingly slaughtering his own children. And Raven did this simply out of respect Logan's friendship for her then-deceased son Nightcrawler, putting aside her own selfish hatred for the sake of someone she genuinely loved.

Overall, X-Men Unlimited #4 is a prime testament to what makes Mystique one of my all-time favorite comic book villains. Additionally, there's a lot of fascinating queer themes which the reader can derive from this issue. These can include themes found-family through Rogue & Mystique's relationship, as well as Graydon Creed's status as a normal human who hates his two mutant parents being reflective of real-life instances of familial rejection occurring between cis-het adults and their queer parents.

The latter example is a theme which transgender YouTuber Vera Wylde from Council of Geeks mentioned in her brilliant "Mystique - Queer Icon!" video:

Plus, the issue also contains some truly hilarious scenes like Mystique shape-shifting into Abraham Lincoln whilst calling out the U.S. general's dishonesty before assassinating him!

And as a fun bit of trivia, I love how the dust-jacket of the Legionquest Omnibus which reprints this issue also refers to Destiny being as Mystique's "lover," even though this story came out in the 90s before it was confirmed that the two were a lesbian couple!

But yeah, overall, Lobdell & Bennett's work on X-Men Unlimited #4 definitely ranks highly among the quintessential Mystique stories IMO!

[bruciemilf]

There’s something off about Bruce.

Dick’s eye is trained for detail; He has to calculate every leap, every step, every breath, every count. He’s a showman. Everything is routine, and routine is everything.

Injury isn’t unusual, especially for his father .He out stubborns Tim in resisting medical examinations, after all.

For Bruce, secrets are protection. He lied about every injury he had when Dick was Robin, suffering in silent agony as the pain grew and grew, a tradition he carries on from Jason to Damian.

If Bruce screams, it’s bad.

“God fucking dammit, how the fuck does he do this? Who the fuck breaks their femur AND just carries on? Jesus FUCKING Christ.”

Bruce curses under his breath, profanity hushed. Dick’s veins freeze, blood turning to stone. He guesses his shock is obvious because Jason mirrors it to perfection.

One; Bruce doesn’t curse.

Two; He definitely doesn’t curse in a jersey accent.

The unease is pungent. Alfred practically tastes it, vitriolic as anything. His chest is taut, pulse slow, “Sir,” it’s cautious, “Shall I prepare the supplies?”

‘Bruce’ waves his hand, voice gruffer, lower, smokey, “Yeah, thanks, babe,”

Alfred blinks. And whoever pretends to be Bruce, blinks back, almost like a deer being cornered by an English hound, smile a bit boyish and unsure.

“…Thomas?”

“… Okay, you’re gonna laugh—“

Dick is reeling, because apparently:

His dead grandparents have been possessing his father throughout the years and they, wards to the best detective in the world, never caught on.

“Look, I get you’re pissed, BUT,” It’s so unbelievably weird watching Bruce be so expressive;

His hands move energetically, like they have their own voices, and his rain soft voice catches on fire when his father talks through him,

“This IS 50% MY body, technically.“

“Thomas, dear, that is not how that works. Come now, you’re scaring our grandchildren.”

And Jason’s voice is uncharacteristically soft when he speaks, more posh, more elegant . That is not his brother.

Alfred passes out, to no one’s surprise.

[screwpinecaprice]

He communicated through mental text.

[99thpercentile]

places where the audio distorts

image ids under the cut

tmagp 4:

tmagp 5:

tmagp 7:

tmagp 8:

the audio distorts when people lie.

I imagine this knowledge will come in handy later.

[id: ALICE: This is not something you go poking around in. Not if you want to keep your job… or your neck. SAM: (a little amused) Okay, okay! I get it. Consider me scared straight. "Consider me scared straight" is highlighted. end id]

[id: LENA: Now, while I understand your concerns, you need to understand that Colin has held the IT Manager position for some time without incident, and although he is somewhat… frustrated with his current assignment, he can request help from the central IT team at any time. I am certain that should he find his responsibilities unmanageable, he will request assistance. Or resign, of course. Either way, the problem will resolve itself. "Or resign, of course" is highlighted. end id]

[id: CELIA: Is there any way to look up specific files? ALICE: Like what? CELIA: Oh, I don’t know. Every case about… being buried alive, or meat, or… whatever. ALICE: Well, there’s a search bar, but it doesn’t actually do anything. You’d have to dig through them all manually. (suspicious) – Why do you ask? CELIA: Just figuring it all out. Ah well, I guess I’ll need to find Bigfoot on my own time. "Just figuring it all out" is highlighted. end id]

[id: GERTRUDE: I see. Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t think Gerry can help you – GERRY: (casually) Yeah, I barely remember any of it. "I don’t think Gerry can help you" is highlighted. end id]

[id: GERRY: Oh yeah, but I was pretty young. I remember filling in a bunch of forms and questionnaires, then some old men asking me questions about what books I liked to read, who did I look up to, that kind of thing. And then I left. SAM: (disappointed) That’s all? GERRY: Yeah, afraid so. Other than just sitting around with a bunch of other kids in a room that smelled like old books. "Yeah, afraid so" is highlighted. end id]

[id: CELIA: I’m trying to look into… Weird physics stuff: time travel, other dimensions, teleportation, all that good stuff. Freddy doesn’t really do searches, so you could keep an eye out and let me know if any come up in your cases? SAM: Uh, sounds a bit sci-fi compared to our usuals. What’s this for? (amused breath) You’re not doing research for that podcast you were on, are you? CELIA: (surprised) You know about that? SAM: I might have given you a quick Google. CELIA: Then… yeah. I’m doing a favor for Georgie. "yeah. I’m doing a favor for Georgie" is highlighted. end id]

[raconteur-wanpi]

Interaction I'm convinced they've had at some point.

[laboratoryrats]

Toastyglow: “local colors!!!! relative hues!!!! listen I love a good adjustment layer they are so helpful especially when you need to work fast. but I also love picking special colors myself so here is a crash course in that–as I understand it, anyway.”

Source: Twitter toastyglow

[gallifreyanhotfive]

hmmmmmm Mrs. Flood's new look is very Romana-core

[pandorashearts]

theory:

mike & abby's aunt is mrs afton, thus why she looks so similar to vanessa & also would make it so mike is still technically an afton without being william's son in the movie universe

[justplaggin]

glad we're not the only ones trying to figure out what's going on in link click

[mindblowingscience]

Over the last 100 years, countless studies have proven that Albert Einstein's greatest theory – his theory of general relativity – is practically bulletproof, capable of everything from predicting black holes to guiding your GPS technology. However, as scientists arm themselves with more powerful and sophisticated technology, capable of peering into the cosmos in unprecedented detail, they see phenomena they can't explain with Einstein's theory. Einstein's general theory of relativity states that the curvature of space-time causes gravity. But zoom out to enormous scales like clusters of galaxies spanning billions of light years across, and the laws of Einstein's gravity theory appear to change. "It's almost as if gravity itself stops perfectly matching Einstein's theory," Robin Wen, a recent University of Waterloo graduate, said in a university press release.

Continue Reading.

[xoplutos]

thjeyre actually headbutting and fighting like beetles

[pitruli]

17yo me came back to haunt me so that i would Finally do what i wanted to draw for ages; Gen2-7 Box Legendaries headcanon designs because they're like a Zodiac AU to me

supposed to be sketches to get the jist of their shapes, will properly ink and color them later hehe

[notedchampagne]

69ers again but i take fashion and gender and crank it to 120

edited

[fallen6253]

Could you imagine?

Finding out the theory is correct that the white star took the body of a Thames and that it was the son of Jour's brother. So it was Cale Henituse's maternal cousin, who was supposed to be Kim Rok Soo.

Both of their names being Cale boggles my mind because a lot of families have recurring first or middle names.

So imagine finding out both Thames siblings named their kids after their father only for them to try to kill each other.

[shepscapades]

So I checked tumblr at the coffee shop

(links added to turboputt03’s submission: x | x | x )

[shelandsorcery]

an aside on our eyes and relative colour

I wrote a HUGE post on digital camera white balance, and this is just a little excerpt on one of my favourite aspects of colour: how slippery it is!

So!

If you light a scene with a flame, say in a campfire or on a candle, you know it’s giving everything a warm glow, right? The way it’s doing that is: the light produced by the flame is itself made of mostly red and yellow wavelengths of light. It’s not producing any light on the blue wavelengths.

The way we, or a camera, perceive color is by coloured wavelengths being reflected off the object we’re looking at. The object doesn’t create the coloured light, it requires light of the right color to hit it for the colours of the object to be visible. Sunlight, white light, contains the full spectrum of colours, and so in bright sunlight the light itself shows us all the potential colours – which means it changes none of them, which means the light itself feels white.

When the flame on a candle produces light, it’s mostly producing red and yellow light, which means if it encounters a red object, it shows us the red, but if it encounters a green object, it can only show us the molecules inside that green color that are yellow, and the molecules inside that green that are blue don’t reflect any light. To our eyes, this tints the object yellowish in the candlelight.

However, if you stay a long time in a room lit only by candles, you probably feel like you can see green and blue and purple colours a little still. As I understand it (and my neurologist family members will I’m sure be haunted by this maybe oversimplified info so please follow the rabbit hole here if you’re curious, it’s really interesting stuff!) this is your brain compensating for the tinted information by shifting your identification of colours, maybe to try and help you discern as much information as possible from the limited visual data. You don’t stop knowing it’s warm light, but you adjust to it.

As an example, and here I’m talking about your eyes, remember, not the camera tech yet (we’ll get back to it shortly), here is a photo of a candle.

First off, let me assuage your dress-related paranoia – this is a teal candle.

To me, looking at the photo, this is clearly a teal candle. You can see it’s a lovely seafoam green at the top where it’s warmer and glowing through the melted wax, and a much more vibrant blue farther down, away from the flame.

So let’s take a closer look at these colours! I have isolated a few into bigger dots and overlaid them on the image where they were eyedroppered from:

And here are the same colours just on a neutral 50% grey background.

Here I have eyedroppered that brightest blue in the dots, the one on the bottom right of the image. This is how blue it is: not very blue! Pretty green still! Because that candle’s light cannot show us blue and purple wavelengths, we end up with an image where a cold green-grey starts to feel blue.

Our eyes work to compensate in limited-colour situations. We’re actually really good at it! And anyone who makes art commercially, anyone who designs colour for film and tv, advertising, fashion, games, etc? They all know this and use it when creating images. It’s why, given full colour vision, at a candlelit dinner, you can still tell your green veggies from your red ones.

And it’s not at all new! You can see this in Georges de La Tour’s famous candlelit paintings. The brightest light feels white, and colours still have some vibrance to them, and the scene feels rich, but, there’s no actual blues on the canvas, even though we have no trouble identifying the woman’s dress as light blue:

If you want to read more about how this applies to white balance settings on your cellphone or digital camera, the rest of the post is here: