#this is just about the films i know that marvel and dc comics + the animated movies get plenty violent

[hollowwhisperings]

most security guards/cops/crims are more dangerous to themselves than to any actual threat. in the Early Years of Batman, he was a Cryptid who only appeared at night & had the Power Of Money to support said "Cryptid" status via having MUCH better tech (armour, spyware, [nightvision], training with said tech, non-lethal weapons, niche tools, etc) than everyone else. At night, with a previously scouted out map of an area & a local's familiarity with it, Batman wouldn't need to "ninja" that hard because... unless a guard's boss was SCARIER than a Bat Cryptid, they're not going to be overly invested in risking their lives (though Batman's Technical Pacifism wasn't realised until Later: I assume Gotham's medical insurance runs by North American Rules, making a "non-lethal" beatdown probs scarier to the Average Mook).

The Penguin is a Threat because out of ALL the early crime bosses of the Era where Batman Began... HIS GANG SURVIVED (as in, it didn't get disbanded or turn on itself after losing multiple arms deals/smuggling shipments/sundry criminal activities via way of Bat Cryptid). Somehow, the Penguin keeps landing back on his feet: it Varies from writer to writer but the "Modern" Penguin is one of Gotham's more "civilised" crimebosses. As opposed to the Chaotic Crime pre-Batman or the Chaotic Evil of Certain Supervillains, the Penguin is an "Organized" Crimeboss. He's dangerous because he outsurvived all his contemporaries, he has Connections & Political Influence: treating the Penguin as a threat is Only Polite, in a setting like Gotham.

...except when the Penguin is named less for his Penguin Suit and just Penguins: those penguins BLOW UP & get sent into civilian areas. The umbrella ALSO blows up. It also tends to be a machine gun &/or a Detonation Device. This is the Penguin who Danny Devito played. The Batman of that setting was also one without decades of experience & familiarity with [being a vigilante], less Paranoid and Detective-y. Just Very Camp. And, in a Camp Setting, the Penguin can AND WILL "outcamp" the guy not commiting to being a Spooky Bat Cryptid.

The problem with Batman in his present incarnation is that we need simultaneously to believe that this is a man who can effortlessly ninja his way through dozens of gun-toting mercenaries, and that this is a man to whom Danny DeVito with an umbrella is a credible threat.

[wilwheaton]

Am I an old weird who is just totally missing the point?

I love Captain Marvel. She's a great character, and I loved the way Brie Larson played her in the one Captain Marvel movie I've seen.

The only reason I even know about Captain Marvel is because my friend wrote the comic and is largely responsible for all the stuff we love about her. So I'm kind of sad for my friend that the newest Marvel movie isn't doing well.

But I'm wondering if these Marvel and Star Wars and DC movies are all sort of languishing and not meeting expectations because they're all so derivative of each other, and audiences are hungering for something new and different?

I'm old and way outside of the demo, so I could be as wrong as a person can be, but I am wondering if that's part of the steady and consistent decline of box office for all those films. Barbie and Oppenhemier were events, which is what I think films ought to be, but they were also just so totally different from the vast wasteland of sameness that fills up multiplexes, I couldn't get my tickets fast enough.

Maybe audiences are bored with more of the same characters, the retelling of the same essential story over and over again, and this odd feeling that the whole thing was grown in a lab, rather than created by an artist with a vision (James Gunn being the exception to that rule.)

I'm not saying these are bad, or people shouldn't like them, just that they all feel like slight variations on the same theme over and over again. It's just boring as fuck to me. Am I an old weird who is just totally missing the point? I'm so curious to know what y'all think.

[genericpuff]

How should someone write for a comic? I want to start a comic but I’m a bit in the dark for how to write one

This is a very, VERY broad subject that, like the question of "how to draw comics", is very multi-faceted and impossible to tackle in one response. Especially because I myself also will not have all the answers.

What I will say is that regarding writing comics, let's say webcomics, it's not an uncommon thing in the slightest to see writers come into communities like /r/webtoons and ask for people to help them draw their passion project and to that I say... please don't LOL That's not to say that's what you were going to do at all, just wanted to throw that out there as an initial opening disclaimer. Ultimately the reality is that in webcomics, many of the people creating these projects are artists first and writers second (as one of those skillsets is way more accessible than the other), and already have their own passion projects that they're working on. So if you're going into purely writing comics, you're gonna need to manage your perspective on the industry and how it functions from a writer's POV rather than the POV of an artist who picked up writing as a consequence of wanting to get into comics.

That said, the beauty of writing comics is that, in general, it requires a lot less overhead than drawing a comic. That's not to say that it's necessarily easier, because god knows writing presents its own unique challenges, but writing a script generally takes less overhead and resources than turning that script into a comic. I can pump out 10 episodes of rough scripts for Rekindled in a day or two, with tweaking and editing along the way, but actually drawing those episodes takes weeks LMAO (and I wouldn't be able to pull off a lot of the stuff I do now without the help of my assistant @banshriek who not only provides a lot of expertise in drawing backgrounds, but lightens the workload in their help with shading and rendering! they also provide great feedback when it comes to the roughs stage <3)

So if you're starting out, just like the advice I give to budding webcomic artists, it's about starting. Build that experience, get some projects under your belt no matter the size or length that you can use to show your skills (and shop around for feedback from those willing to give it!), etc. Familiarize yourself with various genres, both writing AND reading! Like scripts for film, writing a comic script doesn't HAVE to come with the visuals even if that's the end goal, you don't HAVE to relegate yourself to finding an artist to draw your comic and then posting it online in the hopes it'll get seen. There's a lot that can be done with a simple comic script, whether it's sharing it to the world as is, adapting it to a novel, or pitching it to publishers/agents. Being a comic writer comes with a lot more flexibility in that way than being just a comic artist with no script (though, again, most indie comic artists will simply pick up writing to create their passion projects, it's a much bigger task for writers to pick up art for the sake of creating a comic).

Also establish your goals. Is your plan to write for some major industry some day? Or would you rather stick to writing for smaller productions? Just like with drawing webcomics, you should be setting your expectations in places that are reasonable to meet, rather than shooting for the top of the game right off the bat. If you're wanting to get into writing comics, your first major goal should be something like writing a complete script and NOT, say, getting to write for Marvel/DC lmao

As for the actual writing of comics, I highly recommend you read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, it delves into both the history and technical aspects of writing, drafting, and pitching comics in a very easy to understand way (it's a comic about making comics!)

Here are some other helpful resources I was sent by a pal recently that might also help familiarize you with the process of getting into the actual industry as a comic writer!

I hope this gives you at least a good place to start from! Again, it's ultimately a very broad topic that will vary from person to person (esp when it comes to the differences between genres and target demographics, ex. someone writing an action comic isn't likely going to use the exact same processes as someone who writes romance), but I hope this at least helps you find some direction in it all so you can establish your goals and start making steps in the direction you want to go in.

Good luck!!! <3

[nolovelingers]

Hi i love you headcanons sooo much 🫶 Do u think you would be able to them for Mindy! I love that girl so much🥹

MINDY M. MARTIN AS YOUR GIRLFRIEND ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧

ೄྀ࿐ requested ! ˊˎ-

headcanons — // cw ! : fluff ,, fem!readers only ,, some nsfw at the bottom ,, brief mention of drinking & weed ,, no cw’s besides that really i luh this girl too 🫶

SFW !!

MINDY MEEKS MARTIN AS YOUR GIRLFRIEND . . . helped you realize just how important and cared for you really are in this world.

there is never a single day that goes by where she doesn’t remind you how much she loves you, holding your face with her hands as she just admires your features with a relaxed look in her eyes and a maladaptive smile.

she seriously never lets you forget it, whether it’s through words or small actions. she’s always expressing her affection in some subtle way.

her arm is always wrapped around you, behind your shoulders, hand on your hip or tucked warmly in your hands. she needs her own reassurance that you’re there by her side and aren’t going anywhere.

she’s a huge film fanatic and movies dates are an absolute must. she does enjoy horror but gets the slightest bit sensitive to it after all the ghostface attacks go down and while she’ll still engage in time to time it’s better for you to encourage her to turn on something more light hearted without saying the exact reason why. if you express you’re worried about her she’ll get defensive and only be determined to watch it more, later waking up in the middle of the night through vivid nightmares and breaking a cold sweat.

she’s big into marvel and will have *lighthearted* debates about it with you if you prefer dc, and if you’re clueless to the both of the fandoms you can expect her to force you to sit down and make you watch all the movies in the film timeline order.

she doesn’t own any of her own comics but has always wanted to get into them, so if you own any of your own, whether if it’s a whole collection to just a few you can expect her to be borrowing them from you constantly.

other than that she’s not a huge book reader, her patience short and hard to keep her attention span captured. she wouldn’t mind it if you ever read her to sleep though, your voice helps lure her into a calm rest.

makeouts are a must and one of her favorite things to do. she’s an extremely experienced kisser and knows exactly what she’s doing. they don’t have to lead to anything spicy but she just adores when your lips are on hers and could kiss you for hours.

saying she’s protective over you is an understatement, she’s extremely paranoid and suspicious of everyone around her and is constantly acting as your guard dog. she’s always making sure you have some sort of weapon on you when you go out and that you always remember the location of at least 2-3 exits around you no matter where you are.

she wants you to keep your location on 24/7. not cause she’s being a clingy or jealous girlfriend but she’s very afraid of something happening to you while she’s not there to help. she checks it almost every hour when she knows you’re out and will shoot a message to make sure you respond.

being close friends with chad is also a given. as much as she hates to admit it, her brother is one of her best friends and if you have his approval it just makes her love you so much more. she can never hide the smile that erupts on her face whenever she witnesses the both of you getting along or playfully teasing each other.

she ties your shoes for you when the laces come undone, opens cans or jars for you if you can’t (or if you get them done, when your nails are too long), has polaroids of you decorated along the walls of her bedroom, and will buy the both of you some form of matching thing. like a keychain, or a piece of jewelry.

she’ll randomly ask you to sign stuff, acting like you’re a celebrity as she teasingly begs for you to write your name on her backpack, a plain tee shirt she owns, the back of her hand, an old pair of shoes she owns, etc.

if you have a job she’ll find any excuse to come and visit you while you’re working, whether it’s by pretending to be a customer or just sneaking in to chat for as long as she could.

one of her favorite things is when you sit in her lap, facing her with one of your free hands practically petting her hair and her arms wrapped around your lower body, rubbing your back or resting her hands on your ass. once again, nothing sexual needs to come from it, she just honestly can’t resist the temptation of her hands wandering. if you’re not comfortable with it she’ll immediately stop and apologize.

and to correspond with this, she likes it when you sit in her lap but loves it when she lays in yours. your thighs are absolutely perfect, it literally doesn’t matter the shape, size or feeling of them shes obsessed with resting her head in your lap and there’s nothing you can do to stop her.

the both of you have a tendency to go to hot topic together and check out the couples jewelry. and she can’t resist going through the pins and sneaking a few she’d think you’d like in her back pocket. she’ll pay for everything else in the store but just doesn’t feel like paying so little for a cheaply made pin. but she loves putting them on her jackets, her backpack and her bags. she also gets so excited when she finds a particular one she’d think you’d like.

making each other a playlist is a must, and she has a problem where she just makes you a new one almost every other month. it’s a routine at this point and if she ever forgets or just doesn’t have the time to one month it gets you a bit sad, thinking maybe she’s finally lost interest. she’ll remember to do it the next time she opens her music app though.

she practically lives at your dorm/place at this point. if you live at the dorms you asked the school to make you a new key, pretending you lost yours, and then gave it to her. now she’ll come over all the time without even asking, send you a random text she was on her way over without discussing it first or that she was already at the door. sometimes you would come home after being gone for hours just to find her lounged on your couch; your snacks in her hands (and in her mouth) while watching a movie.

one of her favorite activities to do with you is to drink and just hang out. she gets very sappy, affectionate and when she drinks most of the time she doesn’t hold back since it’s not like a frequent thing. she likes to get blackout and you’re forced to take care of your girlfriend; who has now become a koala bear as she drunkenly holds onto your leg and cries and giggles about how much she loves you. she’s also a very clumsy drunk and almost always ends up hurt the next day, falling into things, running into walls and tripping over air. then the next day when the hangover hits she swears up and down she’ll never get drunk again in between groans of agony just to do it again in a week.

getting high together is also something she loves to do. it’s such an awakening experience that just deepens her love for you as she feels very comfortable and relaxed in your presence. she also loves the very dumb conversations you have together about the most meaningless things.

facemasks are also a must. she loves it when you do her skincare because she doesn’t have a routine for herself and so on occasion you’ll do some treatment for her. she hates those paper masks because they feel slimey and cold against her skin but she’ll do them if you have them. she likes when you put a charcoal or clay mask on her skin and acts like some sort of strange creature.

constantly making movie references that you don’t understand most of the time. and when you don’t get one of her comparisons she’ll force you to watch the film immediately and explain in detail what she meant.

if you try to talk during one of the movies she picks she’ll hush you immediately, wanting you to pay total attention to it unless it’s one the both of you have seen before. but when it’s her turn for her to watch a movie of your choice she’s yet to see but you have she’ll be a total hypocrite, talking and adding loud dialogue the entire way through. she’s also the type to ask you questions about a plot to a movie you’ve both never seen before and actually expecting you to be able to answer.

you have a long snapstreak going with her that you both mourn anytime it’s reset. and she’s got a highlight of you on her instagram that she updates once or twice a week.

she’ll ask you what your favorite marvel character is and if it’s one she doesn’t like she will fight you. (not really, but she’ll trash talk the character and get super defensive if you try to do the same to hers.)

she’s actually very trusting of you in the relationship and the only times she ever gets jealous is if a girl is outwardly flirting with you even after being aware that you’re dating someone.

random kisses constantly, she’ll gently turn your chin to face her or cup your chin and bring you into a kiss without any warning before hand.

she loves to do cute challenges with you. for example the chapstick challenge, where you buy a pack of flavored/scented chapstick and kiss the other while they try to guess the flavor. or doing the same thing with lipstick, but instead of trying to guess the flavor just seeing if it was kiss proof or not. but she doesn’t own makeup except for maybe a cheap mascara and a thing of eyeliner she almost never touches; so it would have to be yours or just not one you partake in.

going along with the no makeup thing, she would gladly let you do hers if you have any. she’d be the perfect little test subject for practicing your makeup skills on others if it wasn’t for her randomly goofing off and trying to eat the lipstick or the wands.

there’s definitely been at least a time or two where she does actually get jealous over chad if you have a good relationship with him. it doesn’t matter if you’re lesbian, bi, pan, omni or unlabeled she with subliminally have the thought that you’re gonna leave her for her twin brother. you of course reassure her and remind her of the love you hold for her. she’s not ever the type to blame you for her jealousy. she wouldn’t ignore you or get angry because of her own feelings and actually much prefers to talk it through with you than suffering alone or in silence.

she’s not afraid to speak her mind or be bold. it can get a bit embarrassing from the occasional time to time if you’re out in public with strangers but you’re quick to laugh about it.

pda is a must with her and if you ever receive looks or judge mental comments she’s quick to reply and call someone out on their behavior and won’t back down till they apologize or walk away. she loves showing you off and that doesn’t change whether it’s behind opened or closed doors, but it definitely does simmer down. but like don’t be surprised if she randomly wants to make out with you even though you’re at a friends house together and hanging out with multiple other people.

she’s quick to warn you about her suspicions of ethan to alert you; which saves you a lot in the long run. you avoid him and try not to hang out with the group when you’re lead to believe ethan may be there or suspiciously couldn’t make it only for everyone to get attacked by ghostface the same night.

she loves to dance with you. and not like a slow dance, im talking jumping up and down, bobbing her head, shouting the lyrics and swinging her arms up and down while hopping around you to shit like ‘lovefool’ by the cardigans.

the both of you have tried every two player mobile game known to man and could spend hours day on the couch with her legs in your lap playing things like fashion frenzy on roblox to game pigeon.

if you ever get sick she’ll want to stay with you the entire time till you’re feeling better and once you finally do now she’s the one under the weather and expects you to do the same as she did with you. she’s actually grown to love it when she gets ill cause it’s basically a guarantee she’ll be the only one or thing with your attention for at least a few days and if she feels that attention drifting from her she’ll act like such a little kid and act like she’s dying.

she’ll never admit it but she loves to be babied by you.

overall she’s just a very straight-forward person who gives someone her entire body and soul when she cares about them. but she is also a very independent person who can survive when left on her own.

NSFW !!

im definitely getting more top/dom vibes from her.

she knows what she wants in the bedroom and has a lot of experience from past relationships. she’s able to find all the ways to please a woman immediately and have her head buried in your cunt with your thighs clutched around her curls, muffled moans leaving her lips as she watches the way your back arches and legs shake in pleasure.

she’s willing to try almost everything at least once.

she loves eating you out, it’s almost like an obsession at this point. it’s one of her favorite things to do and anytime you let her she’s quick to shuffling between your legs with an eager smile.

when she’s on the receiving end she’ll talk you through it, telling you what feels good and what doesn’t with no shame. she’s also got a decently high sex drive and is able to last through at least 3-4 good orgasms as long as there’s some short break time inbetween.

she loves to tease you, especially when cuddling. one of her favorite things to do is be the big spoon and slide one of her legs between yours, bringing her knee up to your clit that still has fabric protecting your core and move just slightly, taking pleasure in seeing you try to desperately dry hump her leg.

started 08.08.23. finished 08.08.23.

*ೃ༄ a / n : thank you for the request anon ! i love opening the app to seeing new messages or prompts and i hope that this is to your liking. requests are open and if you’ve already sent in one it’s currently being worked on ! <3 im sorry about the nsfw section being so short , i was getting kinda sleepy more than halfway through this and felt like the quality was slowly declining so i didn’t wanna keep digging myself a hole LOL

( scream masterlist )

©️nolovelingers 2023

[scarlet--wiccan]

Hello! I've been boycotting Marvel ever since I saw the BDS notice you reblogged however I'm a bit confused: when the post says it's okay to buy from independent sellers does that mean it would be okay to buy the Scarlet Witch comics from a small comic book store? Or it is just meant to say it's okay to buy comics from other prints and companies if we know they aren't supporting Zi0nists?

This is my personal philosophy, which is A) subject to change; B) not intended to be proscriptive or authoritative; C) not a representation of the BDS movement, its praxis, or its goals. I've made my beliefs very clear about Palestinian liberation. I am 100% pro-boycott, but I would urge you to defer to actual movement organizers and leaders, which I am not.

Boycotting is a goal- and result-oriented action, and organizers name specific targets for a reason. My understanding is that the primary targets of the Marvel boycott are Marvel Studios and the M C U. This is a cultural boycott that was called specifically in response to the upcoming Captain America film. Marvel Studios has also historically had close dealings with the United States military industrial complex.

The comic book industry is an incredibly unbalanced system. Low sales impact independent retailers first, and with much greater severity than the publishers and corporations, and the majority of writers and artists who work for Marvel or DC are in vulnerable positions where project longevity and job security often depend on presale numbers. For these reasons, I have always prioritized buying print, buying from local independently owned comic book shops, and going out of my way to place preorders for titles that I want to support.

Marvel is a large corporation and it's owned by Disney, which is also a target for boycott and divestment, so you would be within reason to boycott all Marvel products, but to the best of my understanding, BDS has not listed comic books as a target-- and I don't see the impact as being optimally productive, due to the economic imbalances I described. I, personally, have continued to purchase print comics from a local store where I am familiar with the staff and owner, and I trust their politics. I do my best to keep track of the public behavior of writers and artists, and only purchase work made by people I feel I can similarly trust.

If you choose to purchase Marvel or DC comics, I would encourage you to perform the same due diligence, and ONLY buy print and ONLY buy local. Don't make digital purchases or buy subscriptions directly from the company, and don't buy merchandise, specifically of the M C U.

I would strongly encourage you to match your purchases with donations. The most effective way you can give money right now is by donating to personal fundraisers. My friend Eeri has organized a spreadsheet tracking GoFundMe drives for dozens of Palestinian families and individuals, all of which have been verified. They've also made individual posts and reels for each fundraiser that you can share on your instagram, if you have one.

[buttherainbowhasabeard]

The Boys: Why the Gruesomest Show on TV Is Also One of the Greatest

Brash. Brazen. Bonkers. Brutal. Bloody. Bawdy. Bizarre. On the surface, 'The Boys' is a show I should absolutely loathe, yet I love it. Why? Because it’s like nothing else I’ve ever seen before, and that makes it exhilarating! 

In this day and age of remakes, reboots, sequels, and prequels, 'The Boys' is a revelation. It takes everything we’ve come to know and love about the superhero genre and turns it on its head. Actually, it smashes its head in and flies off, covered in blood, with a big grin on its face. 

This alone is a great antidote to the "superhero fatigue” that so many of us have been suffering from. With the DC Universe currently in a Chapter 1 reset, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the midst of a very busy Phase 5, ditching the genre (and all the films, TV shows, and spin-offs you have to watch to keep up with it) has been beyond tempting.

In showrunner Eric Kripke's cleverly subverted script for 'The Boys' (based on a comic book series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson), each superhero, or "supe,” as they are dubbed in the show, is a satirical spin on a classic DC or Marvel character, even down to their collective name, The Seven (based on the Justice League).

However, unlike the more moral idols it takes its inspiration from, 'The Boys' is an R-rated romp that explores the ramifications of giving ordinary humans superhuman powers. Behind all the muscled supersuits and PR-manufactured wholesomeness, our heroes have become outright antagonists, and the so-called vigilantes have become our (anti)heroes.

Soldier Boy is an angry and arrogant take on Captain America. Homelander is a narcissistic, sadistic, and volatile version of Superman. Queen Maeve is Wonder Woman, if she were reduced to a cynical sidekick. All-American girl Starlight is an amalgamation of Mary Marvel, Stargirl, and Dazzler. Kimiko possesses a feral quality akin to that of Wolverine. Tek Knight is a BDSM-obsessed Batman. Black Noir is a masked mercenary in the same vein as Deadpool (minus the sass). The Deep is a dumb, perverted parody of Aquaman, and A-Train is a reckless Flash or Quicksilver. They even have their own Nick Fury of sorts, in the form of Vought International SEO Stan Edgar.

In the era of corruption, celebrities, and social influence, real-life supes would definitely abuse their powers and gaslight the public into believing every bit of righteous bullshit that came out of their mouths. They only (and begrudgingly) do good deeds to get more follows and likes, and most don’t like each other either, viewing teammates and partners as competitors rather than comrades.

This dark, disturbing, and at times hilarious take on the genre is what makes the show stand out amongst the rest. It easily offends, distresses, traumatises, titilates, and grosses you out. But it’s not just done for headlines and shock value. Every single chaotic, cruel, and unpredictable action is there for a reason. It forms part of a character’s motivations, it propels the plot forward, or it sets up a new and exciting direction.

Casting is another ingenious ingredient in the supe soup that is 'The Boys'. Household names (Antony Starr, Karl Urban, Giancarlo Esposito, Jensen Ackles, Simon Pegg, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, to name a few) are mixed in with relatively new names (Erin Moriarty, Karen Fukuhara, Tomer Capone, Dominique McElligott, Aya Cash, and Colby Minifie). However, all performances are stellar. There isn’t one specific actor who carries the whole show or steals every scene (although Starr can be the most mesmerising). As an ensemble, they all have a role to play, and they play it scarily and consistently well.

Every episode is an intense mix of gratuitous violence, gore, sex, nudity, language, and drug use. Characters engage in orgies, bodies are mutilated and torn apart, heads are blown clean off, religious views are ridiculed, and political agendas are exploited. There are supes who are sexist, supes who are homophobic, supes who are racist, supes who are ableist, and supes cloaked in woke ideology purely for the purpose of infiltration and manipulation.

That being said, and for a show that always feels one scene away from being banned, 'The Boys' has shown incredible restraint when it comes to its ending. Five seasons was what was planned, and five seasons is what it’ll be. Despite top ratings for each season, a loyal fanbase, rich source material, and the potential to introduce dozens more supes and storylines, 'The Boys' can clearly see the value of quitting while it's ahead, and I salute them for it.

I’m confident that the fifth and final season will be f**king diabolical, and I can’t wait!

[newx-menfan]

BTW, Kamala's past as an Inhuman is not being erased. She's a mutant and an Inhuman, like the Beyonder.

Huh- I didn’t know the Beyonder was inhuman and mutant either (the only time that I cared about that character was when Claremont wrote him- Claremont really can make ANY character likable… or when Spider-Man was teaching him to poop 🤣)

I still…don’t care for it. I liked Kamala as an inhuman, there was no reason to change it other than “MCU-synergy” and frankly….it sounds like bad fan fiction…

Frankly it pisses me off comics are kowtowing so much to the MCU, because it SUCKS for people who don’t care for the movies.

I know I am going to make some people mad by saying this…but Martin Scorsese *is* a bit right- they DO feel like amusement park movies. They’re not deep cinema; they’re very simplistic writing and cinematography.

I don’t think something being purely entertaining IS bad or wrong- I actually think people who hype up Tarantino, Nolan, or Spielberg as not being this are also kind of wrong because while they’re great films… they’re often not exploring deep concepts.

I personally love old screwball comedies and swashbuckling films and musicals…but I would never argue it’s on the same level as Bergman, or even directors like Mankiewicz or Hitchcock….

The problem is that Superhero films used to have a “style”- they used to feel like a “creative project” instead of pure “cash grab” and “banging action figures together”.

Singer, no matter how you feel about him, his X-films had a “style” to them. So did Burton’s Batman films. So did Synder and Nolan. So did Raimi. So did Whedon.

Now, I can’t tell who the director is on most DC or Marvel movies. Synder (again, no matter how you feel about him) was the last director who had a clear vision and aesthetic for his films, whether you loved it or hated it.

I would say Star Wars has much of the same problem- love him or hate him, George Lukas at least had a clear aesthetic and style. His films were at least always visually interesting.

There’s a line between art and money- it’s fine for art to make money, but if you go too far into Capitalism…people start feeling it’s inauthentic and JUST about making money (the difficulty of Warhol and Damien Hirst’s legacies lol!). I think Disney crossed too far into Capitalism that people just feel annoyed watching their films.

Art has to somewhat “feel” like art…otherwise it just feels cheap. (I also feel like this is why Taylor Swifts recent album crashed and burned- too far into “Capitalism” that it feels unauthentic and “cheap”…but I already digressed enough lol)

So yeah- I think it’s a mistake for comics to embrace the movies and not be its own separate entity, because the movies kind of *are* a fad and creative project that’s losing steam….where comics can usually last for long periods of time

[littlespacereader]

It’s wayyyyy to early in the morning to be writing this but I must!! I just had a dream about V from V for Vendetta and I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT.

If you haven’t seen the movie I highly recommend it! As a marvel and dc comics fan, this movie blew my expectations when it comes to a comic book adaptation.

I remember watching the film years ago and being like “Wow, V gives me Caregiver vibes” despite being new to regression at the time. Now for those of you who’ve seen the film I’m sure you’re like “Clara you can’t be serious” but hear me out!

In the film he has this gentle way about him when he first meets Evey. Like he cooks for her and he wears a cute little apron! Plus on top of this he dances with her and save her when she’s in trouble. I really feel like he would just be so gentle and kind to a Little! Plus I feel like a Little would be just what he needs to heal himself.

I know the whole prison scene isn’t a good look for him but for the sake of this Headcannon we’re gonna choose to ignore it and pretend it didn’t happen.

With that rant session out of the way I present to you:

V Caregiver Headcannons🌹

Tw- past trauma (all from V’s past)

This version of London is aware of regression and regressors but it is strictly not allowed. Anyone buying supplies, toys for themselves or anything that could even remotely hint to them being a Regressor are arrested right away.

V saved you from being arrest while you were out trying to buy supplies for yourself. (maybe a sippy up, or a pacifier, or maybe diapers or pull-ups)

He immediately knows you’re a Regressor and offers to protect and take care of you at his home. This world wasn’t accepting of regression and Regressor as a whole and this man saved your life and wanted to be your caregiver so you said yes and accepted his invitation.

Once you get to start to know V you realize he’s been alone for a long time. He’s never trusted anyone enough to bring them back to his safe house. So you feel honored to be the first. He happily shows you around, pointing out all the stolen artifacts he’s collected over the years.

When it comes to your regression, he is all for whatever your needs are. Doesn’t matter to him if you like/need diapers or pull-ups, or sippy cups or bottles. Whatever is a part of your regression is a part of your regression and he is more than happy to accommodate.

He loves to dance. Whether it’s slow dancing or fast. His particular favorite is slow dancing because he loves to hold his little one close and sway with them in his arms. It’s his fool proof way of getting them sleepy for bedtime or nap time.

If he want to get them sleepy, he’ll put on some slow music and pick them up, swaying back and forth while humming the song. Works every time!

Sometimes he just wants to dance with them. He’s been teaching them different styles of dance moves he’s learned over the years, though his little ones favorite is to just stand on his feet as he holds their hands and sways back and forth.

The two of you have movie marathons together. You alternate every other night watching one of his favs then your favs. He’s a big movie person so he’s always interesting in watching anything. But usually his little one doesn’t make it through the whole film without falling asleep. But he doesn’t mind at all, and honestly he finds it adorable watching them nod off and eventually fall asleep watching the movie.

He’s a big cuddle bug but you would have never known if you didn’t cuddle with him first. The thing about V is he’s very insecure about himself. He’s afraid you’ll be disgusted by him because of his injuries and burns. But it couldn’t be farther from the truth. While watching a movie together, you cuddle up to him, stretching your legs across his lap and resting your head on his shoulder. He freezes at first but then cautiously wraps his arms around you only for you to cuddle closer. The whole thing makes him feel so loved and accepted, something he’s never felt before Y/N.

One thing V is very solid about is his mask. He wears it at all times. While you asked him to see him without the mask he has always refuses. It’s a hard boundary for him, one you respect when you learn about his past.

Because of this he greatly respects your boundaries when it comes to anything and everything. He never wants to make you feel uncomfortable.

V loves to cook! He may not be a Gordon Ramsey type cook, he is very good at cooking. He loves when his little one helps him prepare meals and always prefers the two of them to sit at the table every night and enjoy their dinner together.

The only time you’ve ever seen his burns is when you’re cooking together. He takes his gloves off and begins to cook. But he eventually notices you staring at his hands. He goes to cover them once more but you stop him and instead hold his hand in yours to show it doesn’t bother you. This small gesture means everything to him. There may have been a tear or two under that mask.

He always wears this pink ruffled dress apron which looks so funny on someone as sharply dressed as him. It always make you giggle and he always jokes about it. “You don’t like Papa’s apron? I thought I looked lovely in it?” *poses* This is followed by Y/N almost falling out of their chair with laughter.

He loves to play pretend. Doesn’t matter what it is, he just loves to chase or get chased around the house with his little one running away or after him. They usually play knights in shinning armor together after V teaches them how to fence.

He’s definitely a Caregiver that would talk to your stuffies. “Does Fluffy want anything to eat? No? Alright then. I don’t want Fluffy to feel left out of breakfast. We mustn’t forget Fluffy after all.”

[thevindicativevordan]

Thoughts on Superman Earth One by JMS?

Reading it again transported me back to the Great Recession Era. Fitting that Earth One was envisioned as "Ultimate DC" because it is as much a product of the 00s - albeit the Great Recession era - as Ultimate Marvel was a product of 9/11.

What if Superman was Spider-Man is a pretty obvious direction to go when you've tapped the guy who just got done writing Amazing Spider-Man (and controversial second half aside I still love the JMS run) to come kick off a new Elseworld version of Superman. What fascinates me about this take on the character is that JMS, knowingly or not, applied the original Stan Lee/Steve Dikto approach to Spider-Man onto Superman. Unlike the modern approach where, black suit aside, Peter basically transforms into a secular saint post-Uncle Ben, 616 Peter remained an asshole. His evolution into the iconic Spidey we know and love was the product of years of character development. He did not suddenly transform overnight. Here we get a Superman who is the same way. First time we see him use his powers is to do this:

I have to admit I smirked when I saw that. Not because it's cool or badass or whatever, but frankly because it's the kind of edginess you plain don't see in superhero comics these days. Left me feeling almost downright nostalgic for the edge of yesteryear. Superman wearing Alex Mercer's fit is such a tryhard design choice. Sets the tone for what kind of Superman we're getting here perfectly too. No rescues or acts of heroism for this bad boy, instead we get Clark frying all the hair off a would-be mugger. Second volume has Superman fantasize about massacring an army because he couldn’t stop seething over a dictator who evicted him from a war torn country. Third volume has him chew out the UN for standing back and letting Zod try to kill him. Wrath is what this guy has in spades, to the point it seems to be his defining trait.

Rereading Earth One I was blown away by how large it's shadow looms over the DCEU. Even the coloring, subdued as it is, evokes Snyder's films before they had been finished. Metropolis isn't a gleaming City of Tomorrow, it's a recession ruin that evokes the worst parts of Detroit. No one is living there except the people with nowhere else to go, and while it's not actually explored at all, the idea of Superman being drawn to a city of outcasts works for me just as much as him unconsciously seeking out the one place on Earth that's closest to Krypton.

Ironic how much Snyder took from JMS, Waid, and Johns while managing to alienate all three. Obvious examples are Zod serving the same basic function in MoS that Tyrell does here, down to the hijacking of all Earth broadcasts to demand Superman turn himself over, or how a Kryptonian ship serves as Superman's equivalent to the Fortress. But then there's other little details like the memory of Jonathan Kent urging his son to "fly" playing over a triumphant moment for Superman, as seen in ZSJL. Makes sense because reading Earth One, the Clark depicted here is a far more believable result of the teachings of the DCEU Kents.

He doesn't want to be a hero, he wants to take care of his mom and himself (there's the early Spider-Man DNA). Altruism doesn't come naturally to Clark. And you know what? This is actually a great premise for an Elseworld Superman story! A Superman who is forced into the role, who spends the first couple minutes of an alien invasion trying to stop it while maintaining his secret identity, who has enough of a moral core to realize what he needs to do, but is scared to death of actually doing it? Elseworlds were created for a premise like that, something you could never do with the mainline guy. Where it falls short however, and the sin it shares with it's cinematic offspring, is that neither JMS nor Snyder realized how their Supermen came off.

After Superman deposes a dictator via arming a rebellion in the second volume, we're treated to a radio broadcast that proclaims a new democratic government has formed. Played totally straight as an unambiguous good deed too, at least within the second volume. For a book written long after the failures of regime change in Iraq and Afghanistan were obvious to all, and while the Syrian Civil War was raging, it comes across as totally naïve and tone-deaf. No one buys that it would be that easy. Now it does end up backfiring on Superman in the third volume, but not because JMS acknowledges the likely reality of Superman's actions where the nation would descend into total chaos, but because the rest of the world fears he'll do the same to them someday. For a series that is trying to be a grounded take on Superman if he were real, the portrayal of Superman meddling in global affairs feels downright fantastical.

Shame because there are great character beats where JMS emphasizes Clark's loneliness that are overshadowed by the poor writing overall.

Good stuff! JMS understands that isolation and feeling like an outsider are key components that make Superman who he is. Throughout all three books there's a plotline of Clark having trouble connecting with anyone, which he finally overcomes first by joining the Daily Planet after being inspired by Lois and Jimmy helping him in the fight against Tyrell, and then when Lisa saves him against Zod and the two begin to date. Despite my knocking the trilogy as a whole, that was something I enjoyed seeing play out.

With all the Spider-Man influence in play here, I believe JMS’ biggest mistake was not centering this Superman’s mission around guilt. Clark was selfish and didn’t want to be a hero, he didn’t immediately leap to protect people when Tyrell attacked for fear of being outed, and innocents died because of that decision. Making Superman be Clark’s realization that he let his father down and he has to live up to his father’s beliefs in humanity’s goodness by serving as an example, that would be a great “realistic” way to explain why Clark is Superman while sticking to the Everyman+ foundation. Peter Parker is Spider-Man because he let his uncle die when he could’ve prevented it by stepping forward to stop a thief. Clark Kent is Superman because he let people die when he could have stepped forward to stop Tyrell from massacring people around the globe to force him out of hiding. It’s taking Spidey’s origin and expanding it to the greatest possible scale via a global threat.

Biggest complaint I have is that this iteration of Superman feels unfinished. Earth One Batman and Wonder Woman, whatever your opinions on them, at least feel that they've reached their natural endgames. Batman builds a family to replace the one he lost and will fight crime forever. Wonder Woman destroys the patriarchy and builds a new feminist utopia. But this version of Superman? Everyone was scared of him because he showed a willingness to intervene where he pleased, and while he promised to not repeat his dictator deposing at the end of the third volume, I don't believe this Superman would stick to that promise.

A natural endgame for this Superman would be to go full Miracleman. Use his powers and his Kryptonian ship (which can apparently manufacture materials for him and even convert matter) to transform Earth into a paradise, marry Lisa, turn Lois against him, and end his days asking himself if it was worth it. He fulfilled Pa's dream of using his gifts for the better, and accomplished it through science rather than through tyranny like Jor-El, but Superman can't help wondering if he proved all the naysayers right. Especially since the person he asked to play conscience for him, Lois, doesn't think he did the right thing. Earth One Superman started his journey asking himself if his father's dream for him was one he actually wanted to pursue, you bring it full circle by having him end where he began by asking if fulfilling that dream was the right decision.

Now as for the rest of the characters?

The Supporting Cast

Daily Planet Crew - They're fine. None of them can be called great or memorable but they're recognizable as variations of the Lois, Perry, and Jimmy we all know. Only major difference is that I don't buy this version of Clark and Lois ever getting together romantically. They're rivals who respect each other but not "soulmates" (much as I hate that term). No chemistry between the two of them here (another commonality with the DCEU), and I'm actually glad this series ended without the two ever becoming a couple.

Lisa Lasalle - Never seen anyone touch on her that much, guess I'll be the first to say that pairing Clark with gritty and realistic Mary Jane Watson was actually sweet. A redhead who is the "girl next door" in Clark's Metropolis apartment, wants to be a model but has to hook on the side, is the first one outside his family to discover his secret identity, and has an upbeat party girl personality before revealing a deeper side later on? Go ahead and try to argue that isn't a darker and edgier take on MJ. Far as civilian love interests for Superman go, she's the only one I've ever liked enough to want as endgame for Clark other than Lois. Seeing Clark bring her into his world and take her to meet his Ma was a genuinely touching moment. Funny that adaptions of MJ tend to make her more like Lois, while here we get a Superman who dates someone closer to 616 MJ.

The Villains

Tyrell - Other than looking like a Hickman reject he's as generic as they come. He shows up, threatens the world, pushes Clark to become Superman, dies, and that's that. Not sure why JMS even went with this guy over using a traditional member of the Rogues Gallery. I do dig his techno-angelic aesthetic, too bad it's wasted on such a paper-thin character.

Parasite - Shockingly great take. His backstory as a hitman is whatever, but once he becomes Parasite he's exactly what I want Parasite to be. Loves being able to kill people, after draining Superman and finally being able to think straight, he feels no shame, guilt, or horror over the people he's killed and the monster he's become. Instead he fantasizes about finding a unique way to kill every single person on the planet, that's the kind of sociopathic energy I like to see. Also shares the delightful trait of zero accountability with his MAWS counterpart, blaming Superman for his sister's death despite it being his own fault.

Zod - Bland as his knockoff predecessor Tyrell. Don't even know why he's made into an El here, nothing interesting is done with it. I've always been a fan of Zod trying to recruit/win over Superman to his side, and at first he feints at doing that. After showing initial promise he firmly grasps the idiot ball for the rest of the book, having Superman at his mercy several times but insisting on making Clark "kneel", rather than simply finishing him off. Despite taking clear design influence from the MoS movie, this is a straightforward "modernization" of the Stamp Zod. Other than wanting Superman dead he seems to have no other ambitions. It's not even clear why he bothers with the pretense at first, when he has superior training and should be easily able to kill Superman in combat.

Lex² - Uhhh they sure existed didn't they? Weird how both JMS and Johns pulled the "instead of the person you think will become the villain, it's their opposite gender counterpart” (wife for Lex, sister for Two-Face). I guess if there were plans for a volume 4 we would've seen "Alexandra" use the kryptonite against Superman, maybe via creating Metallo? Could've been interesting with Alex talking about how she hates Superman for taking away her husband who was the one person she considered an intellectual peer, that would've been prime setup for this Superman to show he was also as smart as she was (since this Clark is explicitly a genius). Since that didn't happen they're merely a curiosity.

Final thoughts: JMS' best Superman work remains his Becoming Superman autobiography.

No clue if the events he depicts are accurate or exaggerated, but if it's fiction then it's the best Superman story that shows how he can inspire real people that I've read. Really hard hitting stuff in here, particularly for anyone who has grown up in abusive homes and had to rely on fiction as an escape. If you want to check out JMS' Superman work, I honestly recommend this over anything else.

[trendfilmsetter]

Godzilla Minus One Review:

You can tell by the amount of emotional storytelling and having us feel through the pain of Koichi Shikishima as he balances the struggle of defending his country and saving his life; that director Takashi Yamazaki has taken notes from his famed inspiration of the Star Wars franchise and truly made possibly one of the best Godzilla films in franchise history. This science fiction masterpiece clocks in at over 2 hours and every second of it was spent on the edge of my seat.

Kamikaze pilots became an addition for the Japanese military during the closing moments of the war in the Pacific. One thing that the film highlights is the beginning stigma of kamikaze pilots who decided to live either by choice or due to their planes mechanical failures. That is the historical context set up we get in the beginning elements of the movie as Koichi decides to land his plane on Odo Island despite his plane not suffering from any mechanical damage. We also see the first instances of Godzilla as the monster attacks and kills the majority of the mechanical workers on Odo Island sparing Koichi himself and Sosaku Tachibana.

Godzilla’s ruthlessness was felt throughout the entire film from the moment the monster attacked the crew on Odo Island to his absolute destruction of the Ginza neighborhood in Tokyo which was undergoing rapid development. The scene where Noriko hangs from the train pole for dear life as Godzilla rips the train in half was just wild.

One thing i really enjoyed about this film is the character development of Koichi. In the beginning of the movie, he decides not to fulfill his kamikaze duties but after realizing the immense sacrifices that many Japanese people (not only pilots) have endured during the war and the Godzilla attacks, he dedicates his life to his “impromptu family” and realizes that he is willing to sacrifice himself to create a “better world” for his “daughter” Akiko. Tachibana immediately sees that Koichi understands the immense toll that war has, how kamikaze pilots never had that choice to live and creates an eject mechanism so that Koichi can have that choice to live. You can see his facial expressions throughout the film start from being in fear to being determined to save Japan.

I also love that they gave Shiro Mizushima a moment of shine as he coordinates backup for Kenji Noda’s plan to sink Godzilla into the ocean floor. The theater was clapping! The movie was paced extremely well and used every part of its 2 hour runtime to tell its story. Did not feel like there were any fillers or unnecessary scenes. The ending also really does leave the viewers thinking about the many different ways and theories that the film may continue through a possible sequel. I know not all films need a sequel but Please give us a sequel!!

There are so many parts to this film that I can go into detail about that make this one of my favorite Godzilla films. This film only had a $15 million dollar budget and yet superseded many action movies made this year in the United States including the comic book movies in DC/Marvel well known for their $200 million dollar plus budgets. Studios should take note.

I highly recommend this film especially for those who may not be familiar with the Godzilla story who would like an introduction into the kaiju portrayal of monsters in Japanese films.

[soleminisanction]

@mzminola I saw your tags on this post:

#you all have so many names #is this because of DC eating Fawcett, or a tiff with Marvel Comics, or several reasons??? #everything I learn about the Shazam Fawcett City fam makes me more interested

And immediately got excited because I happen to know this story and I think it's fun. It's one of the more interesting nuances of comics industry skullduggery out there.

See, Captain Marvel was the most popular superhero of the 1940s, at least based on raw comic book sales; he even outsold Superman, and he was the first comic book superhero to get adapted into a film serial. And National Comics, the company that would eventually become DC, hated that, so they sued for copyright infringement on the grounds that the Cap was a blatant Superman rip-off, and they eventually won, forcing Fawcett to stop publishing Captain Marvel and his family in 1953.

Then in the 60s, when Marvel Comics came along, somebody there eventually noticed that the trademark to the name "Captain Marvel" was up for grabs, so they jumped on that with their Captain in 1967. Between Mar-Vell and his family, Monica Rambaeu, Noh-Varr and Carol Danvers, Marvel's never let that trademark slip out of their grasp in the decades since.

So when DC acquired the rights to use the original Captain Marvel and his crew, first through a license with Fawcett in 1972 and then essentially absorbing the smaller company entirety in 1992, they found themselves in the awkward legal position where they couldn't publish Cap's books under the name "Captain Marvel." They could call him that in the book, because they owned the rights to the character, but they couldn't use his name as the trademark for the series, or in any of their advertisements, and when they tried to edge around it by calling him, "Shazam! The Original Captain Marvel" they got a cease and desist.

Of course people who weren't familiar with any of this drama found it confusing that this was one of the only books in the line-up that wasn't named for its hero. So DC spent a long time through the 90s and early 00s going through different names for Captain Marvel (and to a lesser extent Mary and Junior) trying to find a name that would let people know that this was the same Very Popular Character as in the old days without tripping into Marvel's trademark lawyers.

---

Meanwhile!! Back in the 50s, over the the U.K., the small press that had been importing the Captain Marvel comics decided that, when their supply was suddenly cut off by the lawsuit, they'd recruit a local artist to just help them keep going by changing the name to a thinly veiled expy called Marvelman.

Marvelman was then revived in the 80s by Alan Moore as Miracleman, which was basically his first jaunt into the metatextual explorations of superhero comics that he'd become famous for. When he left that run it was taken over by Neil Gaiman, through whom a debate over the rights to Miracleman would eventually become central to a protracted lawsuit with Todd McFarlane over work Gaiman did on the Spawn comics.

You could probably write a pretty compelling history of the superhero comics industry just by following the trademark and copyright drama of Captain Marvel. I'm a little surprised somebody hasn't done it already tbh.

[angelflms]

talked about it on insta and ima do it here because i know xolo fans are so excited about this recent insider that just dropped but i have been a part of the mcu fandom for way too long and i know how things go:

TAKE THE NOVA NEWS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

here's some facts about this whole thing that contradicts this announcement (not saying the casting is wrong or that it's impossible but it's very unlikely):

- xolo is under a current DCU contract with warner. marvel doesn't fuck with actors who are working with the competition (his voice acting work for moon girl and devil dinosaur doesn't count as it wasn't for the MCU and he did it before being cast as jaime)

- xolo is heavily rumored and hinted at to be playing ace for once piece on netflix

- the insider said filming starts in feb 2025

- kevin feige, the marvel studios president JUST announced that the nova project is gonna be in three to four years time

- so timing doesn't make sense

now there's some elements to this that can be true. glenn close and john c reliy's characters ARE probably gonna be in the project considering their connection to the cosmic world of the MCU (and close literally playing nova prime) BUT that's the only thing from the insider i personally believe.

xolo can still possibly be cast in the show. that can still be a thing. he could be sam alexander but again i highly doubt it. he could make an appearance as a live action, aged-up version of his character in moon girl and devil dinosaur as his character could fit into the world of nova pretty well (idk enough about his character to know if he's a character created just for that show or if he's in the comics), being that he is a kree alien.

now i have been wrong before about many announcements. and there can be a lot of ways we can find out if things are true but rn, i'd say that these rumors are just that: rumors. now they may not be outta nowhere. BUT the filming date is definitely wrong imo. casting could be true but i again don't think xolo can be in the mcu, one piece, AND the dcu all at once, especially if they need his characters to come in at whatever time they need him for. that would be way too straining for one actor, let alone one so young. i don't wanna crush anyone's spirit but that's a lot when you think of it.

now there have been castings of my favs that i thought were very unlikely just because i thought the universe would be too kind but did work out. big example being hailee steinfeld as kate bishop and joe locke as "teen" (billy allegedly) rn. and at the time of their castings, hailee already did spider-verse and joe filmed heartstopper so an actor being in the MCU and a netflix project isn't too far fetched.

but dc, marvel, and netflix while playing prominent roles that are gonna make many appearances that we have no confirmation about is wild. bc if so, that means he would be in multiple seasons of one piece, allegedly the teen titans movie, the blue beetle animated series, the nova show, any possible future guardians/cosmic/kree-related project, and that avengers two parter project, not to include lending his voice to the smurfs movie that he was announced in as well. all within a span of a couple of years. and let's not forget the crazy routines marvel has you do like idk.

xolo as sam isn't crazy. and i wanna see him in the show. but it just seems highly unlikely. but i'll wait until feige or deadline confirms it (or any of my trusted mcu insider accounts i follow since none of them have posted about it)

if he does pull all of that off though... i'm MARRYING the bitch.

[wilwheaton]

One very simple question :)

(Tv/comics)

Marvel. Or DC?

I have liked them both and disliked them both, at different points in my life, for a variety of reasons. At the moment, I'm not paying attention to them at all.

When I was a kid, I was all about Xmen and Fantastic Four from Marvel and, Batman and Justice League (Marv Wolfman's run in the late 80s) from DC. Never really cared for Superman. The 1967 Spider-Man was awesome as a cartoon, but I rarely read the comic book.

In the 70s, I was only allowed one comic per week, usually picked out from whatever was left on that spinning rack at the drugstore. So more often than not, I ended up with something like House of Secrets or House of Mystery or one of those horror anthologies that didn't need me to read the issues before or after, like the serialized superhero comics did. I got a lot of replay value from those books.

In the 80s, I had my own money and the ability to drive myself to comic conventions, and that's when I fell in love with Sandman, Watchmen, pretty much the entire Prestige Format that became Vertigo. I recall feeling like Marvel was for kids, then, and DC was serious. I was only 16, so take that for what it's worth.

But speaking of being 16, I'm gonna focus on Batman for a sec. I loved Batman 89, and I think all the efforts to make a Batman movie ever since have fallen short in ways I couldn't predict back then. It's gotten better with age and by comparison, for me. Michael Keaton is my favorite Batman, the way Christian Bale is my favorite modern Bruce Wayne (they both pale next to Pure. West. if anyone asks me).

The OG Batman series is maybe my favorite series of all time not called Star Trek or The Prisoner, and the 1966 movie is my favorite of all the Batman movies. Of course I love the animated series, and I get to be Blue Beetle in Brave and the Bold, so that's pretty awesome and its whole own thing.

Turning to the current moment, with rare exception, all the MCU and DCU movies do nothing for me. I thought I must have been missing something, so tried really hard to give them a chance to knock me out. I watched as many of the MCU movies as I could stand, and I just felt exhausted and bored by all of it, by the time I got to ... I can't even remember. Something with maybe Thanos and Ant-Man? I felt like it was a big, complicated mess of fan service and meetings that could have been e-mails, resulting in in a stew full of interesting ingredients that have all blended together into a flavorless paste. I do enjoy all the James Gunn movies, though, even if Chris Pratt is the worst Chris, because James always centers the characters and their conflicts, then uses the action and stunts to support the story.

I feel like a lot of this sounds harsh, but even Star Wars, my favorite movie when I was a kid, has grown into something I don't recognize or care about. I'm old. I know what I like and what I don't like. I'm not patient like I once was, and it's clear I'm not the person those studios want in the theatre, anyway. I could make that joke about how it's the children who are wrong, but I accept that I am not in the demo, and I am genuinely happy for everyone who loves the spectacle and the experience of seeing those films with an enthusiastic audience. I just won't be there with you, but you can find me in the parking lot, yelling at a cloud.

...wow that's a very big answer to a very simple question.

[bigskydreaming]

I’m rewatching X-Men (2000) for the first time in a long time and besides finding it exquisitely nostalgic, I keep finding myself thinking, “Damn, [character] is kind of OP” with literally every. Single. Character. And it’s funny now to think of how crazy powerful all the X-Men are compared to say, the Avengers, where I feel like the only god-tier power the MCU ever delivered was Captain Marvel and maybe Thor in Ragnarok. I guess the first X-Men kind of downplays Jean Gray’s powers, and there are cool take-downs like Magneto’s iconic “That remarkable metal doesn’t run through your entire body, does it?” line and Toad getting fried by Storm, but I feel like it’s so fun that most of the time literally every character is OP. Anyway, I wanted to ask you as an X-Men expert, have they always been so cool and powerful, or do the comics toggle back-and-forth with how powerful they are like the later X-Men movies did? And did comics Avengers and Fantastic Four ever think they had a chance vs. the X-Men?

LOL its ironic, I kinda consider them to be massively UNDERPOWERED in the X-Men films, but also I hate everything about them because Singer, so who's unbiased, not THIS guy!

For the most part it depends on the character. Like, you know Bobby's my Blorbo above all Blorbos there, so the X-films in particular did a shitty job of depicting his actual power levels, but in their 'defense' I guess, so does every other adaptation. Nowhere but the comics has been consistent about him being portrayed as ridiculously OP as he is, which is kinda funny because for all that Iceman doesn't SEEM like he'd be a top tier power level kinda character, he's consistently been that way since the early 90s. Hell, for that matter, he and Jean were the original omega level mutants used to debut the term in its modern interpretation.

(A lot of people point out that omega was first used to describe Rachel Summers, who isn't considered an official omega level mutant these days, but that was by Sentinels describing her as an omega level THREAT, so I don't consider that the same thing as the OL classification mutants use among themselves, but just throwing that out there).

In the comics, there are different classifications, kinda, that mutants use to describe different power levels. Most mutants are gamma or beta mutants. Most combatant mutants like major X-Men and foes, such as Cyclops, Bishop, Psylocke, Emma Frost, etc, are alpha level mutants.

Omega mutants are the rarest of the rare, and are, simply put....god-tier mutants. Their literal definition is mutants whose upper levels of power are beyond any ability to measurably quantify. A lot of people default to calling them infinitely powerful, which isn't quite INaccurate, but also isn't quite accurate....its more like....they're mutants who will never stop finding new ways to grow and advance their abilities, who have no upper ceiling to their powers...though all of them reach different tiers of ACTUALLY utilized power at different times/lengths of time.

A ton of people HATE the omega concept because frankly, it DOES make those with that designation overpowered as fuck but I like to point to DC and the Justice League which has always been full of god-tier characters who are nevertheless possible to write for and give relatable issues and equivalent foes. Personally though, I've always loved it for the narrative possibilities rather than the power levels per se. I like it because omegas are like, ultimate examples of evolution (Marvel style, lol, as in the kind they always have go hand in hand with mutants but uh, isn't always scientifically on point haha). But I mean, they're individual mutants who embody the concept of constant, unending evolution. The view of omega mutants as just the most powerful misses the point, IMO...part of why I hate Bobby's constant cycle of 'untapped potential' storylines (his most often recurring narrative) is because it fails to acknowledge that omegas like him CAN'T ever fully realize their potential, just MORE of it, because like evolution, there is no actual intended ENDPOINT for his or any other omega's powers. There will always be more. Further they can go.

Anyway....I know X-Men '97 emphasized Jean, Storm and Magneto as omegas, but even it didn't actually convey the level their powers are at in the comics, other than Magneto doing the global EMP thing. Omegas can pretty much all affect things on a global scale. A group of twelve of them in the comics recently terraformed Mars, in order to relocate a bunch of mutants called the Arakkii there after they returned from their 4,000 year long war in a demon dimension, protecting Earth from being invaded by it. (Long story).

But yeah, so omegas are a thing in the comics, and no adaptation has quite yet even scratched the surface of what they can do in the comics. There's only 12 acknowledged omegas out of all the Earthborn mutants (though Hickman's list is shit IMO and its ridiculous that there's only one person of color on it, Storm, and there's several other mutants of color I'd happily add to it if given the chance to balance things out), but the Arakkii (who are all black-coded if not actually black, because of where and when Arakko/Okkara originally existed on Earth before Amenth invaded 4K years ago), have a similar number of omegas of their own. But again, we're talking around 12 mutants EACH, among their total respective populations of about a million mutants each.

Anyway, the big four of the omegas, the major names among the X-Men, are Jean, Storm, Bobby and Magneto, with the other Earth omegas being Exodus, Elixir, Hope Summers, Absolon Mercator, Jamie Braddock, Proteus, Gabriel Summers/Vulcan and Quentin Quire (sigh). And then on the Arakkii side there was Isca the Unbeaten and her sister Genesis, Apocalypse's wife, Lactuca, Sobunar, Xilo, Ora Serrata, Lycaon, Tarn, Lodus Logos, Idyll, Kobak Never-Held, and Apocalypse and Genesis' kids, the original four Horsemen. Plus they keep going back and forth on whether or not White Sword is an omega or just a really powerful External, but whatever, I digress. Anyway, that list isn't accurate anymore because as of Genesis War, a few of them are dead, just like on the Earth list Hope is....transcended I guess you could say, lol, and Elixir and Proteus are back in the White Hot Room with her and who knows where the fuck Mercator is these days, but like.

Point is, the omegas are cosmic level. Jean's current solo literally has her being called a cosmic entity, because yeah, she's one with the Phoenix again but since the Phoenix has long been described as a future point of her own evolution and was recently solidified as like, a mass gestalt of mutant life force and psyche that was collected within her and her power like a nexus point, its kinda one and the same. Storm's solo is said to have plans to have her interact with the Abstracts of the Universe (the like, ultimate top-tier beings in it), Eternity and Oblivion.

Bobby's been quite literally unkillable since the early 2000s at least, as in he's been hit with a nuke and atomized, been blown up MULTIPLE times, and he just makes himself new bodies out of the next nearest moisture. He once started a new Ice Age, can create armies of semi-autonomous ice giants, teleport anywhere there's water, etc. Oh yeah, and since he's the walking embodiment of the future heat-death of the universe, he's also frozen reality on a quantum level to quarantine a cosmic tier threat. Oh AND frozen Hell. Jean reignited a sun recently. Storm took out an alien mercenary army in seconds by just hitting them with Jupiter-level atmospheric pressure with a snap of her fingers, and the only thing about that which actually required she exert herself came from holding BACK enough that her allies standing mere feet away weren't affected the same as her targeted enemies. Vulcan talked about obliterating Mars when he got cranky, and everyone took that very seriously because he can absolutely fucking do it. Any of them can.

There's a reason X-fans are sore about how editorially scripted AvX went, and not just because the X-Men were known to be a lesser priority at that time due to the film rights, so they were never going to get to be the 'winners' of that, ideologically, even though the optics for how that fight started were not actually as great for the Avengers as Marvel seems to think they were. But it also has a lot to do with the fact with all credit to the Avengers heavy-hitters, which there are quite a few of, they tend to get their powers/origins from cosmic storylines far away from Earth, hail from other dimensions like Asgard, etc, whereas mutants have been home-growing cosmic tier fighters on Earth for decades now, and that was pretty much treated like a non-factor.

None of the omegas (and Magneto and Storm may not have OFFICIALLY been listed as such yet, but Bobby was, and its not like they actually got any power UPGRADES when they were finally canonized as omegas, it just was a label change acknowledging the power they've always been depicted as having) actually played definitive roles in that, and again, when you've got global threats in one side's ranks that you refuse to acknowledge as such in order to make sense of pitting them against opponents they should be able to handle with a finger snap, it does tend to make stans cranky. Its like yeah, they gave me a panel of Bobby fighting Red Hulk in the background, but that was the extent of his impact on AvX as a whole, even though he'd quite literally taken Thor on, solo, mere months before during the Dark Iceman arc.

But yeah, you say AvX around X-fans, we will hiss at the memory like a snake. Was not fun for us. And again, this isn't to disparage the cosmic tier characters the Avengers have, and of the Fantastic Four, Sue and Johnny are right up there at the top of any power ranking system one might care to devise. But...like....mutants tend to deal with their threats internally in the Marvel universe, so every mutant alive has known for decades that Magneto, Storm, Iceman and Jean should not be locked in a room together and told to fight because without nonomegas who can't actually survive the stuff they can around them to remind them to keep their power levels DOWN, those four could very easily blow up the Earth before they even realize what happened since omegas vs omegas equals unlimited escalation.

Meanwhile, it was literally only during the Krakoan era that anyone OUTSIDE of mutants sat up and took note of the omega classification (which has existed for decades) even being a THING, let alone mutants casually being like 'oh yeah, we have like, twelve of those guys.'

LOL, so anyway. Yeah, it is kinda funny to hear the X-Men in existing adaptations described as OP, because none of them even come close to scratching the surface of how many of the X-Men are portrayed in the comics. I have very little interest in the MCU as a whole, and am not expecting to be a fan of their take on the X-Men but I am very curious to see which X-Men they emphasize as the heavy-hitters and what level of power they depict them as being at. For better or worse, whether fans like it or hate it, there's a good dozen of them who can go toe to toe with literal gods without breaking a sweat.

(Like, literally literally, not how Kalen usually uses literally literally. Bobby single-handedly thwarted a Loki 'take over Asgard' scheme in the EIGHTIES, at a time when only Thor himself was going one on one with his brother and if he wasn't around, Loki was considered a 'bring your whole team' kind of threat. And this was a full decade before the omega term was even a thing. Thor's canonically been wary of Bobby since the latter was SIXTEEN because he considers him to be a baby Ymir, the father of all frost giants. He was literally playing poker with other Avengers when he sensed Bobby go Dark Side during the Dark Iceman arc and his face went 'oh fuck.' You know how powerful you have to be to make Thor's face go 'oh fuck'?)

(Fimbulvetr is the Asgardian term for the Everwinter, the start of Ragnarok. Its a Ymir thing. Incidentally, after AvX when the X-Men and Avengers were making a point to cooperate, Thor and Bobby teamed up against Ymir himself, and THEN Marvel was perfectly happy to allow Bobby to kick his ass solo and be like 'what, was that supposed to be hard' to an incredulous Thor, BUT I DIGRESS).

But anyway, the official omega list is very recent, but everyone on it like Storm, Jean, Bobby and Magneto have all been consistently powerful as fuck since the 80s, MINIMUM. Bobby's 80s solo was used to debut Oblivion, an Abstract of the Universe, Storm was channeling the energy of multiple stars when fighting the Brood in space, and that was all decades ago. They've all had occasions of being nerfed since then, but for the past decade or so, the Big Four have had relatively few occasions of that compared to any point before, and Marvel's been more pointed about keeping their upper ranges of power more normalized for them.

[evilwickedme]

I saw in the tags you mentioned spideypool fic recs 👂 I'm listening

breaking the DC streak to go to Marvel because fun fact I've been into DC for six months and into Marvel comics for eight years so

anyway a majority of my spideypool bookmarks are from 2015 and I have no idea if most of them are any good which is an interesting problem to have but I still have a solid list for y'all

Say Anything...Except That - I was following this from the first chapter and I'm now mutuals with the author which was very fanboy moment for me (if you're seeing this, hi!). it has a lot of old school fanfiction.net quirks to it which might be a bit difficult to swallow if you've only been reading fic for a few years, but honestly I think this fic is really good and holds up to this day. it's been a while since I read it last but iirc Deadpool has to protect Spider-Man or Peter from assassination attempts and there's a lot of pining involved. also mattfoggy ended up having a nice arc because this was 2015 and Daredevil had just aired (this is technically incomplete there's one chapter left but if I had to reread it multiple times when there were only like ten chapters you can handle it)

under attack - more fics by people who are wayyy too cool to have followed me back and yet somehow did? anyway this is part of stackthedeck's team red slash series (ELITE ship fyi) but this one is spideypool focused and has some nice fluff. fighting as flirting idk what else to say it's golden

#NoPlaceLikeHome - do y'all know ask-spiderpool? you should it's one of the best blogs on this damn website and a must-read for spideypool shippers. anyway this is that version of spideypool's first time together which is cute :D short and sweet basically. sciderman has a lot of fics for the spiderman fandom in general and their ask-spiderpool au in particular and they're all worth reading

Dissonance - another longfic that took half a decade to write about deadpool protecting spider-man from harm. I actually don't know why this trope is so good peter really can defend himself but there you go

Perfect Enough - ohm y gOD this fic series is so good. this au hinges on such a tiny difference in peter's history but it makes ALL the difference. anyway in this world basically nobody has a functional secret identity anymore except for spider-man. meanwhile, wade wilson and peter parker start dating. so much plot, two separate longfics each around 140k, good luck this CONSUMED my life

speaking of consumed, rippling - this is part of a series called Into the Multiverse and is based on the Spiderverse film so it's Peter B. which I LOVE (spideybpool FUCKS). the series spun out of the authors' other series and it is, in fact, a pain to read the main entries in the series without reading the other serieses which means that I did spend two weeks doing little to nothing except reading deniigiq's work, but a. it was worth b. this one can be read as a standalone! wade jumps in front of a bullet for peter b and he angsts about it I love it

finally ahem speaking of Peter B, did you know I've been writing spideypool fic since 2015 and I wrote one specifically for spiderverse? I'm a mess (but I'm the mess that you wanted) is really a mix of spiderverse and comic canon like, five years into the future, and deals mostly with like, depression and suicidal ideation on Peter's behalf, but hey there's also a plot AND a happy polyam ending which, what else could you want really

anyway sorry the list isn't longer I didn't bookmark so many of my favorite spideypool fics and now they're lost in the void forever :/

[theturncoattournament]

Polls will start going up on Thursday! Given the number of them (there are 64 polls total), it will probably take a couple of days for all the R1 polls to be posted.

As a side note: some people submitted their propaganda with notes about spoilers attached (which I've kept in the propaganda), but given that this is kind of an inherently spoiler-y tournament by nature- I will generally not be tagging spoilers.

I have compiled a list of all the media that has characters in this tournament, though- so if you see something on this list that you do want tagged for spoilers, please let me know! Otherwise, by default, I will not be tagging things with spoiler warnings (this list will also be added to the pinned post).

Tournament Media List:

(list is in alpha order!)

2001: A Space Odyssey/2010: The Year We Made Contact

Ace Attorney/The Great Ace Attorney

Animation vs Minecraft

Arthurian legend 

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Bamse - Världens starkaste björn

Bones

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Bungo Stray Dogs

Centaurworld

Chess The Musical 

The Chronicles of Narnia

Code Geass

Critical Role (Campaign 2) 

Cult of the Lamb

DC Comics (Batfamily, Flash characters, Shazam family)

Devil May Cry

Doctor Who

Dog Man

Dragon Age: Inquisition 

Dragon Ball Z

The Evillious Chronicles 

Fable III

Fairy Tail

Fake Princess

Farscape

Final Fantasy XIV

Game of Thrones

Genshin Impact

The Good Place

Gravity Falls

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

Hannibal

The Hunger Games

I Expect You to Die 3

The Incredibles 

Just Dance

Kingdom Hearts

Kinnporsche 

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts 

Kirby series

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords manga

The Librarians

The Locked Tomb

Machineries of Empire

Maleficent

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Marvel Comics (X-Men, Avengers) 

Megamind

Merlin

Mistborn

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

Nan Quest

Once Upon A Time

One Piece

The Owl House

Pandora Hearts

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Person of Interest 

The Pirates of Penzance

Pirates of the Caribbean 

Portal 2

Power Rangers: Dino Fury

Pretty Cure (Fresh Precure, Kira Kira Precure a la Mode, Suite Precure, Hugtto Precure)

Provost’s Dog

Princess Tutu

Raya and the Last Dragon

RWBY

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Smallville

Sonic the Hedgehog OVA 

Soul Eater

Soul series (Soul Calibur/Edge) 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Wars (Prequels, Original trilogy, Rebels, Clone Wars, Knights of the Old Republic) 

Steven Universe

The Stormlight Archive

Sunless Sea

Tangled: The Series

Teen Titans (2003 series) 

Teen Wolf

Terminator films 

Transformers

Tron Legacy

Vorkosigan Saga

Warrior Cats

Wings of Fire

Wolf 359

Worm

Young Justice

Yu Yu Hakusho