#this is not even getting into how radically different the various out of continuity comics can be

[zorilleerrant]

Vixen: NYC is set in the same universe as WFA and Mari literally doesn't even have the same name, let alone the same backstory as most of her main series counterparts. Zatanna and the Ripper is set in the same universe, and Zatanna is specifically 21 in that continuity, which makes it impossible for Bruce to have dated her while he was training with her dad - not to mention how much older than her that makes Constantine this time. The Webtoons are a different version of the story from the comics.

I mean, not that the comics are a single universe. There's Crisis and then there's New 52 and Rebirth didn't quite put everything back but it did revert most things. But we're in the middle of a soft reboot now that's reshuffling some things, and doesn't always explain them? Terry's mom and brother are back and they're fine and I don't even know if Mattie is supposed to have been Robin now. Steph's dad is back and set up to be evil at her again. I don't think Bruce and Selena are meant to be divorced or even engaged anymore I think their relationship is moving back to the beginning now. JJ is back but not in an alive way he's just rewritten into the backstory of the comic, but Babs is still Jim's daughter and not his niece. Do you guys know about Alfred's first origin? What about Lance?

The BtAS universe is also a separate one, in which Tim is a poor kid with a mob dad and Jason doesn't even exist. Babs is older in that one, more like her original incarnation, and fell in love with Bruce. Talia died and Ra's took over her body when the Pit stopped working on him, and while Ibn Al Xuffasch might exist, Damian doesn't. Harley and the Joker have both kids and grandkids. Leslie also has a much more central role, even if no screen time.

In Batwoman, Bruce has been dead for years, as has Lucius, and while Alfred exists it's entirely unclear whether there's ever been a Robin, and strongly implied there's never been a Batwoman or Batgirl. Kate has a whole extra sister, and a close friend that's never been mentioned before. Luke is an only child, though.

In Titans, Bruce kills the Joker. He doesn't even take much convincing, because he's always desperately wanted to kill in that universe. He forced Dick to become Robin by making him fight rabid wolves with a machete. Jason was sixteen when he became Robin, and only dead for a few days. Steph, Harper, etc. canonically exist as photographs in a database and don't have anything to do with superheroes. Tim becomes Robin but he's never even met Bruce. Also his parents are very loving and protective people who run a Chinese restaurant that Tim works at with his cousin, an original character. He built an entire bunker full of computers in order to stalk the Batfamily.

In Gotham, all the supervillains appear much earlier than Batman. Babs' mom turns evil and then reforms. There's two Jokers. Bruce is significantly older when his parents die, and isn't friends with Harvey at all. Leslie runs the mafia. Alfred's father abused him into becoming a butler for his entire childhood. Also in that universe the nazis won and everyone travels by zeppelin.

In the Harley Quinn show, everyone is dead. They just kill off everyone. Clock King is mlm and married to Riddler. Damian is a whiny little kid who just wants to play video games and hang out with his friends, but enjoys being super cute for attention on TV. Harley and Ivy live in Catwoman's house with a thousand cats. Joker is the mayor. Babs is just starting college. Alysia is straight. Half the characters simply don't exist.

In Gotham Knights, Steph is an ultra-rich socialite lesbian. Dick might or might not exist, but the rest of the Wayne kids for sure absolutely don't. We're concerned with Turner, who's sort of Jason, except he never knew anything about Batman until he died. Which, Bruce Wayne is dead again. Harper and Cullen are cat burglars for hire. Cullen is trans and found someone to do his top surgery a couple years ago despite the fact that he's supposed to be like sixteen and on the run from his legal guardian. Steph is rich because her dad actually does run a successful quiz show, btw.

In Young Justice, people's ages are flipped around willy nilly. Kaldur is the inspiration behind Jackson, except Jackson is gay, so following that they retconned Kaldur to be bi. Cass was raised entirely by her mother who somehow managed to be even more evil and abusive than her father and literally sewed her mouth shut - also she can't read body language because she was never taught that. There are at least two Roys. Billy was raised by his loving uncle in a comfortable middle class household, but also still became a superhero as a baby somehow. Nothing happened to the Martians, Martian Manhunter just moved to Earth for some reason.

In Batman '89, Dick has an older brother, and that loss is a significant portion of why he wants revenge so badly and is so reticent to develop new relationships. He's also almost eighteen when this happens, and doesn't need a guardian except technically. Babs is not related to Jim, but instead Alfred. Selena is blonde. Bane is Poison Ivy's pet, and Ivy herself had a simple lab accident which expanded her mind hallucinogenically and gave her evil self-confidence. Everyone drag races.

In Birds of Prey (02-03) Selena died when Helena was young but Bruce would have nothing to do with her, so Babs adopted her. Later they take in Dinah, who's a teen runaway, and inherited her Canary Cry from her mother, who went missing in a grand mystery that left Dinah in a vulnerable position. Harley Quinn is completely sane, dresses in modest business attire, still works as a psychiatrist/psychologist but in a private practice, and has been working to spring Mr. J all along.

And let's not even get started on the Shark-Repellent Batspray.

People pick and choose details from all of these all the time. Parts of one will make their way into another, things osmose into the comics and meander back out again. But a universe where the Batkids are closer in age, Damian is still a baby, and they enjoy spending time together? That's beyond the pale? What for???

Begging people to understand what AU means.

Alternate Universe!

It has the same characters as canon but their background might or might not be the same! You cannot complain that the AU doesn’t use the canon content, of course it doesn’t! Is an entire ALTERNATE UNIVERSE!!

[thevindicativevordan]

What do you think of Ultimatum and the Ultimate Universe post-that in detail?

Conceptually the Ultimate Universe makes a lot of sense and I wish DC had gone that route with the New 52.

Newcomers are constantly asking how they can possibly get into comics when the continuity is so byzantine that you need a walkthrough on where to start. Marvel had a great solution: why not just sidestep the main universe and create a new one? That way you don't alienate your current fanbase by rebooting, and some of your mainline readers might still be interested enough to check out an alternate version of their favorite characters alongside the new blood. Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man set the tone for the entire initiative, the runaway success of USM turning what was supposed to just be a retelling of Spider-Man's origin in the present day into a full fledged universe. Ultimate versions of the F4, the X-Men, and the Avengers - called the Ultimates because Marvel had no faith in the Avengers brand name as crazy as that seems now - soon followed. Mandate was simple: update Marvel's premiere franchises for a modern day audience. Way the writers fulfilled that directive was to make everyone huge assholes (apart from Spider-Man who was mostly the same as his 616 counterpart) in an attempt to be more "realistic".

Realism was the buzz word that the Ultimate Universe revolved around. No secret identities, the heroes killed much more freely, the government either outright conscripted or kept close watch over all the heroes, and the more fantastical side of the 616 universe was either revamped or not present here. Dead meant dead in the UU, barring a few cheats. All superheroes were tied in various ways to attempts at recreating the Super Soldier Serum that gave Captain America his powers. Would you believe that the UU was so successful at it's peak people actually thought there was a chance Marvel might scrap 616 and make the UU the mainline Marvel Universe? Bendis on USM and Millar on the Ultimates outsold their 616 counterparts pretty handily as I recall. Less successful were the Ultimate F4 and Ultimate X-Men franchises which never enjoyed the same esteem by my recollection. Nonetheless Marvel had successfully created an alternate universe that brought in new readers, revamped aging franchises with fresh ideas, and revitalized sales.

Then came Ultimatum.

Ok much as it pains me to say, I get why they did this. Over time the UU had accumulated so much continuity it became incapable of fulfilling it's original goal of being the MU that you didn't need to read a bunch of back issues to get into. They needed to rebrand the purpose of the Ultimate line. Asking the question "what can the Ultimate Universe be if it can't be the easy gateway into comics anymore?", prompted Ultimatum as an answer: it can be the MU that radically changes. Take a look at the list of those killed. Would anyone really give a damn if any of the big names on that list died in a 616 event? Answer for anyone with any experience with Big 2 comics is no. A-Listers who die always come back eventually, just takes a while. Used to be a joke that "nobody stays dead in comics except Jason Todd, Bucky, and Uncle Ben". I'm sure that joke is still funny for modern readers, albeit for totally different reasons now. Ultimatum killed major players off and completely changed the status quo of the UU for good. It's a story with real stakes, a story that mattered all the way up until the UU got shuttered.

Too bad it fucking sucked.

Jarring continuity errors, terrible pacing, cartoonishly edgy even for the UU, unsatisfying and abrupt deaths, and idiotic retcons made Ultimatum widely reviled as it was coming out. It's a terrible story that basically killed the Ultimate Universe. Afterwards the UU never returned to the level of acclaim and interest it enjoyed in it's prime. The Ultimate F4 and Ultimate X-Men franchises were more or less dead after this event, with Ultimate Reed becoming evil in one of the few positively received post Ultimatum events, and the X-Men just limping along. One rumor that I've heard but am unable to confirm is that Peter was supposed to die for real here, but Bendis basically threatened to leave Marvel if they didn't let him kill Peter on his own terms.

When Ultimate Peter was killed in the acclaimed Death of Spider-Man that was the death blow for the Ultimate Universe too. Miles brought some interest back by becoming the first black Spider-Man, but he was never Peter's equal in terms of sales. Hickman managed to spark some excitement again with his amazing Ultimates relaunch that billed itself as taking full advantage of the freedom the UU offered and featured Ultimate Reed aka The Maker as the new linewide bad guy. DC dropped the New 52 around the same time and that smothered Hickman's ambitions in the crib, Marvel yanked him over to the 616 Avengers titles to retool them into competition for Johns blockbuster Justice League relaunch. When Hickman left there was only a rapidly accelerating decline for the Ultimate titles. Bendis meandered around with Miles, clearly struggling with what to do now that he could no longer simply retell 616 ASM storylines. Humphries wrapped up Hickman's plots as quickly as he could, in a manner that most found unsatisfactory and caused another exodus. Another brief Ultimates relaunch, that marketed itself as a progressive team with no white guys and Miles at the center, was a huge flop due to being widely critically panned and terrible. There was a brief Ultimate FF relaunch by Fialkov that had quite possibly the worst art I have ever seen on a Big 2 book. Eventually Secret Wars mercy-killed the UU and aside from Miles and the Maker, no other characters were deemed worthy of being moved over to 616.

Biggest impact and legacy of the Ultimate Universe is the MCU. Whedon was a huge fan of the line and used Millar's Ultimates as the basis for the Avengers movies. The early MCU - especially RDJ's Iron Man and Holland's Spider-Man - owes an enormous debt to the UU's portrayal of the characters. The MCU picked from the best of 616 and the UU stories to craft it's own takes, and the movies would have been radically different without the UU's existence. Ultimate Spider-Man is what convinced the world that Peter Parker's ideal status quo is being a teenager in high school, and unfortunately likely encouraged Quesada's desire to erase the 616 Spider-Marriage. Like everything else there was a lot of good and a lot of bad, with the good being moved over to 616 or adapted into the MCU, and the bad buried with the universe itself.

There's rumblings that the UU will come back in some way, I know Donny Cates has set up the Maker returning there, but regardless of whether it does return or not I think the concept has outlived all possible use at this point. Maybe they should just make a new alternate universe instead?

[thanksjro]

The Transformers #22- Chaos Theory Part 1: Space Racism, Space Classism, and Space Pseudo-Romantic Tension Between Rivals

Before I jump into this comic, it is positively vital I talk about Drift.

Drift is an IDW original character, born on the page without any previous rendition. He was introduced in All Hail Megatron #5, which was Shane MeCarthy’s fifth solo writing credit for IDW publishing. He waited a whole five comics to introduce an original character, and Drift had reason and purpose to his creation- he was meant to honor Japan as the home of Transformers. He existed to show what a Decepticon defector would be like, and how both factions were losing the plot of the ideals they fought for. Pretty thought out stuff.

Meanwhile, in The Transformers #22, on the FIRST FLIPPING PAGE-

Okay, to be fair, Rung isn’t super important here. He will be later on, but as it is, he’s just a funny little creamsicle man who’s wandered into the scene. This also isn’t technically his first appearance within the IDW publications; in the Last Stand of the Wreckers, there are several character profiles, penned in-universe by Rung, going over the members of the Wreckers and their various emotional/mental ailments. This is still quite the step up for him, however. To think, he started out as a one-off psych joke in Eugenesis. He’s come such a long way. I’m so proud of him.

Anyway, our story begins in the past, at Maccadam’s New Oil House, where it’s time for Megatron’s character depth injection. He and Impactor are having drinks- Impactor’s had several glasses of what appears to be molten lava, while Megatron’s more of a children’s cough syrup kind of guy- and Megatron’s showing his friend his writing. You see, Megatron’s a bit of a revolutionary, and an intellectual one at that.

Megatron is dissatisfied with the current state of affairs on Cybertron, and as a man of the people- he is but a lowly miner at this point in time- he feels it is the duty of the public to incite change through the power of language and critical thinking. 

That’s not really Impactor’s style though, as we find out when Rung gets tossed onto their table, and Impactor decides that the best course of action to take is to start punching the guys who’re throwing entire robots around in a bar full of very breakable glasses and drunkards.

In the present day, Megatron’s still hooked up to that full-body harness, and is currently being seen to by Ratchet… and Perceptor. When the hell did Perceptor get here?

Oh, okay, cool. Thank you, TFWiki.

Ratchet runs a bit different than one would expect him to here, not quite as grumpy as he’ll end up in MTMTE, and a bit superstitious. No, the role of the strictly-fact-based bluntness has been awarded to Perceptor this issue, who quells Ratchet’s concern with Megatron using his labelled black hole/antimatter powers by telling him to stop being stupid.

Meanwhile, in the observation room, Ironhide, Optimus Prime, and Xaaron are watching this scene go down. Xaaron’s here to act as legal council, since Megatron’s surrendered himself to the Autobots and is therefore a prisoner of war. Is this the first time legal precedent has been taken into account by the Cybertronian population in the IDW run? No, but it does seem as if Xaaron’s just about the only form of legal council they have. No wonder the planet’s such a mess.

There’s a reference to the fact that Ironfist is fucking dead, and then Xaaron leaves to talk to Wheeljack.

Don’t you smile about that, you absolute jag.

Something is bothering Optimus Prime. Megatron seemed off when they last spoke, as if he were putting on a performance. Which he kind of was, considering he invited the entirety of his Decepticon forces to watch him and Optimus beat the shit out of each other. Does Megatron want to- dare we dream it?- end the war? Only one way to find out: Ironhide suggests a heart to heart.

Back in the past, Megatron is being questioned by a cop, in the aftermath of what happened at Maccadam’s.

Did Megatron get his group’s tagline from some prison graffiti? I suppose inspiration can strike someone anywhere, at any time.

Springarm’s questioning Megatron, or at least he’s attempting to- seems to be having a hell of a time with both reading comprehension and having an outdated form. Cold construction gets its first mention in officially published media- an idea played around with in Eugenesis- and then Whirl shows up to save Springarm from embarrassing himself further. Whirl is a cop here, but don’t worry, he gets better.

Back in the present, Optimus is psyching himself up for his conversation with Megatron.  He enters, has the audio in the observation room cut, and Wheeljack loses a bet.

Oh hey, Drift, been a minute.

Optimus wants a proper conversation with Megatron, but Megatron points out that it isn’t exactly fair that he’s strapped in place, filled with inhibitor chips, and primed to be electrocuted to death if he so much as sneezes. Optimus agrees with him, and releases Megatron from his bonds, then offers him a chair and a cup of tea.

So, Optimus and Megatron get to talking. Actual talking, not the “taking turns reacting” stuff they usually get up to.

And then Optimus more or less calls Megatron a hateful son of a bitch to his face. Which Megatron seems to take in stride.

I think Megatron is the only guy in the universe to hate so insanely hard that it turned off his ability to get hot and bothered.

Of course, Megatron doesn’t hate Optimus- oh, he could never. He just hates everything he stands for, and everything he does. Which, uh, doesn’t leave a whole lot left over to not-hate. When asked if he hates Megatron, Optimus isn’t nearly as composed and elegant about his thoughts. It’s like he thinks “hate” is a dirty word. So did I, when I was, like, six.

They’ve been at war for so very long, it’s gotten to the point where the entirety of the galactic council has kicked any Cybertronian representative out, because these guys clearly have some issues that just aren’t getting resolved. Maybe if they had more than a single mental health specialist for the entire population they’d get somewhere.

As it currently stands, Optimus just wants to know what the hell Megatron is even doing all this for. Megatron says it’s for control and dunking on lower lifeforms with space racism. Optimus thinks that’s a load of horseshit, and presses for more details.

There’s our first mention of the Knights of Cybertron, who become a major plot point in the IDW Phase 2 publications. We’ll hear more about them later on.

It seems as if Optimus and Megatron share the basest of values- both want peace. Optimus just isn’t really digging the whole “subjugate the people for a better tomorrow” shtick Megatron’s touting.

Megatron doesn’t like being compared to Optimus, who’s about as centrist as it gets- Megatron is a radical if there ever was one, and he’s been fighting for his beliefs for the last four millions years, tooth and nail.

Not that these robots have nails.

Back in the old days, the Senate divvied up the populace by alt-mode, and whatever you turned into, that was your job. Personal taste, interest, and  talent weren’t factors. That’s why Megatron worked in the mines- he wasn’t allowed to do anything else. This is Functionism, another plot point that will be factoring into Phase 2 pretty heavily.

Optimus didn’t really oppose Functionism at the time, seeing as he was a rather privileged individual, and also a cop back in the day. Everyone’s a friggin’ cop in this continuity.

But enough about systemic oppression of the masses, it’s time to reminisce on the good old days- also known as every single time Optimus and Megatron have ever tried to kill each other. It’s a lot. Like, a lot. And then they have a good laugh about it.

This isn’t a healthy response to stress, you two. Someone throw Rung in there and lock the door for a couple weeks.

Optimus says that he wants to end the war. All Megatron has to say is that he wants it too, and it’ll end. Megatron doesn’t say anything to that. Optimus still hasn’t figured out just why Megatron surrendered, but it looks like time’s up, and he strings Megatron back up and exits the room.

Later, Autobot High Command is having a meeting, with Bumblebee, Ultra Magnus and Prowl having telecommed in. It’s an emergency meeting, over the complicated legality of Megatron’s trial. Since the Galactic Council isn’t returning their calls, they don’t have any sort of neutral third party to run this thing, and the Autobots can’t just hand out sentencing themselves, because they have a natural bias. Magnus suggests they give Chief Justice Tyrest a ring, seeing as he’s considered a neutral by the Galactic Council.

There’s another part to this issue though; because of the nature of this case, the prosecution gets to decide Megatron’s punishment, should he be found guilty. They start putting it to a vote, but Optimus says that it’s his decision since Megatron has been his responsibility for the last few million years, completely cutting Bumblebee out.

Y’know, Bumblebee. The current appointed leader of the Autobots.

Why do we even bother having elections, if Optimus is just going to pull this whenever it’s convenient?

Then Rodimus calls Optimus out on being potentially compromised, since he listened in on his little chat with Megatron. Optimus reacts to this about as well as he can.

That is to say, not at all.

Back in the past, it’s time for some good old-fashioned police brutality.

How in the hell do you even punch someone when the closest thing you can make to a fist is more akin to a torpedo in shape? I guess only Whirl knows.

Whirl’s decided that he’ll be killing Megatron for his two little buddies, and he almost gets to it before Springarm busts in and stops him. Megatron’s being released, on the captain’s orders, because the captain went through Megatron’s things and read his writing, revealing himself to be a violenceless revolutionary.

Impactor, what the fuck.

The captain is Orion Pax, by the way.

In the present, Optimus is back in Megatron’s room, because that will certainly help his case of being on the up and up. He wants to know why Megatron surrendered, and he wants to know NOW DAMMIT. Megatron asks him to rephrase the question, then goes full edgelord in an attempt to make Optimus react, because it’s the only way the two of them know how to interact at this point.

Megatron gets what he asks for, and Optimus realizes that perhaps attempting to murder his greatest rival minutes after having been revealed as a have a soft spot for the guy wasn’t the greatest idea. He leaves the room before things can get more awkward.

He runs into Ironhide in the hallway, who asks how things are. Not great, Ironhide. Not great. Optimus committed an act of violence on a bound man, thus feeding his hatred of authority figures.

In the past, Megatron finally corrects the etymology error everyone’s been making with his name.

Because that’s not a massive red flag right there.

Megatron’s free to go, and Springarm gives him his little journal back. Too bad Megatron’s been tainted by the ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀ ᴏꜰ ᴠɪᴏʟᴇɴᴄᴇ and doesn’t nearly believe as much as he once did in the power of the written word. He tosses his writing away, causing his first incident of property damage and foreshadowing his future.

That’s the end of the comic, but not the end of the issue. In the back of the book is a little blurb welcoming Roberts to the writing chair and calling him out as a bit of a dork, then a sign-off from Andy Schmidt as Senior Editor of IDW, which also calls him out as a bit of a dork.

So that’s the start of the Chaos storyline. Lots of setup here, both for Chaos and things further down the line. This is a sharp left turn from how the prior issues of this series have gone. It’s not just people punching one another in the face. I’m getting a feeling that character motivation is lurking in the wings here.

[nightmarenoise]

Just comparing two cartoons I love

I understand that nobody asked in any capacity, but here I go anyway:

It feels fair to compare Ducktales 2017 to Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2018), not only because they're only about a year apart and truly, what is a year, but also because they

1. Both use this style that looks like it jumped straight out of a comic book. Okay, it's mostly the solidly inked shadows, but it gives me, personally, comic-y vibes.

2. They have taken what's arguably the main characters (the triplets for DT, the Turtles for TMNT) and shaken the formula up a good bit. Were the triplets formerly indistinguishable and all had the exact same personality, interests and voice actor, they are now three entirely separate entities with different traits and appearances. And while the turtles had about one defining personality trait and looked basically the same, save for the color of their masks, Rise made them different species of turtle to justify giving them radically different designs and three-dimensional personalities. Both shows faced criticism for this decision from people who cannot deal with change. Despite this, in both cases, it just works and does so incredibly well.

3. The oldest bros wear red.

4. We have two middle bros associated with the color blue who are both voiced by Ben Schwartz.

5. Both shows have a focus on family, with Ducktales especially focusing on found family and Rise on brotherhood.

6. Anime references!

Ducktales has a larger cast overall, with a lot of different characters all interacting with each other and they all have the most pleasant voices I've ever heard in my entire life. It's all solidly animated, the style is consistent and the animation is fluid, the characters are diverse and they're all lovely in their own right, except for those who aren't. The writing is top notch. Everyone feels consistent despite the large cast and it's delightful to watch all those interesting people interact with each other in their own way. The show also handles its mystery elements and occasional action scenes incredibly well, building suspense and delivering laughs and gut punches without hesitation. They juggle different tones like a professional clown, except the true clown was us, the audience, all along, for ever having doubted them.

The overarching plot of Ducktales, for its first two seasons, was mostly to uncover the mystery of what had happened to the mother of the triplets and all that would entail. Mystery and mythical elements will likely continue to be afoot for season 3.

Rise works with less focal characters, we have the Turtles, Splinter and April as well as various bad guys, but more than makes up for it with a lot of animation. A lot a lot of animation and it's all high quality. There's usually so much going on on-screen that a watching it once isn't enough to catch it all. Despite that, it doesn't feel crowded or rushed. Lots of dynamic shots and incredibly-choreographed action scenes, but nothing the thoroughly solid writing has to hide behind. Even when the baddies aren't the main concern, they're still well-rounded, interesting characters with unique abilities and motivations. Although, most of the mutants are just really feral. Still a delightfully diverse cast.

The turtles on the other hand spent their first season trying to foil their various foes, from a yokai trying to mutate all of humanity, to his mutants, to dealing with random mythical stuff, to the nefarious Foot Clan trying to reassemble the Dark Armor in the shadows. It's generally a more action-driven show, but they still find the time for some heartfelt moments.

The triplets 2.0

Despite their conventiently color-coded caps, they were really mostly the same character possessing three different bodies at a time. Well, the times of eerie The Shining like-twins, except extended to triplets, are over!

We have Huey, the oldest brother, voiced by Danny Pudi. He's a gentle, intellectual soul who values red hats, science, scout badges and checklists. Huey is arguably the closest in characterization to the original triplets, with some additional neat freak sprinkled in for flavor. He tries to be the responsible older sibling and keep his brothers under control and out of trouble. He also seems to have the most fiery temper of the bunch and should clearly not be pressed to the breaking point. He's my personal favorite and I heard season 3 will bring more focus to him, which makes me elated to hear. 888/10.

Middle child Dewey, the blue one, voiced by Ben Schwartz, who will inevitably come for all the iconic blue characters. He's very clearly the middle one, because he craves attention and validation and occasionally dreams of being an only child. Dewey is the one who started the investigation into their mom's disappearance and kept it from his brothers, partially to save them from hurt, but also because he wanted to feel special. He's the most interested in going on adventures with their uncle, but can get reckless when doing so. He's a bit of a spotlight hog, who has his own talk show that nobody watches and sings his own theme song when he needs to get hyped up, or just to fill this silence. This may sound kind of negative, but rest assured, he's a good, sweet boy. The focal triplet for the first season. 500/10.

Louie, the evil triplet, a schemer and a conman. Voiced by Bobby Moynihan.  The youngest of the bunch. While they call him evil, he's really far too lazy to cause serious harm, except for when it's his laziness that's causing him to take dangerous shortcuts, oops. He dreams of making a fortune, but without having to work for it and preferably without any responsibility either, thank you. He also occasionally dreams of being a spoiled fat cat. Despite his chill demeanor, he can be a bit of a crybaby and those tears are only fake 50% of the time. I feel like he likes getting babied, but mainly because that means there's less work for him to do. Season 2, which focuses more on him, reveals that he's actually quite brilliant, capable of seeing all the angles and giving him some chessmaster-like qualities. He needs to learn to use those abilities for good. 665/10.

Hi, she's Webbie! The honorary triplet, who also got a massive makeover, from annoying token girl tagalong to socially awkward, adorkable action girl. Be careful who you call ugly in middle school, indeed. Like a more ferocious  Mabel Pines, she has a grappling hook and years of martial arts training under her belt. Webbie can absolutely decimate you, but won't, because she's a sweet girl. Voiced by Kate Micucci. She continues to like unicorns and the color pink, but assuredly in the most badass of ways. She helped Dewey with his quest to uncover the mystery of his missing mom, but works well with all of the triplets, with Huey taking her under his wing a bit and Louie trying to get her to chill out more. Webbie is a sweetheart and I would die for her, were it not completely unnecessary, since she's more than capable of taking care of herself. ∞/10.

A lot of the supporting cast also saw updates and changes, for instance Gyro being a genius without social skills and Fenton being an adorkable scientist, but again, they work really well. They're interesting new takes on beloved characters. Even the new additions to the cast are great. In short, I love me some birds and am excited for season 3, Disney, get your scheduling together.

The Turtles 2.14.2 - I upgraded my upgrade in the middle of the upgrade

Also, these guys have seen so many different iterations in their, what, 30+ years of existence. As someone with no prior attachment to the turtle brand, I don't have a lot to say here. Leo's not the leader in this one and Raph has more personality than being angry at Leo for being the leader. Donnie is not just a random nerd spouting technobabble and Mikey has more depth than yelling the catchphrase every now and again. Apparently, this made people upset. I don't know how to help you with that.  The middle brothers exude some high chaotic energy and should not be left unsupervised, but the oldest and youngest seem fairly stable.

Raphael, the red-bandana'd alligator snapping turtle is an imposing figure. He's the oldest and therefore team leader by default. Raph has no reason to be upset at Leo, so he isn't. Despite his ferocious appearance, he's a soft guy, who likes teddies and doting on his brothers, but fears puppets. He's a bit of a knucklehead, most of his plans involve smashing things with his tonfa and he may refer to himself in the third person in the heat of the moment, but he possesses emotional intelligence, is open about his feelings and looks after his brothers. He is big and and strong, but his heart is bigger and stronger. He especially loves small animals animals, who don't usually return his feelings. RIP in F. This responsible guy is voiced by Omar Benson Miller. 300/10, very soft. Somehow both the heart and the big guy of the group.

Donatello has been upgraded from second-to-youngest to second-to-oldest, not that it makes much of a difference. His color of choice is purple and he continues in the character's tradition of being a nerd, although this time, with self-confidence. Donnie is very sure of himself and his abilities. As a spiny soft-shell turtle, he's less sure of his shell, but that's okay, he's made robotic battle shells to make up for it and his bō is the mother of all multitools. This guy can build you a tank out of a buggie and upgrade your animatronic into something to give the FNAF franchise a run for its money. He's the smartest of the four and when not focused on his phone, very focused on the mission. Due to having to deal with his bros, he can be exasperated a lot. Thinks of himself as an emotionally unavailable bad boy, even though he's just really sensitive and wants his dad or someone parent-aged to tell him they're proud of him. Theater kid. 999/10, give the middle child a hug and some coffee, you can't tell me he has a healthy sleep cycle. This sarcastic nerd is brought to you by Josh Brener.

Leonardo, Ben Schwartz's second blue character (Sonic (2020) being the third under his belt) and also his second ninja after Randy Cunningham. He's not the leader. He's still a good character. Leo has approximately 800 charisma and unwavering faith in both, his family and himself. Mostly himself though. Like Louie, season 2 revealed that he is a master of prediction and playing people like the cheap kazoo you can't tell me he doesn't have to play Darude's Sandstorm on. He dabs, he boards, he will pun you to death and back and he has an Odachi that can cut through space. Leo likes hogging the spotlight when given the chance and wants to be showered with attention and praise. Having four kids really only means twice the middle child nonsense. Leo is a red-eared slider, the original species of the TMNT, as I've been told. He's also the best at being a ninja, but usually too lazy to really apply himself. He's younger than Donnie, but tumblr suggested to read the two as twins, since they're approximately the same age, which sheds a whole new light on their dynamic and frankly, makes way too much sense. 420/10, for our memelord Leonardo.

Michelangelo, the eternally youngest of the bunch. An artiste, who puts stickers on himself, tags the lair, has a spiritual connection to his skateboard and the color orange. Mikey loves all things arts and craft, but he also tries his hands at cooking. He idolizes famous TV chefs and can do pretty much anything out of and into pizza. He's funny, without being annoying, like I feel a lot of other iterations of this character are. It's an easy pitfall for comic relief guys, but this one is more than that. If that's an issue, feel free to leave my house. Mikey is genuinely sweet and happy, optimistic and soft, but also the one brother who knows when it's time to take off the gloves and just get straight to the point. He's open about and in touch with his feelings. He's just baby. Don't treat him as one though. A lot of promo stuff says Leo has taken him under his wing, but he's had more episodes together with Donnie. Not that I'm complaining, they work very well together. Mikey and Raph are both the emotional centers of the group. Does not mind being yeeted after retracting into his shell, as box turtles may do. (Disclaimer, do not yeet actual box turtles!) His weapon of choice is a Kusari-Fundo that can turn into a fire-demon and is about as unpredictable as he is. Likes to jump and bounce around. Probably does parkour. Voiced by Brandon Mychal Smith who is audibly having a blast. 500/10, just an all around Kusari-fun guy.

For last, but certainly not least, April O'Neil, my girl, who saw an upgrade from flip-flopping love interest who was vaguely ninja-ing, but mostly damsel in distress-ing, to all-around spunky powerhouse and by God, she is glowing. Rise has her more as a big sister figure to the turtles, and I will not be told otherwise. She is independent and don't need no man, mutant or no. She has her teleporting pet, her faith in herself, her pinpoint baseball hitting skills and the a complete and utter lack of fear. Despite being a weirdness magnet, April is perfectly comfortable. She would like to be able to keep a job, maybe, but she has loving friends who respect and love her. Surprisingly good a ninja, fearless and fun. Occasionally thinks about being popular at school, but it's really not a big concern, she's not gonna throw a tantrum over it or anything. April is very chill. Not likely to be damseled. More likely to run after the turtles and clean up their messes or save them and everyone involved is fine with that.

The late 10's are really coming in to show us how dynamic and well-written female characters that aren't just "strong", but three-dimensional and relatable are done, huh?

An iconic performance by Kat Graham and ∞/10 for being the honorary better ninja non-mutant non-turtle and best big sister.

Here we have it, two older properties, having new life breathed into them to make them fresh and enjoyable. Have a new spin put on them, to better fit in with our current world. You can feel the love oozing out of every frame. At the end of the day, of course, it all boils down to taste and whether or not you like something. I gave Ducktales 2017 a go because a lot of the staff from Gravity Falls went to work on it and if you don't know me, I love me some Gravity Falls. It's a good show and I enjoy it. I recently got into Rise and while I don't know much about the people working on it, it is also a greatly enjoyable show, easily on the same level as Ducktales, if not above, yet with far less people speaking about it. Which is frankly saddening. I can only recommend the two of them wholeheartedly. If you love animation, yourself and occasionally feeling things, these are for you!

[eddycurrents]

When they said that the event calendar for the release dates of House of X and Powers of X would feature major events that recontextualize and change how you think about the entire event, they weren’t lying. If anything, based on House of X #2, it was an understatement. As much as the first issues of both series have already changed the landscape of Marvel’s merry mutants, changing the characters, and changing the rules, House of X #2 makes you wonder about everything that you’ve seen previously.

This issue also sets in stone that House of X and Powers of X are inseparable. You need to read both, not one or the other, in order to get the full story. They play off of one another more like one continuous narrative, with notes flitting back and forth between the two books, than two discrete stories. The differences are really just a matter of perspective and scope. One book looks at the story from one particular angle, and the other zooms out, looking at a different composite. The way the two play off one another, even this early into the event, is very impressive.

Jonathan Hickman and his collaborators already set a new standard with the first issues of HoX and PoX, House of X #2 takes it a step further and fundamentally changes the rules of the Marvel Universe even. It takes an already existing high water mark and raises it further. 

Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia continue to be a shining light in this story, especially when it comes to permutations. And this issue may well have one of the most pored over and inspected infographics yet.

It is truly astonishing what Hickman, Larraz, Gracia, Cowles, and Muller are doing here.

There will be spoilers below this image. If you do not want to be spoiled on House of X #2, do not read further.

SPOILER WARNING: Below I’ll be discussing the events, themes, and possibility of what’s going on in House of X #2 and beyond. There are HEAVY SPOILERS beyond this point. If you haven’t read the issue yet and don’t want to be spoiled, please stop reading now. You’ve been warned.

PREAMBLE | First Impressions

All I can really say is holy crap. I’ve been highly impressed so far with what House of X and Powers of X have been doing so far, but this one blows all expectations out of the water.

House of X #2 is a truly incredible story that completely reinvents the character of Moira MacTaggert, retcons decades of X-Men continuity in the process, but does so in a way that opens up endless possibilities, new stories, and more, rather than being any kind of forced insert. It’s brilliant. And it makes you wonder about all of the X-Men stories in the past, especially reading interactions with Destiny and Magneto in new contexts, and those that we’re currently reading.

Basically, Moira’s a mutant with the power of reincarnation. She keeps coming back and attempting new solutions and experiments to solve the human-mutant problem like a mutant take on Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon’s Daytripper.

It also makes a lot of the speculation that many of us, myself included, about what’s going on in the first couple issues possibly entirely wrong. Because it changes the rules. I love it. It’s amazing and ballsy for a series as potentially dissected and analysed as this to just outright break the standard framework entirely.

Also, in regards to Pepe Larraz’s art this issue, it shifts depending on the life that’s being discussed. While Moira and the people around her are mostly the same, the panels shift and take on different shapes and angles per period. It’s a very nice and easy way to show visually that we’re seeing a different life being lived with minimal confusion or reliance on the text.

Marte Gracia continues to deliver exquisite colour art. Like Larraz’s layouts, the colours shift and change, in some ways subtle, in other ways explosively, across the different lives. It’s also impressive whenever a colourist can make an apocalyptic landscape feel dark without it looking like mud.

And Clayton Cowles and Tom Muller remain the cherries on top with letters and design respectively. 

ONE | Time After Time

Throwing that spanner in the works of every theory, assumption, and possibility of the first two issues is Moira’s reincarnation abilities. It is a huge retcon that makes you question everything.

It starts out unassumingly enough with an ordinary life, lived to an ordinary span. in an ordinary way. Life One is an interesting way to lead us into this radical change to Moira’s character because it’s ordinary. It’s brilliant to present such a huge shock to the system through such a simple, unexpected life story.

And it spirals out from there as we’re taken back to Moira’s discussion with Charles in Powers of X #1, given more details and explanations of here different lives. From simple destruction chance of Life Two being cut horrifically short to the far flung length of joining with Apocalypse in Life Nine. Some lives an elements are familiar, others radically different from what we know, each apparently giving Moira a different piece of the puzzle in order to figure out the solution to the extreme division between humans and mutants.

I find it somewhat funny, given the text piece in Powers of X that sending mutants into space isn’t one of the primary proposed ideas through any of these lives, but maybe that’s something we’ll see when and if she finally gets things right.

I also find it interesting that one of the lives that gets the most attention is when she picks man over mutant in Life Three. It’s one of the ones that goes horrifically wrong as she decides that mutants are a disease needed to be stamped out, coming up with a cure to eradicate them. It establishes Destiny as an arbiter of justice to temper if Moira decides a similarly destructive path.

The various differently lives briefly shown throughout the story are also fascinating. They beg to be expanded upon through a series of specials and mini-series mining the different possibilities of these alternate existences. They feel rich and well-realized with interesting events informing on Moira’s decisions through her lifespans. 

Although they can be left as throwaway ideas within the larger framework of the House of X/Powers of X event, there’s fertile ground here to expand upon in time. Moira VII Assassin could be an interesting, dark, and cynical thriller, especially as compromises to morals and ethics become hollow as the machines manifest anyway. A new Age of Apocalypse in Life Nine practically screams to be explored. It’s fascinating how all of these lives combine, recombine, and mix different common elements and themes across X-Men history and spin out something new.

It also makes you wonder about those time periods in Powers of X #1. We think that X0 through X3 are the same timeline. This issue opens up the possibility that that may not be the case. The futures might be from one of Moira’s previous lives. We don’t know yet what exactly we’re seeing and that uncertainty adds a fair amount of excitement to see what’s coming next.

What we’re seeing in House of X and Powers of X could be Life Eleven, since there are already some radical departures in how Krakoa seems to work, and all of the people who are now alive that were dead. I’ve gone through thoughts as to how it could be messing with time, but Moira’s reincarnations seems to eliminate that theory entirely. It’s also easy in story terms since it would essentially give a blank slate to establish the rules of this new reality, but I think that’s too simple.

I think, however, that we’re currently witnessing Life Ten. For one, we’re referring to Moira often in these series as Moira X, which would seem to infer more that this is her tenth life, rather than necessarily X as in Xavier or X-Men or even as a placeholder X for her multiple possible surnames (Kinross, Cowan, MacTaggert, Xavier). It also potentially rewrites the meaning of the title Powers of X as being more personal, not just referring to the time periods, but these being the “Powers of [Moira] Ten”. It takes all of the huge, reality and time-spanning ideas and humanizes it, making it a personal tale of one woman’s struggles.

I think Life Eleven is triggered at the end of House of X/Powers of X and is the seed for the “Dawn of X” titles spinning out of this story.

TWO | Entanglements

The wider implications of Moira’s powers are felt in how long you’ve been reading X-Men comics and whether or not you want to do a deep dive into the past. It could be fun, it could be maddening, and ultimately the story in House of X and Powers of X doesn’t necessitate it. You can read this still without having ever read a single X-Men comic and enjoy it.

But over-complicating things is a pastime of longtime X-Men readers. These books were written for a long period of time by Chris Claremont, after all.

One of the major things that this shows in various permutations throughout the story is redefining Moira as one of the primary movers throughout history. She serves now as a catalyst for events and direct causes for divergence points creating alternate timelines. In some ways subtle, in others profound.

I’ve stated and speculated previously that Xavier seems different through the first issues of both series, in terms of the X1 Xavier potentially exhibiting telekinetic powers he never had and his kind of creepy character affectations (that could have been continuing on with X’s behaviour from Astonishing X-Men) and the seeming oddity of not knowing who Moira was in X0, which I thought could have been put down to time travel shenanigans, but that seems moot with House of X #2. It’s probably just a new reality that we’re dealing with.

It raises questions as to whether or not Xavier is really a puppet master as previously believed, or just another cog in the Moira Machine, figuring out that possibly the only way to answer the Man-Mutant conundrum is to get Xavier, Magneto, and Apocalypse (and possibly the machines) all working together.

And then there’s Moira’s run during the ‘80s. The Muir Island X-Men. Magneto’s rehabilitation. Working with the New Mutants. Aiding Xavier throughout. It takes on an entirely different element knowing that she was knowledgeable of various events beforehand. It takes working with Freedom Force in an entirely different light. There’s undoubtedly a lot you could dive deeper into in order to figure out how things stack up in this new light.

THREE | Number Six

Curiously missing from the infographic giving Moira’s timeline is Life Six. There’s a gap between Life Five and Life Seven that remains unaccounted for. Nor does it come up when she’s talking to Charles Xavier explaining to him who he is.

For a story that is built on detail and complexity, the omission has to have a reason. And because it’s missing, we can potentially get endless speculation as to why it’s missing. 

Personally, I think it could be because it’s actually the baseline Marvel Universe that we knew. Life Ten would appear to be that, being consistent with what we know, but there’s doubt. We’ve been told through Moira’s conversation with Destiny that she has a limited amount of reincarnations, ten, with possibly an eleventh if she got things right.

Or I could be completely wrong and it’s something else entirely.

CONCLUSION | I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts

It’s taken me a while to put fingers to keyboard on this one for a number of reasons, one of the primary ones being that this story just left me gobsmacked. It presents so many different possibilities and reinterpretations that you’ve practically got to tear up the script as to what you thought was going on. It makes you question whether or not anything at all that you’ve read before is in a particular frame or even relevant to a particular frame.

It’s incredible.

Hickman, Larraz, Gracia, Cowles, and Muller have managed to take an already impressive new approach to the X-Men and elevated it further beyond imagining. It’s very exciting. House of X #2 represents an even greater sea change than we were led to believe.

d. emerson eddy is fairly certain he doesn’t reincarnate into the same life if you kill him, so please don’t try.

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows Vol 2 #6-7 Thoughts

Previous thoughts here.

Okay I’ve finally caught up to where I left off with RYV in 2017 so these are my thoughts on the X-Men arc.

I have very mixed feeling about this arc depending upon what POV I look at it from.

As a general story unto itself and an instalment in this series it was pretty great.

However in the context of an AU series with a limited shelf-life as is and in a context when Spider-Man had so often been sharing the spotlight (and the Spider-Marriage hadn’t been seen) making what amounted to a standard paint by numbers X-Men story just from the Parker’s POV was very questionable even if I like the X-Men.

Finally from the POV of a guy who likes the X-Men but isn’t hardcore but is very much in love with 90s X-Men (which this version is based upon) my feelings are very mixed.

And that boils down to what I love about the X-Men and that era of the X-Men vs. how Conway apparently feels about them.

But let’s get general perennial opinions out the way. I’ve grown to begrudgingly accept the conceit of this series as a Spider Family book and a book where we are just going to ignore the child endangerment issues at play. But i’ve spoken about that before in my older coverage of issues #1-5. Similarly in those issues and it still holds true for this arc, Stegman is the goddam man when it comes to the artwork.

Whilst there was one panel in which he tried to draw MJ shocked and upset and it came off just goofy, over all the artwork in this arc was stunning and I genuinely said ‘wow’ out loud when I got to the splash page of Spider-Man and Wolverine.

Keeping on the visuals for a moment, I goddam love the costumes chosen for the characters here. Yes even the reimagined looks for Toad, Crucible and Mist Mistress.

Obviously I don’t talk X-Men here much but I adore the 1990s X-Men costumes from the 1992 cartoon, which originated under Jim Lee. And honestly they genuinely are among the most iconic and visually dynamic looks for the characters so it’s not purely personal preference. This is especially resonant for me with Wolverine. Spider-Man is my favourite (American comic book) character and following him are various Spider-Verse characters like MJ, Norman Osborn, Ben Reilly, Mayday, etc.

But outside of those Spider-Verse characters, Wolverine is my absolute fav Marvel character and it’s always annoyed me that Marvel were like embarrassed to put him in his classic Giant-Sized X-Men uniform once Whedon began writing X-Men.

That is THE iconic Wolverine look and in this story Stegman brought it back baby!

Similarly I appreciated that the Magneto of this story both looked and acted like classic Magneto. Not the aweful black and silver shit he was wearing around this time in the comics and I’ve never been fond of him as a good guy member of the X-Men.

Honestly, whilst I get it was well executed character development, Magneto is inherently more interesting as a morally grey antagonist for the X-Men than among their ranks. So much of the core premise of X-Men is built around the fundamental philosophical conflict between Magneto’s beliefs and Xaviers that you lose a not insignificant chunk of the essence of X-Men when you put them on the same side. Not to mention in a superhero story you want strong characters as antagonists and Magneto is arguably the best X-Men villain, scratch that best comic book villain, ever.

Okay now let’s chat story.

I wasn’t pleased with  the deaths in this. Banshee might be few people’s fav  but Beast was and in both cases their quick shock deaths were unearned and unworthy. Kind of overly dark to be honest with you given the nature of the RYV book and it gave the impression that Conway isn’t fond of either character.

But that sentiment shines through far more poignantly with Jubilee and Cyclops. Whilst Cyclops gets screwed over slightly less badly than he did in the X-Men movies, the same problems occur. He gets undermined in favour of Wolverine and so Logan and Jean can be shipped together. Which is only a different flavour of frustrating if you LIKE the Cyclops/Jean relationship as I do, than when Jean got screwed over so Scott and Emma could hook up. I still despise that.*

But at least this was kind of believable, at least to me. No X-Men expert so maybe their break up was OOC, but the idea that Cyclops and Jean broke up because Jean didn’t have faith in controlling her Godlike powers whilst Cyclops did is an interesting piece of relationship drama. And at least the characters in RYV didn’t get fucked as hard as they did in the 2000s.

Still you can kind of tell Conway isn’t a big fan of Cyclops (understandable he has his haters, I hate 2000s-2010s Cyclops) but you can equally tell he really doesn’t like Jubilee.

Again, not an X-Men expert here but I’m pretty sure Jubilee being a traitor to the X-Men and being disillusioned by Xavier’s methods is immensely OOC for her character.

Now that isn’t that big of a deal because this is an AU at the end of the day. But if you like Jubilee or just know her character then it will probably annoy you. Unfortunately for one reason or another Jubilee in my observations seems to get a lot of hate that Kitty Pryde and X-23 don’t and I do not understand why.

In the cases of both characters I could tell instantly that Conway was setting one of them up to be the traitor and honestly if you are doing an AU book, Cyclops is kind of the more interesting choice although I grant you maybe not in the context of 2010s Cyclops who already murdered Xavier in AvX and has been a douchebag for a long time. But in the context of this story and 1990s X-Men which this story is trading off of, it’s the more interesting choice. I will give it to Conway though for at least bothering to give us 2 suspects. These days most writers wouldn’t even bother with that and just think they were being subtle when they have Jubilee say shit like “Maybe your human friend wouldn’t like you if she knew you were a mutant!”

On some final notes about the X-Men themselves I feel like there was maybe something more interesting you could’ve done with Jean and Wolverine’s child than what we got with Shine. In her personality and powers she could be any one of the army of Summers/Grey children or any given generic mutant. There is no Wolverine in her to be seen.

That’s not me inherently hating her. She’s just more of a missed opportunity. She was adorable unto herself and even moreso in her relationship with Annie and I hope that gets revisited in consequent issues.

My final little note regarding the X-Men themselves was that I didn’t care for Magneto being mind controlled at the end or his over all plan.

Okay, it’s more like I felt his plan was underdeveloped. Because it’s not that it didn’t make sense because it was literally the same plan from X2: X-Men United. But Conway basically expected you to have just known  that because of the visuals and results of the plan. And for comic book and comic book movie fans like me, sure I know the shorthand but it’s not good storytelling. Similarly Emma Frost shows up at the end, barely talks but just kind of takes over as the main villain when Magneto had been the guy built up in the story and...he, he’s Magneto dude. That’s like having Puppet Master show up towards the end of a story where Doom’s been the main villain and take over.

Also doesn’t his helmet shield him from psychic control? I mean again it’s an AU and I feel like that wasn’t established until way later about Magneto but still.

I also wanna talk about how this arc more than anything else just blows up the continuity between RYV volume 1 and volume 2.

In RYV vol 1 #1 it was a big deal that the X-Men got wiped out by Regent and the implication was that the universe diverged in the early-mid 1990s.

In this arc though it’s made crystal clear that obviously the X-Men are fine and that in this universe (the dumpster fire clusterfuck that was) Civil War 2006 was avoided.

Which is again an example of Conway subtly saying screw you to stuff he doesn’t like but I don’t mind that because yeah screw Civil War it was hot trash. But it does make RYV volume 1 way more confusing in terms of continuity, especially since literally no other post-Secret Wars ongoing series (including X-Men ’92) seemed to radically alter their universe after the event like RYV did.

Honestly I think the only way to have it make sense is to just say RYV volume 2 is an alternate version of the RYV volume 1 characters and that prior to volume 2 a guy called the Regent showed up, stole some people’s powers then Spider-Man and his family stopped him. He didn’t kill anyone, he didn’t take over the world, he wasn’t trying to kill God Emperor Doom or whatever and the world didn’t know who Spider-Man was by the end of it.

This actually jives way better with what Houser would later establish in her run on RYV that Annie isn’t a daughter Peter and MJ had INSTEAD of Mayday, but in fact the daughter they would’ve had if OMD hadn’t fucked everything up. I guess in the RYV universe though Spider-Man never joined the Avengers and fashion was stuck in the 1990s even in the 2000s.

I’m not complaining I’m just trying to get all this stuff straight.

Okay let’s move onto the Parker family.

I loved the payoff to issue #2 with MJ planning a party and it turning out to be for Peter’s birthday. That was the best scene in the whole story. Normal life drama with supporting characters we know and love. This is the heart of Spider-Man! And it came with adorable scenes like Annie confronting the horror of gluten free desserts and acknowledgments of Aunt May and Aunt Anna’s deaths.

The heart of the story was the stuff related to whether Peter and MJ should make Annie stay at the Xavier school or not and the scenes exploring this were really good.

Spider-Man deal with relatively relatable everyday issues and failing that stuff that s clearly allegorical to said issues. In this case Annie’s powers are allegorical to a kid with a disability, special learning issues, or someone with a particular aptitude for learning that would make a normal school more challenging.

Special props goes to Peter relating to how he struggled in school and not wanting that for Annie. In MJ’s case though she wants to keep her daughter close. This makes sense retroactively when you consider she’s already lost one child and if you pretend RYV vol 1 happened then she spent years keeping Annie close out of fear that she died.

Putting those aside though it could be a commentary upon MJ’s own childhood growing up where she was constantly being uprooted and saw her family and her sister’s family fall apart. For MJ it’s likely very important that the family unit stay close together.

Conway’s writing shines because he organically (albeit not as subtly as he could) has them switch positions creating yet more potential conflict and makes sure Annie has her own view on the matter. She likes the school, she likes Shine but she doesn’t want things to change and justifies this in a childish way by making out a popular kid in her school is a bigger deal than she actually is.

My major point of condemnation though is that I feel way more could’ve been done with the premise (e.g. having MJ and Jean connect over super powered kids) than actually was because so much of the plot is dominated by villains invading the Xavier school for the umpteenth time.

Actually goes into two other problems with the arc. This is an incredibly generic X-Men storyline because obviously it’s from a Spider-Man perspective. Like if an X-Men story tried to present a window into the world of Spider-Man it’d be a typical thing about him making rent, working for Jameson and missing a date or whatever. It’s like default setting X-Men and whilst I like that because I miss those days before X-Men became a clusterfuck, it’s not the most compelling main plot in the world.

And honestly it wraps up too quickly and easily, MJ just decks Emma Frost and the story is done. Annie and Peter don’t get involved enough which is weird because isn’t this a team book? I mean as the story highlights it makes Mj look cool but I don’t like doing that at the expense of the other characters.

Now in fairness that might’ve been set up for the next arc, which I know is about MJ becoming Venom. The last page or two of the arc implies this because it features an overtly villainous Liz Allan.

At first I raised my eyebrow at this. Around that same time Liz had been presented as evil in the 616 books and I thought this might’ve been lame out of nowhere synergy.

But in thinking about it, if this really is a Liz Allan who is recently went through the stuff she dealt with in DeMatteis’ Harry Osborn arc from the 1990s (as is the implication) then Liz would be a darker person, would be more hard hearted to protect her son and she wasn’t the nicest person to the Parkers at that time.

Although issue #4 had MJ refer to Normie as creepy implying the Osborns and Parkers generally aren’t all that close in this universe.

Regardless Liz with the Venom symbiote targeting MJ and having the there be an explicit thematic connection between them via their shared motherhood was a darkly delicious moment.

As many mixed feelings as I have for this arc over all I give it a solid B.

*Hence I personally also loved Emma Frost just being a plain villain and getting decked by MJ because I goddam hate Emma Frost I really do.

[orpheus-type-beat]

Percy Jackson part 1

Confession time: I was a gigantic Percy Jackson and the Olympians fan as a kid, so this book is very nostalgic to me. I haven’t reread the series in a long time though, especially not the first book, so it’s very interesting to read this stuff again as an adult. I was struck with a couple of observations. First, It’s a pretty good book, which is a relief. I can defend my 11-14 year old self’s tastes, this is mostly a solid kids fantasy novel. 

More relevantly, it’s very different in tone and in execution than Rick Riordan’s later books, especially his sequel series Heroes of Olympus. Those books bounce between different perspectives, and the whole thing is written in a close third person. Moreover, they are so caught up in the lore and the universe and the Percy Jackson formula that they, I feel, lost touch with something the original series had that made it feel special to me. Rereading the first book in the series, I think I have a better understand why.

Perspective

I’m a sucker for first person narration in novels, I’m realizing. Another one of my childhood favorites, the Animorphs series (shoutout to anyone who read those), was also written in this same sort of first person. Each book began with a very post-modern, “if you’re reading this it’s too late,” exposition machine that explained the premise of the series, who the important characters were, and set up the events of the book. The meta, post-modern framing device is never fully explained (why were the characters of the Animorphs, or Percy Jackson himself, writing any of this down?), but are used as a framing device to enhance suspension of disbelief, and to enable humor (through snarky asides).

This close first person, a sort of refined stream of consciousness that feels like a combination between a movie shot entirely in one characters’ POV and a letter written to a friend, is missing in the later Percy Jackson series, I think to its detriment. Not only does the first person narration makes sense in a Greek setting — it emphasises orality, putting this book in conversation with orally transmitted greek myths — it also enhances the series’ humor. A lot of the humor comes from Percy’s wisecracking during fightscenes, which gives the series an action-comedy feel. The comedic portrayal of many of the gods and supernatural beings adds to that, but much of the comedy comes from Percy’s reaction to events, not from the events themself. This enables the events to be able to be taken seriously while simultaneously being mocked and used for humorous purposes.

The first person perspective also differentiates this series, tonally and technically, from Harry Potter (which is a much more obvious influence in this first book: he goes to boarding school, has an abusive home life, and lives in the legacy of a mysterious parental figure). In many ways, this book reads like post-modern Harry Potter — the sense of wonder and fairy tale magic is replaced with humor and a system of magic that feels more logical and rule based. Stuff like the Mist, as an explanation for how the magic in the world remains hidden, and the fact that monsters explode into dust makes this an urban fantasy, akin to sci-fi as much as fantasy. Harry Potter, in contrast, is firmly rooted in fantasy.

The second Percy Jackson series moves to a close third person narration style, and while there are benefits to this (for example, there isn’t the need for the dream sequence exposition hack, and the series can accommodate diverse perspectives more directly) I think something tonally and structurally is lost. It loses the sense of orality, the primacy to the action and humor lent by a first person narrator with a “unbelievable true story” framing device. That blending of the border between fact and fiction is what myth accomplished in Greek times, and what the original Percy Jackson series accomplished for a lot of people, and surrendering that means surrendering something special.

Disability

I had forgotten what a big deal disability is in these books. The thread of all demigods being troubled kids with mental disabilities, specifically learning disabilities, is I think really interesting and radical. We still live in a world where mental illness is taboo, but some mental illness are less taboo than others. In particular, when people say “mental illness” they usually aren’t referring to all mental illness. Usually, they are referring to a subset of mental illnesses, issues like depression, various types of anxiety, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, etc. — mood, personality, or anxiety disorders. 

Of course, those illness are all still massively stigmatized, but all of those disorders tend to leave cleverness, speech, and some behavior intact. It’s easier to “pass,” in a sense, with those disorders, than it is with other mental illness. We can understand the troubled genius better than we can understand someone who is intellectually disabled. 

That’s what makes the learning disability angle so interesting. In theory, these demigods aren’t troubled geniuses, they’re normal, unexceptional kids (discounting the water bending and sword fighting) who can’t read or write well, can’t focus, and don’t always succeed in the classroom. They aren’t brilliant, but fragile minds. They’re just C, D, and F students, with gifts that are incompatible with our school system’s expectations about the pace of learning and what achievement looks like.

These are the kind of kids we don’t tend to recognize as valuable, and worthy of being written about and made heroes. And if I remember Riordan’s impetus for writing this series was his son’s own struggles with learning disability: dyslexia and ADHD. But in the Heroes of Olympus series, this disability angle is really de-emphasized, and I think to its detriment. It loses the “it gets better” message and inclusivity to people who, even in narratives about mental illness, often get left out. 

Myth Making

This brings me to the interesting ways this book is in conversation with Greek myth, and myth in general.

First of all, having all the demigods have dyslexia and ADHD is a clever inversion of the typical Greek hero’s childhood. Usually, Greek heroes were preternaturally gifted, succeeding in and out of school, and are immediately recognized as different and special. In this book, the heroes are recognized as different, but not as special, but as lesser than. This transform the Greek hero’s sense of inevitable destiny into an underdog story — one that works for modern audiences, the way a gifted noble’s path to glory worked for ancient ones. This reflects modern conceptions of democracy, and the mobility of class, that didn’t exist in ancient times (reminder that Athenian democracy was for rich, landowning men).

Second of all, there is a distinctly non-Christian concept of cycles at play in this book, and in this series. Threat to Zeus’ rule by Titans is thematically compatible with ancient Greek succession myths. And the bit about monsters turning into dust and then reforming eventually creates an overarching them of balance: the war between good and evil is eternal and constantly shifting. The best anyone can do is try to shift the balance, temporarily, in a positive direction. This makes all of the fun bits, like locating the modern Mount Olympus in New York City, having the gods adopt modern trends, work thematically as well as humorously. There an almost Eastern theme of yin and yang, which in all honesty is reflective of Eastern influence on the Greeks and Romans.

Thirdly, Rick Riordan has one mode, it’s just the Odyssey, and that’s fine. The road-trip rompy with constantly shifting objectives leading up to some climax that reveals itself to have been behind the scenes all along is a classic narrative structure that is very ancient Greek, and so works in a story so deeply in conversation with ancient Greek myths.

Conclusion

Finally, by way of conclusion, the thing that makes this first Percy Jackson book/series work, and interesting in conversation with fantasy, myth, and stories about heroes, is one of its central themes: the deification of humanity. The gods in this universe are static, comic figures. Humans are the ones that are able to change things — that’s why the gods love them, and keep making demigods all the time — and humans are the ones, in the series, that are capable of real good and real evil. 

(Semi spoiler alert) In the last book, it is the human capacity for love, sacrifice, and good that saves the day, and produces positive change in the world. The gods are powerful and eternal, but the real source of beauty in the world is humanity, in its capacity for change, rebirth, and renewal. Gods get bored, get cynical, get complacent. They decay, eternal and unmoving. In contrast, humans die and new ones are born, and to them the cyclic war between good and evil remains fresh. Humanity can continually change without movement or exhaustion, constantly relearning the same lessons and experiencing the same joys and sorrows afresh. Gods, locked in a cycle, go around once and are bored and numbed forever, while the human experience stays continually vital and alive.

That’s why this series, despite being so rooted in Greek myth and fantasy, feels so modern and sci-fi influenced (as a huge sci-fi fan, that’s probably why I like it so much), and why this story — despite its post-modern trappings — reaches for sincerity. Gods, in the Percy Jackson universe, can’t survive on their own. They are immortal, but they can grow tired. They can be broken by endless living, and fade away. The gods rely on people to break up the monotony, to remember them and keep them alive: humans are the source of life in this universe. 

(real spoiler alert). The series ends with Percy being offered godhood, immortality, which he rejects. That’s the thematic conclusion to the entire series, and its significant. Besides true love or whatever, the reason Percy rejects immortality is that he realizes that to live and die, taking part in the cycle, is more meaningful than eternal life. Becoming a god would mean forfeiting that meaning. This is a series about gods and monsters and nymphs, but the real magic in this world is humanity. 

Our magic is thus: unlike the gods, as time streams past, we remain untouched by eternity. And I’d argue, like this series does, that that’s real immortality.

[rolliwo]

Special effects in sleepless in seatle

Special effects in sleepless in seatle movie#

Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. “Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues. Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Kahneman largely avoids jargon when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them.

Special effects in sleepless in seatle movie#

This means that whether or not folks on Main Street want to see the next Transformers movie is increasingly irrelevant to the folks who run Hollywood.ĭepth of detail and shrewd illustrative examples make this a must-read for anyone interested in the movie business.Ī psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking. Those audiences do not get our comedies, sports or dramas rooted in American history they do get action pictures, and they continue to love 3-D, even as the U.S. For years a steady 20 percent of the market for a Hollywood film, international sales now constitute 70-80 percent. The reasons for the transition are simple: the collapse of the DVD market, which had represented about 50 percent of studio profits before online streaming began to kill it, “created a desperate need for a new area of growth”-and that new area turned out to be international. What makes it different is her savvy interviews with key players who observed this transition and her use of Paramount, where she went to work in 1998, as a case study. This is fairly common knowledge, but Obst’s book is more than the complaints of someone left out of “the New Abnormal” (so christened, she remarks, “because Hollywood, let’s face it, is never actually normal”). Movies for adults can only be made as independent films with tiny budgets or with the backing of big stars and directors. Now, she writes, studios depend on “tentpoles” based on familiar comic books, fairy tales or video games, laden with special effects and presented in 3-D. When the author arrived in Hollywood in the early 1980s, it was still possible to make smart commercial films based on original screenplays, like Sleepless in Seattle and The Fisher King, both produced by Obst. Journalist-turned-producer Obst ( Hello, He Lied: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches, 1996) casts a sharp eye over recent developments in Tinseltown.

[sahlo-folinah]

Kindling.

How... utterly disappointing.

The world is such a vibrant place. Filled with wonders and twists that can no longer be catalogued in a sensible way, the chaotic nature of society having uprooted what once was, creating something new and somewhat terrifying. The new world is different, far too different, and it has been moulded and shaped into an ideology that many seek to conform to.

An ideology that, strangely enough, leaves a very bitter taste in his mouth.

Still, the technicolour world feels like a sham, a curtain that’s been pulled before his very eyes, the man or self proclaimed magician who decreed privacy under the pretences of a show promptly disappearing, and when he dared to peek beyond those curtains, the show that awaited was far from what he expected, far from what he believed to be occurring.

The new world is... it’s nothing like what it should be. It is wrong. It is filled with those who aspire to be a lie, a foundation built upon a throne of deceit and vague notions of fame and sensibility.

Respect. Honour. Esteem.

No. No.

Money and power.

That’s what it’s been whittled down to. That’s what the romanticised version of heroism has been reduced to, much like how his flames have reduced proud structures into rubble, into ash.

They have dirtied the word, ruined it. These women and men that prance around in their uniforms and costumes, claiming to be heroes are nothing of the sort.

He sees beyond the film they’ve placed over their skin. He sees the pretences, the egoism, the omnipotence emerging.

He sees. He knows.

And he will no longer stand by and watch. No.

The emergence of that eccentric killer inspired a sense of urgency that was not there before, despite his disgruntlement already existing with the current state of things. The killer struck a chord, dancing into the limelight with the tact of a toddler at a wedding, preening and spewing words that oddly... strangely resonated. Words that, despite being spit out of a mouth that lacked subtlety, were reputable.

An ideology that Dabi could finally get behind.

The hero society, it feels cold, bitter, like ash on the tongue.

Heroes are self righteous. They lie. They preen before cameras, they laugh graciously under the lights shone down upon them, shrugging off compliments whilst simultaneously egging them on, desperate for more. Their identify, their self worth is built upon the approval and donations of those they save.

And then the donations became expected.

The lines began to blur.

Heroes were - no, are no longer heroes. They’re paid martyrs, salaried workers that have come to expect, thrusting out chubby hands demanding more, more, more.

And Dabi is... he’s disappointed.

They huddle before him now, five or six of them, a few definitely hidden beyond the rubble surrounding the destruction he’s created. And they stare up at him from their knees, eyes wide, red and sore from the smoke that circles into the air, clogging and creating a viscous layer.

They cough, blood leaking from various wounds, leaning on one another, a last show of solidarity that has him turning his cheek to them, a soft ‘tch’ escaping his scarred lips.

Even now, they cling to the radical notion of ‘hope’, of ‘good’ triumphing over ‘evil’. They’re ignorant. They’re wrong.

And he is here to show them just how wrong they are.

He’s seen a few of them before, the local news channels love to dote on the up and comers. One man, dressed in dark shades of blue and red can cause any item he touches to become intangible for a short period of time, whilst the woman clutching his torso can leap for large distances.

Considering state her legs are in though, Dabi doubts that she will be doing that any time soon. The others are gathered around them in similar positions, and he watches with a lazy glare as more emerge from the cracks within the concrete jungle, faces set like stone, determination positively burning behind their eyes.

It sickens him.

They just don’t get it. They don’t know how ridiculous they are, how mildly infuriating they’re becoming.

Too bad they’re funnelling directly into his path.

Ideally Dabi was hoping to pass through the misshapen lane undetected. Alas, fate had different plans for him this evening. And here they are now, facing off, probably ten to one, soon to be more if this continues.

Like ants they crawl out of the woodwork, teeth grit and hands clawed, ready to seize him.

They recognise him too, and he leans back, chin rising ever so slightly as one of the braver ones moves forwards.

He’s new, wearing tight spandex that frankly, looks absolutely ridiculous. Twice would be having a field day if he were here right now, but Dabi is the only member of L.O.V at the moment, and the weight of their stares is heavy.

“Stand down, Dabi. We know who you are. Come with us quickly and quietly, and nobody else has to get hurt. We’ll be taking you to the station.”

Oh, how comical. Honestly. These heroes, how they amuse him.

To think that they actually believe they have him.

Dabi cocks his head to the side, fully aware of the mounting odds against him, however. Despite his confidence, the longer he waits the higher the chances of someone sneaking up on him and escaping this self made funnel they’ve imposed on themselves. Still, he’s not one to miss an opportunity.

He raises a dark brow, metal stitches pinching the skin beneath his eyes, pulling at the neat line that separates the smooth skin of his cheeks from his scarred lower jaw.

“But how, pray tell, do you suppose you’ll do such a thing, hero?” His voice is slow, gravelly and confident, and the man before him wavers. Sweat dribbles down his temple and he swallows, eyes flickering about Dabi’s lean form.

When no response comes Dabi steps forwards, head still tilted. He’s at least a foot taller than the smaller man before him, and the height advantage gives him an air of superiority that frankly, feels far too good.

When more heroes begin to step out of the frameworks however, he sighs, stopping in his place, booted feet coming to rest against the concrete slab he’s stood upon.

Things always end far too quickly, but honestly, these heroes are one and the same, and his time is running out.

Still, how utterly disappointing.

They sweat and cry and shiver before him, feigning bravery, spitting in the face of his clear display of superior strength. The odds are against them despite their numbers, and either they’re too egotistical to realise, or they’re simply too stupid to understand just what they’ve gotten themselves into.

Either way, as Dabi raises a hand, the scarred skin of his arms beginning to darken as the azure haze of his flames flicker into existence, he can’t help but release a sigh.

How distasteful.

The force of his flames throws his arm back, a whoosh of heat that bursts forth, roaring into existence and consuming with a ferocity that burns bright and true. They spread far and wide, licking the very corners of the open top tunnel before him, howling into the dusk that’s settled through the darkening sky and rising above the cacophony of screams that erupt from their throats moments later.

The wails don’t last long, and he whips his arm back, severing the flow of heat and fire with a swift flick of his wrist. Flickers of blue wisps emanate from his palm, from his fingers as he holds the limb down by his side, taking in the ash that’s rising with the wind.

Now this... this sight is beautiful. The dark embers flutter upwards, painting the red sky black, scattering like confetti in the wind and a small smile graces his lips.

They are inconsequential, a means to an end.

They are the lies that now paint the air, a show of beauty embedded within tragedy.

The trill of his phone pulls his gaze from the sadistic serenity, and he shoves his hands into the pockets of his long coat, continuing on his path through the city, cerulean blues alight with satisfaction.

These heroes.

They’re all just walking kindling.

[pass-the-bechdel]

The Middleman Full Series Review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

100% (twelve out of twelve)

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines for the full series?

41.34% 

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Seven.

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 50% female?

Four.

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

None.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twenty-two. Four who appear in more than one episode, three who appear in at least half the episodes, and three who appear in every episode.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Fifty. Seven who appear in more than one episode, two who appear in at least half the episodes, and one who appears in every episode.

Positive Content Status:

Casting aside—a series centering on a Latina Woman of Color remains notable—the series isn’t particularly interested in excelling on this score. And while there’s nothing huge bringing the score down, there’s a quite a few tiny things which do. (Average rating of 2.92).

General Season Quality:

Quite strong, both as a comedy and when appreciated on its own terms.  Understands the appeal of comic books and manages to replicate it more consistently and better than more traditional, and arguably more accurate, takes. 

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

When I chose to revisit this series, I was afraid that the decade between when it aired and now would make the show less enjoyable than it originally was. Things have changed considerably since 2008, and not only has TV come to embrace superhero narratives of the sort The Middleman often makes reference to, it has also made considerable leaps when it comes to representation. Going back into it, I was nervous that what had once felt fresh and funny would now feel familiar, offensive, or simply unfunny.  Fortunately, no. While there are certainly things that feel more bothersome now than they did in 2008—for example, the series feels heteronormative in a way it did not before—taken as a whole, The Middleman holds up better than I’d hoped.

I read a lot of comic books. My father, who has who has been collecting them for roughly fifty years, instilled in me a love for the medium, and while time has increased my disappointment in mainstream comic books, and their consistent inability to make the most out of the toys they’ve created, my affection for them as a whole continues undiminished.  The Middleman, then, is right up my alley. It loves comic books too, and is actually better than many of them. 

The Middleman is,first and foremost, familiar. Its elements recall a million things. Wendy Watson has a lot in common with Buffy.  The Middleman would fit right in with the Doctor. The universe the characters inhabit plays by comic book rules, and knows that the audience is aware of them. Taken together, all of these things, could have very easily led to a very derivative package, which makes it all the more surprising that the series feels as singular as it does.

Part of the appeal of super-hero comic books is the way their diverse, sometimes contradictory narratives, told by various creators, interlock over years, and even decades, to create larger stories, which in turn help make the world’s setting feel large and interesting, and worth exploring even if it’s not through the eyes of the stories’ protagonists.  It’s an approach that requires a certain amount of time and looseness, and it’s one that has proven somewhat difficult to translate to the screen.

In a landscape that has become saturated with superhero narratives, The Middleman still stands out as one of the few which best captures the appeal of superhero universes. It’s one thing to tell the story of Supergirl; it’s another to tell the story in which Supergirl exists as part of a world that feels just as dense and weird and funny as she is.  Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in ten years, hasn’t quite managed it, at least not consistently.  

The Middleman, however, feels large. It feels dense. Its adventures may  be confined largely to a limited set of locations set within a single city, but nevertheless, the series manages, in twelve episodes, to convey a larger world and more history than other shows manage in three times the space and four times the budget. What’s more, it does so effortlessly and fearlessly. It gets that the audience is willing to buy stories of fish that turn people into zombies, or vampire puppets, or two werewolf administrations, and is willing to do so without trouble, as long as the stories are told with confidence and are bolstered clever writing and good characters.

Fortunately, The Middleman has those in spades.  

                  As a character, Wendy Watson is fascinating; like the series itself, she’s both very familiar and yet stunningly unique.  As mentioned, she exists in the same ecological niche as Buffy—snarky, clever, unconcerned with tradition, zealously determined to not let her job take over her life—while at the same feeling quite different in important ways, largely centering around the fact that the series isn’t concerned with making Wendy miserable. While Buffy’s destiny is considered a burden, Wendy’s job as a Middleman-in-training is not only something she got to choose (and can presumably abandon at any moment) but something that ultimately makes her life richer.  In fact, that Wendy is satisfied with all aspects of her life may be the most radical thing about the series: yes, she can have it all, and it doesn’t cause the world to explode.  That this is all true for a Latina woman of color makes it all the more notable, and important.

As a Puerto Rican of color, I really appreciate the depiction of Wendy’s Latinidad, which informs her character in subtle but defined ways.  She feels like my friends and I do, which is not something I can say about a lot of Latino characters.  Furthermore, I love that Wendy has friends and people who love her and are concerned for her happiness. While it makes perfect sense for her, as a Buffy analogue, to have them, that she gets to have them as a woman of color makes it all the more important, given the frequent explicit and implicit expectation that women of color be supporting characters in other people’s stories, without  wants or desires or weaknesses of their own. Wendy cares and is cared for; that matters.  

Another element that makes Wendy familiar is that she is a geek, one who feels considerably more authentic than that character type usually does. Not only are her interests more specific and varied than the norm—her reference pool goes beyond Star Wars and the X-Men—her geekery is not presented as an obstacle in her life,or something that prevents her from being socially and romantically successful. In a world in which loud, misogynistic, and often white elements within the geek communities would claim that they are oppressed because of their interests, it feels heartening to see  the show make a counter-argument. The Middleman understands geeks better than those who would most violently claim that label do, and that makes me happy.   

  Take all of these elements, add Natalie Morales’ consistently fantastic performance, and the fact that Wendy Watson is the honest-to-goodness protagonist of the show, and you have a character that remains a standout in the television landscape, even now.

Then there’s The Middleman. 

Now, I quite like the Middleman.  Not only is he responsible for many of the show’s laughs, the writing and Matt Kesslar’s acting manage to ground all his peculiarities and make them feel plausible, compelling and human, instead of allowing them to overwhelm the character.  At the same time, though, there are parts of him I no longer care for as much as I once did.   

In general, I find The Middleman hard to pin down.  Parts of him remind me of characters like Sherlock’s Sherlock—quirky geniuses who are allowed to run roughshod over other people’s lives because they are allegedly the only people who can do what they do (and, subtextually, because they are white and male). Early on, that impression feels borne out, as he does things like manipulating events to ensure a second meeting with Wendy, or suggesting that Sensei Ping, another quirky (if non-white) genius, should have free rein to be an ass.  At the same time, there is a refreshing lack of ego to him: as he’ll tell you, he’s just the Middleman, one in a decades-long line, and this is both a vital element in his characterization and the show’s overall narrative: if he could become the Middleman, there’s no reason why Wendy can’t. Together, these two elements feel somewhat hard to reconcile.

Another element that bemuses me about the Middleman is his sensibilities, which suggest a certain type of conservatism—he’s a fan of old westerns and their brand of rugged masculinity, drinks milk, foregoes swearing, styles himself in a way intended to honor Dwight Eisenhower, and expresses a degree of gender essentialism—and are therefore hard to square with his overall demeanor and actions, which suggest a generally more open character. It feels as if the parts of him that recall fake 50’s wholesomeness should define him in more fundamental ways than they actually do; instead they just exist, both being and not being a fundamental part of his personality, and feeling contradictory in ways I’m not sure are intentional. It’s not enough to ruin the character, but it’s the sort of thing that makes me newly skeptical. 

The Middleman spends most of his on-screen time with Wendy, and aforementioned hiccups aside, the series absolutely nails their partnership:  its evolution, from the moment of their accidental meeting to their reunion after Wendy is temporarily lost in a parallel Earth, is the one of the series most enjoyable long-term stories. They are, without question, one of my favorite screen duos ever. However, a large part of what makes The Middleman special is that this is far from the show’s only crucial dynamic. The Middleman may grow to be a crucially important person in Wendy’s life, but he is far from the only person, and that matters a lot.   

A tendency I’ve noted in television is that love and affection tend to be portrayed as finite resources, which can only be divvied among people in uneven slices—there’s the one single central relationship, and every other becomes peripheral. Exceptions to this are scarce: Nikita was one; this is another. Wendy not only has the Middleman, but she also has Lacey, and Tyler, and Noser, and the people in her apartment, and even Ida, and all of these feel as important to Wendy as saving the world; it is a key part of the series’ appeal.

Which brings us to Lacey.

As Wendy’s best friend and the Middleman’s love interest, Lacey is a far bigger character here than she was in the comic book the series is based on. She is also, thanks to the scripts and Brit Morgan, a consistent pleasure.  At the same time, rewatching the show, Lacey became another of my chief sources of unease. While I continue to enjoy Lacey and Wendy’s relationship, I now enjoy her relationship with Middleman considerably less than I once did.  The two characters together are electric,but there’s so much iffy stuff in the margins that it’s hard to actually root for them the way the show wants me to. In other words, it really bugs me that Lacey doesn’t care to know the Middleman’s name, and it especially bugs me considering the other characters she is romantically tied to.

It’s one thing for Lacey to be so smitten with The Middleman that she doesn’t care about his name—that can be explained away as a necessary conceit of the story. However, when she also shows signs that she instantly taken with the Middleman of 1969, and when the show plays around with pairing her with canonical-waste-of-space Pip, then it feels like something else is going on here.  Like with the Middleman’s quirks, it suggests something, but I’m not sure what that is, and it’s prominent enough to make me wary.  It’s almost enough to make me wish for her to get over the Middleman and actually got romantic with Wendy—at least, as long as they make a space for Tyler.

Of Wendy’s three core relationships, the one with Tyler is the most superfluous to the narrative, insofar as the narrative does just fine without him when he’s not around. And yet, I’m glad to have him around, in part because of how refreshing it feels to have a white male character confident enough to have no ego that needs defending. Given his and Wendy’s circumstances—he’s broke, unemployed, and struggling as an artist, while she has a job she enjoys and takes up most of her time, which also happens to be the job he could have had—it would have been the easiest thing in the world to have struggle with his insecurities, and to have him be the character in the relationship most in need of support. Instead, he manages to feel shockingly mature, and subsequently far more appealing than the usual love interest.  That the show feels no need to attempt to make him Wendy’s equal feels particularly refreshing.

The Middleman’s web of interconnected characters and relationships helps ground a series that could easily feel insubstantial or bogged down by either its humor or superhero elements in something real. While part of me wishes the series’ universe included more people of color in general, and more Latino people specifically (the only other one is Wendy’s prominent but perpetually offscreen mother) their presence would only improve what is already a very solid group. Overall, it’s quite easy to imagine the series working as a “proper” superhero show, in part because the characters work so well.

Not that I’d want a more serious The Middleman. A case could be made that it is precisely because it is not interested in being a Serious Superhero Story that it succeeds where many Serious Superhero Stories don’t.  It is because the series isn’t concerned about making a boy band made up of four Joshes five exiled intergalactic tyrants feel like an insurmountable threat (until the inevitable surmounting) that it can focus on making them entertaining and memorable and fun. It is because the series isn’t interested in making superheroics the only thing that matters that it can make it feel so vibrant and vital. It is because the series isn’t interested in filling its romances with angst that they are so appealing and important. No, The Middleman isn’t interested in that: it knows what it is, and what it is is a damn satisfying package, even after all these years.

[aion-rsa]

My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 2 Review: Vestiges

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This My Hero Academia review contains spoilers.

My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 2

“Have you ever thought about the feelings of those they left behind?” “I’ve thought so much about it that I’ve gone crazy.”

My Hero Academia season 5 technically started last week with “All Hands on Deck! Class 1-A” and it’s become an unofficial tradition for each season to begin with an episode that functions as a recap or primer for new audiences, but this premiere was especially superfluous. Sometimes there’s enough of a fresh perspective that can analyze past events critically, but “All Hands on Deck!” Class 1-A” merely covers the characters’ hero names and Quirks as they work through yet another mock battle. 

It’s a slow start that feels more like a tease, but what that premiere does effectively establish is the larger roster of characters that this season will balance. It’s clear that a lot of Class 1-B is on the way, but episode 2 “Vestiges” takes a very focused look at three characters in comparable situations before it embraces the chaos of Class 1-B.

“Vestiges” is an episode that shouldn’t work as well as it does and structurally it’s kind of a mess. The episode is largely stuck in the past and consumed by major passages of exposition that aren’t the most elegant way to explore this material. It’s a very dense installment that bombards the audience with important information, yet the revelations are satisfying enough and are surrounded with gorgeous visuals so that “Vestiges” is still a successful episode, almost despite itself. 

The title “Vestiges” explicitly refers to the former One For All relics that visit Midoriya, but it’s a term that’s applicable to all of this episode’s major characters. This is an episode that’s about the future, but it depends upon the past. Midoriya and Endeavor are completely separated throughout this episode, but “Vestiges” unifies them over how they both just want to do All Might justice, whether it’s as the new Number One Hero or the current bearer of One For All. Endeavor and Midoriya experience the same anxiety, but in totally different ways. 

This episode also draws exciting parallels between Midoriya and Hawks. The first half of “Vestiges” could just as easily be called “Keigo Takami: Origins” and it’s kind of beautiful to see how Hawks’ admiration towards Endeavor mirrors Midoriya’s own obsession towards All Might. It’s honestly comforting to see that Hawks is not in fact a traitor and is just playing the long game with his infiltration of the League of Villains. It’s great to see that the Number Two Hero isn’t actually a Number One Asshole, but it also seems unlikely that this scenario is as clear cut as it seems. 

It’s possible that Hawks is actually aligned with the League of Villains and there’s an extra level of double crossing that’s afoot, but what seems like the more likely development is that Hawks has now opened himself up to some very big dangers in this new, vulnerable position. This is bound to intensify in some big ways and hopefully this injection of The Departed into My Hero Academia blurs the lines between heroes and villains. Hawks might not actually be a traitor, but that doesn’t mean that every other hero is still on the level.

Hawks sees the good in Endeavor and he’s one of the few people that’s actively excited for the “Age of Endeavor”to begin. The end of My Hero Academia season 4 worked hard to begin Endeavor’s redemption arc and it’s encouraging that this is still a slow work in progress for the hero. “Vestiges” really leans into the Todoroki family and they’re far from reaching a healthy place, but it’s a valuable change of pace to spend so much time with a hero’s family. 

The campus nature of My Hero Academia often segregates the students and so this brief moment where the Todorokis attempt normalcy really stands out. Endeavor’s family still has put up a lot of barriers, but Shoto genuinely wants to give his father the benefit of the doubt, which exhibits tremendous growth from where he was at during the first two seasons. “Vestiges” chronicles the emotional connection between Shoto and his father, but it also actively creates more physical similarities between them now that Endeavor has a scar on his face that matches his son’s. Shoto’s matter-of-factly, “That’s a bad scar” is a subtle and perfect response for the situation. This relationship is one of My Hero Academia’s longest running arcs and it makes the payoff here all the greater.

Fractured families continue to be a strong throughline to “Vestiges” and even play a major role with the very nature of two of My Hero Academia’s most important Quirks. There’s an extended sequence spent in Midoriya’s subconscious that’s one of the more surreal moments from the series. The animation is fantastic through all of this and there’s an operatic quality to this dream where every element just screams that what’s going on is vitally important. A fascinating detail that comes forward is that All For One is the older brother of the original One For All bearer, which brings so much of the anime full circle and likely means that a major return of All For One is imminent. 

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It’d have seemed contrived if All Might and All For One were brothers, but this variation on that theme and how All Might and Midoriya are just fragments of this original sibling rivalry is an unexpectedly poetic turn for My Hero Academia’s war between good and evil. My Hero Academia has always looked towards the future and pushes a message about how important it is to value and empower the next generation. However, this glimpse into the origins of these two fundamental Quirks is such an elegant extrapolation of this premise. 

Every action that Midoriya takes has been in service of doing All Might justice and being the best successor imaginable, yet now Midoriya has the collective expectations and legacies of seven other heroes placed on him. His mission remains the same, but it’s now substantially magnified. It’s no coincidence that the original One For All bearer is also an individual who was born Quirk-less, just like Midoriya.

The most exciting detail from this stylized flashback that plays out in Midoriya’s subconscious is that All For One might have had altruistic intentions at one point. There have been comparisons made between My Hero Academia and X-Men in the past, especially in regards to how Quirks manifest across the planet. This influence has always been present on some level, but it now evolves from beyond subtext. It may be a glib oversimplification, but there are definite shades of Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier in the early relationship between All For One and his brother as a rift forms between them over the right application for Quirks as well as society’s perception of these “special” individuals. 

“Vestiges” gets a little too expository during these segments and the same sequences would be just as effective if All For One’s actions could just speak for themselves. It still opens up a rewarding new chapter of the series that feels like it’s the start of My Hero Academia approaching its endgame or final conflict. To the episode’s credit, these developments feel organic and baked into the anime’s DNA even though it’s a major piece of information that gets dropped out of nowhere. It’s also impressive how this sequence retroactively makes All For One even more frightening and succeeds in building anticipation over a possible return of the major villain.

“Vestiges” does an excellent job with how it establishes the larger themes of this new season and the major conflicts that will overwhelm the characters. There’s two episodes’ worth of information in “Vestiges” and this does make up for the disposable nature of last week’s premiere. This is still an entry that functions as an introduction to the new season and technically characters spend the bulk of “Vestiges” in bed and in various states of recovery. My Hero Academia can begin to indulge in pure action and entertainment now that it’s got some of this season’s heavy lifting out of the way. There’s already a grandiose feeling that’s not typically present right when a new season begins. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Much like what All For One’s brother tells him about his comic book-esque plan to radicalize the future: There’s more to this story.

The post My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 2 Review: Vestiges appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[blindrapture]

an old Andrew Hussie quote (and then a ramble in the tags)

(In response to “are you aware of all the people wishing Act 5′s hiatuses weren’t so prominent”)

I don't know. I hardly ever read more than half way down the first page of questions. Too many, too repetitive, etc.

But through various channels, I detect certain flavors of reaction, ranging from disappointment to frustration to something faintly resembling outrage, not just at the lack of an incendiary production to mark year 2, but also the flagging rate of output in recent weeks.

These reactions are far from universal, but they exist, and to address them I think an education on why MSPA exists at all is in order. If you see a creator who begins to languish in production of what presumably accounts for his day job, the impression may be that he is falling down on the job and failing to live up to his professional commitment. So maybe this is the source of indignation, re: entitlement, that some may feel when my output falters. The problem is, MSPA is not a day job for me. It is an all consuming lifestyle. Hence, the mirage that is the apparent ease of output for what is at times ludicrous volumes of material is highly sensitive to even slight perturbations in my life situation.

Let me put it this way. You may work a full time job. It may be that something happens in your life that makes your job more difficult, because you are preoccupied. Your work may suffer to some extent, but you can still approximately match what's expected of you, because there is a partition between your job and your home life. You may nevertheless feel your full time job seems to dominate your existence, saps your energy, and leaves your weekend respites feeling all too short. This is not an experience I share, because MSPA is not a full time job. If you have such a job, then I would have to RADICALLY REDUCE my workload to match your level of day to day preoccupation.

The actual quantities involved have always been nebulous and I never made a point of keeping track, but 12 hours per day seems like a pretty reasonable average, since that is just shy of all waking hours. Time spent writing, drawing, animating, or just spacing out at my monitor while contemplating all the moving parts. This is what I did every day, including weekends and holidays, for two years, and to some extent another year prior to that with Problem Sleuth. Only a few weekends were missed due to conventions, and there was a single week off immediately following the infamous "robo smooch", and that's it. (Most of that week was spent wondering why the hell I wasn't updating...) There are other gaps in the archive, spanning days or a week, when I was animating. Those spans involved the usual work schedule, while simply omitting sleep!

Not only is this an unreasonable workload to expect of anyone, it's practically impossible to pull it off. Maybe you can expect some committed guy out there to really buckle down and duplicate that effort for a month or two. But years? Too much can crop up in the white noise of normal life to destabilize it. Momentum is absolutely crucial for maintaining that kind of pace. I find that if I only do an hour of work in a day, I get ten minutes of work done. If I do 12 hours of work, I seem to get 24 hours of work done. This is especially true of animation. Such projects notoriously take a very long time. I feel like because of the crazy head of steam I've built up from years of nonstop effort, I can knock out in days something that might take another animator a week. Or in a week what might take a month. Without that momentum, it's not possible. Starting up Flash cold is excruciating. Getting your head back into the stride of a story wastes energy you wouldn't use if you never broke stride. Without the momentum, the pace reverts to ordinary. Getting distracted by life destroys the momentum.

I've been pretty zealous about deflecting the distractions, even when I move, as I often do. A notable example was last year when I came back from the Emerald City con in Seattle, and found my apartment flooded. The con was already enough of a time sink, so I didn't have much of an appetite for going into personal crisis mode. I just kind of shrugged, picked my computer off the lone, miraculously dry part of the floor, dropped it in a temporary residence, and kept drawing. I think the flood mess occupied about a day of my attention, whereas something like that could easily take up weeks of your time and energy if you're living that "normal life". You know how it is, you come home and find water up to your ankles and go aw fuck, what's ruined, what needs replacing, gotta call whoever and deal with the fuckin landlord about stuff and auuuugh. I just didn't bother with any of that, because it just didn't seem to matter, and I preferred to keep working and not give a crap about all my soggy bullshit. And in retrospect, I guess it really didn't matter.

All of my moves have been similarly characterized by the unceremonious transportation of a computer and a few boxes to a new room, in which I'd continue working as if no change took place, with no service paid to the life that would be lived there, except as a workspace. I moved again recently, prompted by decidedly less dramatic and less soggy reasons than after Emerald City. This time, for whatever reason, I did it differently. I moved the normal way, the way I imagine normal people doing when I close my eyes, whereby more than a car trunk full of utilitarian belongings are imported into the household, placed on the floor, and never unpacked until the next moving day. I am not necessarily PROHIBITIVELY busy, but like I said above, any dent in the momentum, whether its a few trips to Home Depot or Target here and there or somehow waking up to discover I'd absconded from a shelter with two particularly energetic young cats, is something that precludes a pace of output that is insane and often bordering on miraculous.

What I'm trying to convey here is this isn't necessarily any sort of break, or a grand announcement of a big slowdown for MSPA. I'm trying to give you a sense of the reality which made MSPA heretofore possible, and that if for a period of time I descend from an altitude far exceeding the hours of a full time job, into "merely" those of a full time job, IT DOESN'T ACTUALLY COUNT AS A BREAK! And certainly not as any sort of violation in a pact with the readership. Different from what you're used to? Sure. But you should never find yourself in a position where you come to expect, let alone demand, that degree of effort from anyone, even me. If my output "sputters" from 10 pages a day to 1 or 2 or 3, IDEALLY (re: unrealistically) this should not even cause you to voice an internal observation on the matter! And if one is voiced, instead of "oops, looks like Andrew's slipping," it should be "oops, looks like Andrew's being a regular dude for a while."

Not that detecting a pace change is some terrible wrongdoing, since clearly I've done everything in my power to establish these absurd precedents, and people have naturally associated this with The Brand. I'd just like to suggest it would be beneficial to the reader to disentangle enjoyment of the content from the torrid pace its been commonly delivered. Who can say how fast or slow it'll come in year three? Would my assurances even be reliable? Maybe it'll stay at the current pace for a good long while. Maybe it'll soon hasten back to something more typical. Maybe it'll come back FASTER THAN EVER. Who cares??? Do you really NEED this site to be the fastest comic on the block to enjoy it? Are you prepared to contend with the backlash to your psyche that is risked by so fervently relishing that particular property of the comic? What if it's taken away? Don't go boasting to your neighbors that your slave can pick cotton ten times faster than theirs. It's unbecoming. Just enjoy the fluffy yield of his furious hands, while you wait and pray for Abe Lincoln to gently stroke his beard and relieve you of your bigotry.

[man-creates-dinosaurs]

BIGFOOT JOINS THE RANKS OF AMERICAN CHRISTMAS ICONS

When did Bigfoot become a Christmas icon? I’m sure that question sounds strange to most of you, but I can’t be the only one to have noticed Sasquatch’s gradual induction into the pantheon of modern American Christmas characters. Right now you can buy Bigfoot Christmas tree ornaments, sweaters and stockings online, while a retailer as mainstream as Wal-Mart currently has a pair of yuletide Yeti shirts for sale in stores. If you need more proof just pull up Netflix and check out the new film Pottersville (2017, Dir. Seth Henrikson); an indy Christmas comedy with some major league talent including Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water), Judy Greer (Jurassic World), Ron Perlman (Pacific Rim) and Ian McShane (American Gods) – the latter doing his best impression of Robert Shaw’s character from Jaws (1975, Dir. Steven Spielberg). The film revolves around the small town of Pottersville – from the Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life (1946, Dir.  Frank Capra) – which has fallen on hard times economically. The residents gets an unexpected Christmas gift however in the form of a series of Bigfoot sightings which instantly transforms their forgotten hamlet into a must-visit tourist attraction!

Naturally, some people will scoff at the idea of Bigfoot becoming a part of the American Christmas holiday, but personally I’m all for it. I’m a big fan of Christmas monsters, ghosts and goblins – all of which were a part of the season long before Frosty the Snowman and Elf on the Shelf came along and something which I spoke about at length with John W. Morehead of Theofantastique last year. But still, the question persists, when exactly did Bigfoot get in on the holiday scene – or has he always been here?

When looking for Bigfoot’s entry point into the Christmas season the most obvious starting place is Rankin/Bass Productions’ 1964 holiday classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Dir. Larry Roemer & Kizo Nagashima) featuring stop-motion by underappreciated Japanese animator Tadahito Mochinaga. As anyone who has experienced this timeless piece of Christmas Americana knows, Rudolph and his friends spend much of the movie being menaced by a giant Yeti referred to by the various characters as either the Abominable Snow Monster of the North or just the Bumble for short. Perhaps the only true Christmas kaijū, scholar Jason Barr sees the Bumble as one of the many thematic descendants of King Kong, which corroborates author David Coleman’s observation, as found in his encyclopedic The Bigfoot Filmography (2011), that no single film has had more impact on the pop-culture perception of Bigfoot and the Yeti then King Kong (1933, Dir. Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack).

Of course, King Kong is a work of paleo-fiction, specifically the ‘Lost World’ sub-genre and as a result retains elements of the colonialist worldview which gave rise to the literary and cinematic tradition of stories concerning white explorers traveling to distant exotic lands where – unlike back home – “time stands still” and primitive beasts and people exist in Eden-like bliss; or at least until our intrepid adventures decide it’s their god given right to run roughshod over the place killing and/or capturing the animals and conquering the indigenous inhabitants.

As Barr writes in his book The Kaijū Film (2016), Rudolph’s Bumble is no exception to this tradition as we see the fearsome Snowman “is not only outwitted by the gathered cast” but also reduced to literal “toothless subservience” and subsequently put “to work decorating Christmas trees” in Santa’s workshop. Truly a sad fate for any once ferocious Christmas monster.

But in more recent years the Bumble’s kith and kin appear to be getting their revenge!

This leads us to our second possible point of origin for the modern Christmas Bigfoot; researcher Phyllis Siefker’s 1997 tome Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men. Here Siefker challenges the conventional notion that America’s Santa Claus is merely a modified version of Europe’s St. Nicholas. After all, asks Siefker, why would Protestant immigrants to the New World bring with them the tradition of an extremely popular Catholic saint? As an alternative explanation Siefker proposes that Santa – with his great beard, furry coat, and habit of nocturnal prowling – is really based upon the ancient pre-Christian figure of the Wildman as outlined in such excellent scholarly works as Richard Bernheimer’s Wild Men in the Middle Ages (1952) and Roger Bartra’s Wild Men in the Looking Glass: The Mythic Origins of the European Otherness (1994).

The idea that Santa isn’t actually a “right jolly old elf” and instead a hairy, savage Bigfoot-like monster must have been at least part of Finnish filmmaker Jalmari Helander’s inspiration for his fantastically bizarre 2010 film Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale in which plucky child protagonist Pietari discovers that “the Coca- Cola Santa is just a hoax” while the actual Kris Kringle is a Kong-sized goat-horned monster who “tears naughty kids to pieces” until “not even their skeletons are left.” Unfortunately for Pietari and his friends, a rich oil tycoon from America – possibly inspired by real-life American oil tycoon Tom Slick (d. 1962) who spent much of his fortune hunting for Bigfoot and the Yeti – has come to unseal the tomb buried beneath the Korvatunturi mountain range where the Saami people imprisoned Santa long ago.

Of course for cryptozoologists like Loren Coleman who entertain the possibility that there might be some truth behind such worldwide Wildman tales, Siefker’s work represents more than just a radical rewriting of Christmastime folklore, but rather the tantalizing – though unlikely - possibility that a character as iconic and beloved as Santa Claus may have been inspired by a relic population of anomalous-primates!

More recently a different kind of yuletide Wildman has been making his presence known here in the US. This, of course, is the Krampus; a kind of shaggy demon with curled goat horns, a lolling red tongue and a talent for punishing naughty children with switches and chains. As outlined in Al Ridenour’s excellent The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas (2016), Krampus hails from Austria where in small remote mountains towns such as Bad Gastein and Öblarn the day preceding the Catholic Church’s feast in honor of St. Nicolas sees the celebration of Krampusnacht (“Krampus Night”) in which children of all ages anticipate a visit from St. Nicholas and his posse of Krampus. These house visits are enacted by local Krampuspass (“Krampus Troupes”) composed of men ranging in age from their late teens to early forties who prepare all-year by sewing heavy wool suits made from sheep and goat’s hair and carving handcrafted wooden masks – called klaubaufkopfe (“Krampus heads”) – which along with chains, bells, switches and baskets will be worn by the performers as they accompany St. Nick – typically played by the tallest member of a troupe – throughout the town to distribute rewards and punishments. In addition to these house visits many towns also feature a Krampusumzüge (“Krampus-Run”) in which dozens of individuals dressed as the Krampus run through the streets threatening and menacing children as well as occasionally smacking a pretty young girl on the rear with their switches all while consuming copious amounts of alcohol. All of this makes for a festival that is equal parts Christmas, Halloween and Mardi Gras.

Since the early 2000s Krampus has begun an unassailable assent through mainstream American pop-culture gradually, and now undeniably, situating himself among other time honored holiday icons. According to reporter Christopher Bickel as of 2014 there are annual Krampus runs, bar crawls, parties and other related events being help in over thirty US cities nationwide while Krampus’ likeness can be found on a huge number of products including Christmas sweaters, stockings, ornaments, playing cards, plush and vinyl toys, decorative figurines, t-shirts, books, comics and in cartoons ranging from Scooby-Doo to American Dad. In 2015 Hollywood unleashed two theatrical Krampus flicks with the William Shatner staring anthology A Christmas Horror Story (Dir. Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban & Brett Sullivan) and Legendary/Universal Pictures’ Krampus (Dir. Michael Dougherty). There’s even a company selling an 11-foot-tall animatronic toddler swinging Krampus which you can put in your front yard! Krampus may also have played a part in inspiring another popular 20th-Century American Christmas monster: The Grinch. As artist Jeffrey Vallance – who via several essays has picked up the torch lit by Phyllis Siefker and continued exploring the possibility of Santa’s Wildman roots – has observed: “Over the ages, the brutal Wildman figure evolved into a character more like a clown or holiday fool. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss follows a classic Wildman scenario: The Grinch is a hairy, Bigfoot-like creature that lives in an alpine cave in a mountain similar to the Matterhorn.”

While Theodor Geisel – aka Dr. Seuss – maintained that The Grinch was primarily an autobiographical character, considering the beloved children’s author’s German ancestry one cannot help but wonder if yuletide Wildman characters like Krampus didn’t also play some part in the formation of the beloved holiday humbug.  

Back in November I delivered a presentation at the American Academy of Religions in Boston on the Krampus in which I argued that American’s recent infatuation with the Krampus – and other Christmas monsters, including apparently now Bigfoot – can best be understood as an oppositional response to conservative’s alleged “War on Christmas,” a moment perhaps best embodied by comedian Stephen Colbert’s 2009 declaration that Americans “need to bring Krampus to America to fight the War on Christmas.” While it seems clear that many Americans who desired a more interfaith approach to the season did not initially see themselves as engaged in a “War” the continual insistence by certain factions – and Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in particular – that there was indeed one eventually drove those opposed to a totalitarian Protestant interpretation of the holiday to fight back and call in the cavalry in the form of a monstrous menagerie of older darker Christmas creations. As scholar Joseph P. Laycock has observed monsters are often underappreciated sources of religious meaning, a set of symbols and rituals which can be used to inspire awe in the beholder, be it participating in a Krampusumzüge or catching a brief glimpse of Bigfoot. 

[toyahinterviews]

TOYAH ON BBC RADIO   SCOTLAND THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON SHOW WITH WITH RACHEL McCORMACK 24.4.2020

RACHEL: If you were watching BBC One's Children In Need And Comic Relief Big Night In last night you might've spotted pop punk legend Toyah Willcox cutting some moves on the dance floor because she was taking part in the Strictly Keep Dancing Challenge. She mentioned it on twitter. The singer and actress has been re-issuing her back catalogue over the last few months, including a recent album re-working In The Court Of The Crimson Queen. If you follow on her on twitter you have no doubt been thrilled by her various lockdown antics in cahoots with her husband Robert Fripp. They've been getting up to all sorts. Dressing up as bees, doing the tango at lunch time. Robert Fripp of course equally legendary, worked with David Bowie, formed King Crimson. So I caught up with Toyah, this was a few weeks back, just before the lockdown if my memory serves and I started by asking her about the impact of punk on her music and on her acting

TOYAH: It was about everything, it was a lifestyle, it was a lifestyle commitment. You couldn't just become a punk to go to a gig, you had to be punk 24 hours a day. It was a radical change of shaking up attitudes within the industry. It was one of the most exciting times I can ever remember in music so it was quite remarkable and then you had film makers like Derek Jarman, who were very punky in their approach to film making, along with many other brilliant people. I remember it as being vibrant and so continuous in its creativity – there was never a hiatus at all RACHEL: You mentioned Derek Jarman there and of course we can not mention Jubilee and your character Mad. Where did you get involved and how did you first meet Derek Jarman? TOYAH: I was at the National Theatre when Derek Jarman started making Jubilee and a friend of mine, a wonderful actor, who was starring in Chariots Of Fire, Ian Charleson was also at the National and he said "I think you should come and meet my friend Derek Jarman because you've got a lot in common." And that meeting was the beginning of a great friendship and a deep deep love. Derek was very protective towards me and I just loved him so much and he believed in me as a creative and I went on to make The Tempest with him, playing Miranda (below) in Shakespeare's Tempest so we had a wonderful wonderful relationship 

RACHEL: And this of course – we're talking about 78'-79' at this point – and this anarchic celebration Jubilee and then of course The Tempest. It's interesting because Jarman is a revolutionary in terms of culture and film but I was wondering if his take on Shakespeare shed any new light on Shakespeare himself to you (Toyah laughs)? Because I'm thinking - if you fast forward to 91' and you're still singing, you've got Ophealia's Shadow as an LP. Did Shakespeare himself become a bit of an influence? TOYAH: The Tempest became an influence. And what I mean by that – when Derek asked me to do it I said "I've never done Shakespeare, I've been Bottom in Midsummer Night's Dream (Rachel laughs) in school" but that's you know … so Jarman led me into Shakespeare and The Tempest which is dripping with Masonic and Illuminati secrets being revealed to the point where there's talk about Shakespeare being bumped off because of it  -

RACHEL: Yeah! TOYAH: It just drew me in, it was absolutely fascinating. A brilliant brilliant play RACHEL: And I love the fact that again – we should mention Quadrophenia 79' and you're with Phil Daniels, Sting … but also were always in music as well and were those different creative outlets both differently fulfilling for you? TOYAH: I've been doing music and acting in tangent since I was 17. So I was at The National when I was 18 and I formed the band while I was at the National Theatre. I deliberately wanted to do that, I deliberately wanted two independent careers and I was never interested in doing stage musicals. They're incredibly demanding, to sing eight times a week, the way those singers do. I know it's slightly beyond my physical capacity. I wanted two independent careers as a rock star and as a film actress and that's what I strived for

RACHEL: But we should say in terms of being kind of artistic and creative and subverting or questioning ideas and having fun with that perhaps as well, In The Court Of The Crimson Queen is of course a nod to King Crimson's In The Court Of The Crimson King, Robert Fripp being a trailblazer for them. Was that something you spoke about, at what point did that become a title? TOYAH: No (laughs) He has nicked my ideas  - we've been married for 33 years and I absolutely love him pieces and he's nicked all my sayings, he's nicked all my – I've come up with lyrics or song titles (Rachel laughs) and they suddenly appear in his work. I'm an art collector, he's even used my art for his album covers - RACHEL: Really?! TOYAH: So we went with In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, my co-writer Simon Darlow and I then when it was officially In The Court Of The Crimson Queen I just told him and he said "I'll sue you!" and I said "Yeah? Just try!" (Rachel laughs) 

RACHEL: Yeah! "You owe a few as well!" It's lovely to kind of think about that you managed to take something back but also I'm thinking about Robert Fripp and his involvement with Bowie and it takes me to my personal formative memories of you because I think for a lot of people, when they talk about their ultimate Top Of The Pops moment they go back to David Bowie, they go back to Starman, but for me as a kid it was seeing you on Top Of The Pops performing It's A Mystery TOYAH: Wow! RACHEL: I couldn't get over it, sat in my little bungalow in Stirling. It was absolutely mind blowing. I wondered what your recollections were? Was that a moment when you thought wow – in terms of your pop career (Toyah The Band, below) -  this is huge - TOYAH: Yeah RACHEL: Or not

TOYAH: Oh yeah! I can't tell you – I didn't fall asleep the night before. We were told we got Top Of The Pops I think about three days before we actually recorded it and it's everything I'd ever wanted. It was climbing to the top of the mountain and seeing the view and I was terrified. The clothes I wanted to wear weren't ready. My clothes designer Melissa Caplan made everything by hand, painted everything by hand and she just wasn't ready for this day so I wore a dress (above) which was very unlike me by a designer called Willy Brown who dressed Bowie for the Heroes album and I think the dress was as much a turning point for my career as the song because it feminised me in the right way. It was beautiful, it was strange, it was hand painted. Half of it was see through panels and the rest was taffeta. It was absolutely gorgeous. But I was terrified. I was so terrified I could hardly move and I think again that added to the charisma of that performance because every performance after that I'm just jumping around like a Jack-In-A-Box and I've got a lot of energy but that particular performance I was anchored to the ground by fear

RACHEL: Oh my goodness! TOYAH: I was so proud because I knew my family were watching and it proved that all the times since the age of seven that I said I was going to be a singer that I was right RACHEL:  Absolutely. I was an interesting song as well. There's an uncertainty there that maybe isn't in some of your other work. Were you aware of that? Was that something that you wanted to celebrate or to explore?

TOYAH: No, I was terrified of it. It's about vulnerability after I'd spent years being Boadicea, being absolutely undefeatable. When I heard the song I said well, this isn't me. It's about doubt, it's about vulnerability – I don't do either of those. So I went into the studio with the original writer Keith Hale, because as an original song it was a 12 minute vocal and then about a 28 minute instrumental, so we set about arranging it and I wrote the lyrics for the second verse and we made it into the kind of single format which had to have the hit chorus and the middle eight. And I still though "nah, this isn't right, this isn't me!" (Rachel laughs) But we started playing it on a university tour in March 1981 (It was Jan/Feb 81') (below) and I though this will be the proof of the pudding. They're going to hate it! And the audiences loved it! The rest is history

RACHEL: When I was explaining to my kids I was very excited to be interviewing you today and they know your early work and I was playing In The Court Of The Crimson Queen frequently when it came out - TOYAH: Bless you! RACHEL: But they of course know and love you so dearly because of Teletubbies ... TOYAH: Yeah, I know (they both laugh) And Brum for those who are old enough RACHEL: I know! How did that come about? Did you have any idea when you were approached how huge that would become? TOYAH: No … I was doing voices for all of the series of Brum created by Anne Wood and she went on to do the pilot and create Teletubbies. She uses child psychologists to build her ideas. In The Night Garden. She spent decades using child psychologists to create all of that. And when I'd finished doing Brum, she contacted me and said could come in and do the voice for the pilot of something new called Teletubbies and she was terribly terribly frightened about it. She said the BBC don't want to take the project, she'd mortgaged he house for £60 000 to pay for the pilot and she just though she was going to lose her home. Now miraculously the BBC lost a programme which meant they had to take Teletubbies and it meant that as soon as Teletubbies showed it became a worldwide hit and Anne had to spend the next ten years of her life making  hundreds and hundreds of programmes of Teletubbies to go around the world. So do you ask me did I know it was going to be that successful? (Rachel laughs) The answer's no. I said to Anne when I did the opening and closing lines as the narrator, I said if children don't like this … students are going to be loving it! (Rachel laughs) It's like Magic Roundabout. They're going to be on the wacky baccy and they're just going to be watching this day in and day out! RACHEL: There you go, Toyah on the wonder of Teletubbies  

[tinnefoil]

10 Negative/Unhappy Supergirl Spoiler-y thoughts&specs

I told you, I’m a pessimist, I must also look at the speculations that don’t make me happy, so here are some. Doesn’t mean that I think they will happen or likely they will happen, just things I could see have a certain logic to it, even if I personally don’t like it. 

1.) Alex sees Reign’s daughter and thinks of motherhood. => I find that a very odd thing, considering Reign’s daughter is already fairly grown up. If we are unlucky the show might frame Alex/Kara as a relationship with very maternal elements. As in, because Kara is growing up and more on her own, Alex is projecting on Reign’s daughter/wants a “replacement” daughter because she can’t mother Kara anymore the way she used to. 

2.) There might not be a good motivation/excuse for the Mon-El/Saturn Girl thing. This could for example be the case if the main goal for the writers is to have Kara angst. So in this mindset they could spend the first bunch of episodes of the season having Kara grieve Mon-El only to have it turn out that he’s actually totally an ass. Even if people feel that that goes against most things he said last season, but again, if you want to maximize the impact on Kara, maybe then that might make sense to you as a writer. (with an element of the shock and surprise of the audience mirroring what Kara is going through, it might also fit with Cat’s speech on going through the depths of one’s emotion)

3.) The writers promised a sister story. What if part of this sister bonding was both of them learning the lesson/agreeing that maybe you shouldn’t marry/forever hold a torch for the first person you had a real, fleshed out sexual relationship with and that is something you have to overcome? Parallel journeys and all that? 

4.) Maybe the plan of the writers was always to have Mon-El leave at the end of his arc, but they feel they wrote themselves into a corner and the Saturngirl thing is their way not to just have a reason for Mon-El to leave at the end, but to also make sure people don’t ask for his return. As in “we have to do something radical, so we won’t have people annoy us with questions about why Mon-El can’t show up again”. 

5.) A variation on 4 (the Saturn pairing existing to provide a reason for Mon-El leave), but with a different motivation, namely rather than just “let’s do something painful or unappealing to scare people off”, as a genuine arc. Marriage sets off a “personal desire versus duty” arc. Kind of to mirror Kara’s words in the first trailer about how she would have made the same decision again. To emphasize that as a hero, of course he has to choose duty and responsibility in the end, or else he wouldn’t be a hero. 

6.) Maybe the writers took the complaints about Mon-El in season 2 to mean that people wants a more serious Mon-El, and they’ll use the supposed timejump to remove all the traces of comedy from him. Timejump = no more funny “I’m an alien and I don’t get earth stuff” jokes. So even if the writers continue the pairing, some of their fun dynamic will be lost forever. 

7.) Timejump also likely means that many of the things the fans of Mon-El were looking forward to, namely how he develops into being a hero, including various firsts, such as Mon-El learning how to fly won’t happen on screen, interactively. At the most they could be shown in probably less than satisfying flashbacks and not with any of the characters we are actually familiar with. It’s actually kind of a catch-22 situation. If there’s a timejump and he comes back at a hero people will miss of his development and I would argue that that would feel pretty shallow even for people who aren’t fans of his character in particular. If he comes back not a hero that means that he wouldn’t really have lived up to what he said to Kara, about wanting to be a hero and being a better person. [I’d genuinely argue that the supposed timejump is the much bigger annoyance compared to any hooking up with other people stuff, whether seriously or not seriously. It might look like an intended to be nice thing to make Mon-El potentially moving on not as bad, but it comes with a lot of really impractical implications] 

8.) Another catch-22. Either Mon-El immediately tells Kara about his new relationship, which might come across as  him rubbing it in her face (even if that is not intention, but that’s how it might feel like to Kara). Or he doesn’t which might feel like him lying/deceiving Kara again. 

9.) What if Reign is really boring? I actually don’t think this will happen, what I have seen of the actress makes me think that she’s really good. But what if it doesn’t work? What if they put most of their eggs in the Reign basket, with like a ton of storylines revolving around her, but she’s just really, really boring? For example, I was quite shocked that apparently Alex will interact with Reign and Reign’s daughter fairly early into the season already. 

10.) What if Saturn and friends really are their way to see whether they can add another comic book show? For example, if they cancel Legends for poor ratings. Or most of their non superhero shows don’t work out and they want to try adding yet another one? Or maybe they watch how the new Star Trek pans out to decide whether the world wants more scifi/future shows? [I have many concrete reasons why I personally don’t think that will be the case, like “Saturn” not really seeming like your typical tv actress for example, but it’s still an unpleasant thing to think about, since backdoor pilots can have really negative effects on their shows, regardless of whether the show comes to pass or not]

Bonus: Lena still doesn’t find out about Kara=Supergirl all season and they continue that they are still best friends anyway, even though that makes Kara a huge liar and Lena dumber than a box of rocks. 

So, now that I got this off my chest: of course none of these have come to pass and even for the catch-22s, they can be resolved in some way. Still, had to get them out of there. 

[thekeyissue]

HoX/PoX: A Narrative Breakdown

                                       ****SPOILERS for House of X/Powers of X below****

The first time I read Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 it punched me in the face. I don’t think I’ve ever met a story so disinterested in maintaining the reader’s understanding of its narrative’s linear order. Sure, there are chapters, but those mean donk-squat and the text bounces you between characters and events that haven’t been described yet while already in the middle of something brand new. Still, even at the end of that first confusing read-through, the book’s themes had cohesively built into something that gutted me.

It takes masterful story-construction and meticulous planning to pull off that style of story-telling (check out this outline Heller made), and Jonathan Hickman is on a very short list of writers I’ve discovered with the skill set to lay the groundwork for a similar effect. Heck, it’s not even that hard to draw some high-level comparisons between House of X/Powers of X and Catch 22 (both have a nonlinear story structure and a climatic reveal at the story’s end that recontextualizes what came before it, but actually occurred early in the plot’s timeline).

The comparisons between HoX/PoX and a novel more or less end there though. What HoX/PoX as a story accomplishes, despite employing two separate but interweaving series, multiple timelines, a large cast, and a nonlinear structure, is actually pretty easy to summarize: it believably gives readers the what and the why of a new status quo. In other words, it’s just the beginning of a story. Well, duh, Marvel said from the start that this was the plan – but when was the last time someone told you just the beginning of a story in a way that was satisfying, complete, and coherent. Like, if I pulled you aside and told you “Once upon a time, Tom went to the grocery store” and took a bow, you’d give me the finger and go find something interesting to do.

You know why 99% of TV show pilots are so bad? Exposition is really, really hard. But exposition is the beginning of a story and necessary, so there’s no way around it. The best story-tellers find ways to minimize the exposition they need, and dramatize the exposition that is absolutely necessary (this is why a lot of action stories start mid-action sequence – it’s an easy dramatic backdrop to explain what’s happening in an exciting way). The HoX/PoX team just pulled off a 12-issue dramatization of exposition that works! They created a mostly unprecedented and believable (by which I mean, character choices/story made sense as a whole) new status quo for mutants in the Marvel comic universe. Pulling that off is crazy-town high-level story-telling! So, how’d they do it?

                                                                     *           *           *

Understanding how HoX/PoX made interesting story-telling out of exposition requires a close look at the series’ overall narratives. Narratives always contain arcs, of which there are many types. A few examples:

Character Arcs: the growth/changes a character makes throughout a story – ex. Johnny grows up and starts taking responsibility for himself

Event Arcs: how a significant event affects those around it – ex. a movie organized around a specific event or movement, like the march from Selma to Montgomery in the “Selma”

Arcs of Understanding: an audience/reader coming to grasp the full truth of a person or situation – ex. a mystery, where our changing understanding of what’s happening drives the story forward

HoX/PoX contains two larger arcs: 

the founding of Krakoa

the reader’s understanding of the radicalization of Xavier.

There are of course many sub-plots that are not explicitly one of the two arcs mentioned above, but these are all in service of one or both of the larger arcs. HoX/PoX having two major arcs makes sense, as it’s technically two different series. If we wanted to generalize, we could call HoX primarily about the founding of Krakoa, and PoX primarily in service of our understanding of Xavier’s radicalization. It’s not a perfect split (I’m looking at you HoX #2), but it can be a helpful delineation.

The founding of Krakoa is an event arc – we get to see how it happens over the course of the series and what that means to different groups of mutants and humans alike. This arc mainly functions to define the new status quo for readers. We see:

the origins of the creation of Krakoa as a space, establishing our new setting.

the call for mutants to join Krakoa/humans to accept Krakoa, the inciting incident to tension/conflict that births the new status quo.

the political maneuvering to have Krakoa be accepted as an independent nation which establishes a new hierarchy of power between mutants and humans.

an introduction to the Orchid group and their attempt to combat the rise of mutants, which defines the current human+machine/mutant conflict within the new status quo.

groups of traditionally ideologically different mutants uniting, empowered, and successfully independent, which is the new status quo.

By the end of HoX we have a solid understanding of Krakoa as a space & nation, mutant’s new place in the world, and the opposition they may face going forward. To understand why this happened requires the larger series’ other arc, the reader’s understanding of the radicalization of Xavier.

Xavier is the key player in HoX/PoX because his traditional ideological position is in such contrast to the decisions we see him making. This is somewhat of a generalization over decades of continuity, but Xavier and the team he founded, the X-Men, traditionally fight for peaceful coexistence & equality between humans and mutants. Suddenly seeing him separate and raise he and his people above humanity seems out of character and requires explanation.

Moira’s story and timelines provide this explanation. Her ultimate truth, fully revealed only in the final issue of the HoX/PoX series, is that across every lifetime she has lived, mutants have always lost to humanity. Leading up to this final reveal, PoX is an exercise in slowly pulling the curtain back on this truth:

X^0 shows Moira meeting Xavier and sharing her experiences/lives with him for the first time (in the series’ current timeline).

X^2 portrays the short-term stakes of the potential future mutants face (bad – they’ve been driven off-Earth and almost extinct).

And X^3 ultimately shows the long-term stakes of mutant’s potential future (very bad – they’re caged up, almost extinct, and with no recollection of freedom).

The revelation of this consistent, demonstrated loss convinces Xavier to shift his ideological stance – although we don’t see his mind changing – which just points to how this series did not have or make the room for character arcs. Xavier’s ideological shift explains the radically different behavior he and the X-men demonstrate, justifying their behavior and the necessity of the new Dawn of X status quo.

While these two large arcs run throughout the HoX/PoX series, they are not shown in linear order. If the plot were ordered from beginning to end, we would never question the characters’ actions and decisions because we’d understand their motivations from issue one – HoX/PoX does the exact opposite: dropping us into the results of motivated characters having already made decisions without our having any context. This maximizes the tension between the old and new status quo and makes sure we’re questioning everything going on. The story doesn’t progress linearly, it progresses by a constantly revealing the context surrounding this shift in status quo.

HoX/PoX creates a huge breadth of potential reveals by containing a large amount of story time (thanks for all those lives you’ve had, Moira!) and by arranging this story time non-linearly. Four different timelines allow for four chances to establish settings/characters, create conflict, and reveal truths – all of which can (and do) inform one another. Juxtaposing the various timelines non-linearly creates double the amount of potential reveals. We get reveals regarding the order in which everything happens, and we get reveals about how what’s happening in one timeline relates to/informs our understanding of other timelines. Creating a structure that provides opportunities for reveal after reveal is what allows HoX/PoX to drive readers excitedly through a full 12-issue series of exposition, which in turn gives the story enough real estate to believably change the status quo so dramatically. Very, very cool.

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What’s really exciting is that this is just the beginning. Like, we haven’t even gotten into character driven story-telling and people are already HYPE – it should only get better, or, at least, it only has the opportunity to now that the story is ready to move past its introduction.

The creative teams behind the X-Men books have an incredible opportunity to explore the world of mutants in new and exciting ways. Mutants have always been a very vague stand-in/metaphor for oppressed minority groups in the real world. Often these real-world minority groups have various factions organized around competing beliefs regarding methods of empowerment, something somewhat reflected in past mutant vs mutant comic storylines. Because of HoX/PoX, the fictional world of mutants is set up, for the first time (at this scope), to explore the idea of an empowered and fully-united minority group successfully standing up for itself – that’s the kind of thought-provoking setting I applaud mainstream comics embracing, assuming it is done with the thoughtfulness and nuance it deserves.

Consider the film “Do the Right Thing” (and go watch it if you haven’t), which is famous for ending with the following quotes from MLK Jr. and Malcolm X: 

"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by destroying itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers."--Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self- defense, I call it intelligence."--Malcolm X

The juxtaposition of these quotes at the film’s end points out how different, even seemingly conflicting ideological standards can exist inside of humans simultaneously, and that holding oppressed groups to a single one of these standards can be an oppression in and of itself. Dawn of X feels like an evolution (lolz) in mutant-related story-telling towards representing this reality – treating mutants as complex beings (who are attempting to unite and rise despite their conflicting beliefs and ideologies) is a step towards realizing the full potential of mutants as metaphor. I am excited to see if and how the Dawn of X series creators will meet this opportunity to tell the epic, fun, meaningful stories the X-Men are known for - and if HoX/PoX is any indication, we are in good hands.

Here’s to Dawn of X, tomorrow and onwards!