#yeah whatever dc and marvel exist.

[transmanleonardo]

just realized once again that they never really seem to fight in any epic locations it really is just parking lot #1, The Quarry, parking lot #2, construction site #1 and construction site #2. sometimes there’s a bridge

[starsapphire]

i do prefer marvel's sliding timescale so much more than whatever dc has going on btw. marvel will just be like "yeah 1963 was 12 years ago and it's 2023 now" and let things exist in the context they were written. dc is obsessed with rewriting the timeline and "modernising" characters over and over again to make everything "make sense" like they're not talking about comics, which are notoriously not supposed to make sense

[southaway]

Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof and Tikkun Olam

Long post, buckle up. I have Feelings.

This concept is something I've been turning over in my head for awhile and trying to get the composition right. So I guess a quick history lesson for people who don't know yet (though I feel like it's becoming common knowledge) the comic book industry exists because of Jewish people. DC, Marvel, and everything that came after. Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, and SO many others came from Jewish writers and artists. And try as people might, it is impossible to separate that from these characters. My roommates and I (three Jews and a goy, but like a cool one) are specifically into DC and were talking a while back about the core ideas of Superman and Batman. And yeah, the first things that probably jump to most peoples' heads are maybe hope and fear, justice, maybe the American way or whatever is happening in New Jersey. And yeah, to an extent I think that's right but it's not the whole story. See, what seems clear to us is that Superman and Batman specifically embody two Jewish principles: Tikkun Olam and Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof. A quick-ish and simplified explanation:

Tikkun Olam (Superman) is at the heart of Judaism. It means repairing the world, and while there is a more complex religious and ritualistic meaning, the broad takeaway is that it is our job to make the world a better place. You can't save the world but you have to try. It's hope. While the light is shattered it can be repaired and it is our duty to do what we can, to put good out into the world no matter how large or small. What matters is that you try, you always try.

Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof: Justice, Justice you shall Pursue! (Batman) Another core of Judaism. Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof is not merely the pursuit of justice, but justice for those who need it most. The most vulnerable, the people at the greatest disadvantage, that continue to be hurt the most.

And when Superman and Batman are being written well, written correctly they embody these ideas. These characters and their stories where not created in a vacuum, nothing is. They where made by Jewish men, sons of immigrants. Their ideas of the world and concepts of justice would be inherently Jewish. Tikkun Olam and Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof are the definition of justice and making a better world for Jewish people. These characters and the stories they tell and the ideas they exemplify are and always have been at their heart Jewish. Try as some people might you can't take that away, it is sown into their creation whether you know it or not. We won't be removed from our own narratives.

[thestargayzingetherian]

She-Ra In He-Man Revelations/Revolution

So it's been a few days and I wanted to put this post out there to basically publicly give my thoughts on some... recent developments concerning He-Man Revolution. Before I go into this, MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING FOR THE SHOW!

And also, and this is probably MORE important than the spoiler warning. Do not, and I repeat, do not take whatever speculation I put in this post as gospel or something that is GOING to happen. I may be a bit more knowledgeable than a lot of people about this stuff, but I don't wanna consider myself an expert. This is just me speculating and giving my thoughts and I don't want to get anyone's hopes up because there's a good chance, that what I'm saying turns out to be completely wrong and I don't wanna be responsible for that, so please, take all of this with the smallest grain of salt possible.

With that out of the way...

So the new season of He-Man ends with the reveal of this lady, Despara. For those who don't know... she is Adora. As in She-Ra Adora. In the DC He-man comics, Despara was the name Adora was known as when she was raised as Hordak's daughter. Her name is often used by Catradora fan artists and fic writers who really wanna just make Adora a hot evil lesbian, usually with a hot butch hairdo. It is likely that if/when another season of this show comes, Despara will be the main focus.

Now this raises the obvious question... how are they going to handle the She-Ra stuff. As I have made posts about before, the She-Ra rights and He-Man rights have been separate for a very long time and apparently, the last thing I heard, Mattel themselves can't use any of the She-Ra characters in animated form due to Dreamworks owning them now.

So naturally, you might be thinking that Despara here is just a placeholder because they can't use She-Ra. Except... there are a LOT of She-Ra references in this season that are way too numerous to be just references.

For example:

They recreate the exact scene from the 80s She-Ra movie where Adora is taken as a baby by Hordak in a flashback scene. They also mention Horde Prime existing as well and they EVEN imply that Shadow Weaver exists in this universe as well and Hordak's new robot second-in-command, Motherboard is a replacement for her.

So yeah, all signs SEEMINGLY point to some sort of She-Ra-inspired adaption being the next part of this show. Now, considering the very complex rights issues... I can see this going one of two ways.

Mattel and Dreamworks did a deal like the one Sony and Marvel did with Spiderman to temporarily get the She-Ra rights back for JUST this next season. Despara is revealed to be Adora and her arc will be her learning her true family AND eventually becoming She-Ra to fight Horde Prime with her brother and possibly all the other She-Ra cast are there too. This I feel like it would be the ideal solution to all of this.

2. Despara is revealed to be someone else OTHER than Adora under her helmet because her face is obviously not seen in her brief scene when she takes her helmet off. Technically, Mattel would own Despara outright and not Dreamworks and they could easily make Despara her own character. This was also how they planned to include her in the second season of CGI He-Man. HOWEVER, considering all the foreshadowing and knowing how many people working on these shows loved SPOP... I feel like it'd be really unsatisfying if it wasn't Adora under the mask, both as a fan and from a creative standpoint.

As for my personal theory of what Despara's whole deal is, I think she's ruling Etheria on the other side of the galaxy with Catra and serving personally under Horde Prime. Basically SPOP but a bad ending. The plot will be He-Man and his friends finding out about Etheria and going there to free the planet and Despara will redeem herself and she and Catra and whoever will join team good guy.

But that's just my personal theory. I really don't know what the hell is going to happen here or even IF more episodes will even be coming and I don't want to get people's hopes up. There's a reason I myself have been working on my own She-Ra and He-Man crossover extended universe stuff for the last while so, at the very least, there'd be a fanfic that would satisfy my hopes. I am prepared to be very wrong here.

But even if none of this speculation pans out, I still highly recommend this show to She-Ra fans. The second season definitely fixed the few issues I had with the first one and I hope more comes out of this version of He-Man... then again, it wouldn't be the first time a He-Man series was cancelled.

Hope you find this post informative!

[faeriekit]

@piedpiperart

Okay, I'm awake now!

Since I wrote a lot of DP x DC stuff, I think that, in general, Danny Phantom is more flexible than Percy Jackson is both in tone and in content. A lot of that is due to how flexible the material is, and a LOT of that is due to the fans putting in the hard work to really mold Danny Phantom (show) into a bunch of different shapes and genres and tones and atmospheres over its cancellation years, which make blending it with, like, crime shows and grim dark stuff and other sci-fi properties pretty easy. But Percy Jackson... it has a harder line between what "fits the vibes" or "doesn't fit the vibes" as far as content goes. It's a middle grade series. Sure, kids died, but not in the same sort of...uncaring tone and perspective DC uses for death and despair, you know?

I think I've read one fic where I was like "yeah, I can see this happening" with a DC x PJO crossover at its base, and that was because Annabeth was cast as a hot and upcoming villain in opposition to the main cast. Typecasting the Greek vibe worked well enough. A lot of the PJO stuff isn't super compatible with DC lore...like, at any point would Diana or other Amazons let half-god kids, like, run amok and let them fight their own wars without at least some amount of supervision? If there were world-ending divine catastrophes, wouldn't SOMEONE with a divine hotline be rung up, like capt. Marvel at least? 🤷🏽‍♀️ Saying yes to that neglect changes the empathetic feel of the DC characters, and saying no that they would know and adding them to the universe fundamentally changes how camp and such operate, and saying that they had no idea that the other existed changes the assumed competence of the adult DC characters. It's much easier to conceive that, say, no one knows what's on the other side of dimensional portals or at the bottom of an already poorly understood pit of Evil Goo Water than it is to be like "hey Batman doesn't know about the kid soldier training camp that's been around for hundreds of years and is within driving distance from his house!"

I suppose its not impossible to have a faithful DC adaptation based in PJO ground layer canon. What do I know? All I can say is, I've tried reading a few, and largely the fics change just enough of the fundamentals that the sensation of reading them is just...weird. to me. personally. I think sizing the perspective down to have one on one character interactions or individual experiences might work better than slapping the worlds on top of each other for something more comprehensive and meaningful, since the overarching stories have such vastly different perspectives. Also you should do whatever you want anyway and my opinion has no bearing on what you enjoy or seek out.

My favorite PJO crossover to this day is a Supernatural x PJO fic on FFN. Literally all it consisted of was the main two supernatural dudes interrogating why some goth kid (Nico) threw some other kid (Percy) into the lake to drown. The lying was so bad. The confusion/concern was palpable. The vibes were impeccable. 10/10.

[blueberry-ovaries]

TAG GAME

GET TO KNOW ME :)

thank you for the tag @grumpy-liebgott !!

NAME:

Mads / Blue

PRONOUNS:

She / They

STAR SIGN:

Aquarius ♒️

# OF SIBLINGS AND FUN FACTS ABOUT THEM (IF YOU HAVE ANY):

1 younger brother! A fun fact about him is that he is a musician! he’s a really good drummer, and can pretty much play songs by listening to them once!

# OF PETS & THEIR NAMES:

1 dog and his name is Cisco, after Cisco from The Flash TV show

FANDOMS:

Band of brothers (obviously!). But I love Marvel, DC, Star wars, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, COD… yeah i love a lot of things

FAVOURITE COLOUR:

Blue. So much so i’ve made it my theme and name :)

FAVOURITE SONG:

That’s tough because i have a lot of favourites… But one i’ve had on repeat a lot recently is Breakin’ dishes by Rhianna!

FAVOURITE AUTHOR (OF ANYTHING READABLE - BOOKS, FANFICS, ZINES, WEBTOONS, WHATEVER!):

fanfics:

@malarkgirlypop @footprintsinthesxnd @next-autopsy @mads-weasley (plus all my other friends who write! (i just have shocking name recollection ))

books:

Oscar Wilde! The picture of Dorian Gray

Holly Jackson! A Good Girls Guide to Muder

FAVOURITE FIC TYPE:

I love me a good “they’re both in love but don’t realise”… Like they both are so in love with each other but don’t think the other one is… and it’s just so fluffy

BUT

sunshine x grumpy???? that’s my shit right there

FAVOURITE HOLIDAY:

Can’t go past Christmas! now especially because i’ve been enjoying the people i’ve spent it with the last few years :))

DO YOU HAVE A PARTNER (ROMANTIC, QPR, ANYTHING!)?:

i wish, i am literally the most awkward person in existence… i’m also like unable to tell when people are flirting with me

HOBBIES:

I play netball and softball! just socially, not competitively (any more) which also means my joints are shit.

I also love to read and bake! which are things my parents passed down, my dad loves to read an my mum loves to bake, and bakes with me a bunch!

FUN FACTS ABOUT ME:

- i’m not sure if this is a fun fact, but all my joints crack or pop. At some stage of the day i can crack any joint.

- i’ve seen one direction when 5sos opened for them in concert!

- i can sing the entirety of ‘baby got back’ by Sir-Mix-A-Lot… no i don’t know how i learned it

NON PRESSURE TAGS: @malarkgirlypop @mads-nixon @executethyself35 @whollyjoly @ronald-speirs @ronsparky

[bigskydreaming]

Sometimes when I'm writing Lilith I have to stop and think about the fact that despite how long her character has been around, she's so rarely used and so wildly and arbitrarily recharacterized each and everytime she is, she doesn't really HAVE an existent long-running characterization. At least not so much as she has half a dozen wildly unrelated character traits haphazardly packed together in a tight enough huddle that they can all fit under her signature cloak and hood.

Not that her hood and cloak are iconic because of any particular narrative or character element, so as to be clear. Lil's pretty much associated with that look for no real reason other than: they gave her a cloak and hood in the 90s', because. Like. It was the 90s'. They kinda just...did stuff like that in the 90s'.

Look, the truth is for as much as a ton of us all throw 'it was the 90s' and 'what do you expect, we're talking about a comic from the 90s' and other variations of 'Man. LOL. Marvel and DC in the 90s, am I right guys?' every which way on any and every social media platform ever, as though like, that really does just sum it all up and yup, we sure did say something with that string of four words we put together there, all by ourselves....

Like, the thing about that is its one of those things you kinda just SAY for lack of any better way to put into words what it is you mean by that, even while knowing full well that there's like, pretty much NO chance that for any given 9 out of 10 other people you come across throwing similar phrases around twitter or tumblr.....like, they're more than likely not going to be picturing anything all THAT close to whatever first pops into YOUR head when you "It was the 90s" about a comic book and leave it at that.

Its really actually very hard to put into words what I'm getting at here, other than to just say....."comics in the 90s" is one of those utterly useless phrases that everyone says and yet doesn't actually mean anything at all because no two people actually mean the same thing when they say that and this is a thing that everyone who says that is very aware of......

But at the exact same time, "comics in the 90s" is one of the most accurate and easily understood and related to phrases that everyone says while knowing they don't actually have any idea what the other person is picturing but that doesn't matter because we still know that somehow, some sense of what we actually DO mean is making it across the great communication divide between brains and our wavelengths are syncing. We both nod. Yeah dude. You get it.

What does dude get? You don't actually know, even though you literally just said that dude got it and you were being SINCERE, you truly meant that you genuinely believed that on some level, in some sense, dude did still in fact get it. Even while at the exact same time you yourself haven't the slightest confidence that if some sci-fi gizmo were to beam down from Star Trek heaven or whatever and make it possible to pluck the precise thoughts and images your "comics in the 90s" conversation with Dude conjured in his mind and then put all that on screen alongside four other options....there was still like, a random one in five chance of you somehow picking the right one out of that lineup, and it honestly would have fuck all to do with any particular specifics that came up in your earlier conversation.

Comics in the 90s. It means absolutely nothing while somehow still communicating certain ideas and impressions and sentiments pretty clearly, but not clearly in the sense that any two people have anywhere close to an actual CLEAR idea of what someone else means, but still somehow clearly enough that like. You nod, appeased because Successful Communication was somehow still achieved even if in no form actually accepted or understood as actual useful or accurate communication.

So just so you know, if the phrase comics in the 90s or a 90s comic book doesn't actually mean anything to you because you werent reading comics then, and you havent read 90s comics at any point since then in a way that keeps books from that decade and that decade only lumped together in some kind of strange, awkward cohabitation space and identifies them all as being part of a shared set that's not really based on overlapping or similar characters or genres or themes or messages or settings or writers or premises or tropes, just.....Vibes. Vibes only....

Well. The one thing I can tell you about comics in the 90s and when people talk about comics from the 90s....is that one thing you're always gonna hear a lot of people say about a lot of different books and different narrative choices made within those books.....is just: Idk, really. It was just the 90s, y'know. They did stuff like that.

You will hear it offered up a lot in a way where context will reasonably lead you to conclude that the above explanation is being put forth as a likely explanation for why a specific character choice or narrative choice or editorial choice was made in a particular comic written at some point in the 90s.

You would be absolutely valid in feeling an urge to check for hidden cameras and for the host of some kind of internet prank show to pop out when you see people nod sagely in response to this proferred explanation as though they accept it as an actual explanation that actually did explain something somehow and that they feel that the initial question was in fact accurately or even adequately answered by this explanation.

Just know that you have not actually entered the Twilight Zone, and also, no one is intentionally trying to gaslight you. A conversation did happen there, an exchange of ideas and impressions was communicated, and as incomprehensible as that might probably seem a lot of the time, unfortunately its unlikely any participant of that conversation will be able to clarify further and actually break down what was communicated and how.

We genuinely, truly don't know, is the thing. When I say: "Lilith Clay's pivotal turning point from her earlier characterizations and depictions pre-90s to the mysteriously cloaked floating cipher figure she's existed as ever since the 90s occurred somewhere in the 90s, and this radical shift in how she was portrayed CAN be pointed out as a being a clear demarkation point between the two vastly different versions of Lilith, and cited as the point in time where this point here, this place in time here, this is when Lilith stopped being associated with the stuff she'd been previously associated with and brought to mind in the forms that she'd previously been illustrated in....."

Like all of that is pretty clear and self-evident enough.

But when I continue on from there to say:

"And I can point you to WHEN the change happened and show clear before and after evidence that proves that this is in fact where the seismic character shift occurred, I can even say if Lilith hadn't been used in the 90s and just gone into comic book Limbo and only brought back at some point after the 90s, there's a strong chance she would not have ever ended up as altered as she was by that decade, and she'd be a lot more visibly and narratively recognizable as the character she'd been pre-90s."

And this leads someone to ask the very understandably relevant followup question: "Okay so WHY did that big a change occur though? What were the reasons given for such a dramatic shift, what was said in the stories and by the characters and the writers to explain or justify why Lilith just one day started showing up to Superhero Meetings in ominous trying super hard to be Spooky and Mysterious Garb also I'm Omen now, call me Omen, Lilith is dead, long live the Omen, but not the creepy little kid from the movie because fuck that kid, I still hate kids, that part hasn't changed..."

This is when the communication breakdown occurs.

Because here is the point where all I can do is shrug and super helpfully inform you that I have absolutely no idea what most of the characters thought about the switch from Original Recipe Lilith to "So Apparently This is Still Lilith, Guys, Any Questions For Her? Seriously? Nobody?"

Like, nobody knows is the thing. No explanation was ever actually given in story. Nobody ever really treated this in story as noteworthy enough TO comment on even though the differences are night and day. Everyone just rolled with it and never stopped and at some point it just....became that thing where we were like oh okay, I see. Cool. Cool cool cool. This is just. New Lilith because Reasons and we're never actually going to get or hear or learn those reasons because like. There were never actually any real reasons and that's why no writers ever felt that these changes needed to be discussed or acknowledged within the pages of the comics either because well. That would imply that there actually WERE Reasons to be found somewhere, thereby insinuating that somebody should probably go and find out who knows what they are so they can share them with the class actually.

And thus, in the end, the literal only explanation I CAN ever offer for anyone who asks why Lilith went from who she was back in the 80s to who she's been ever since the 90s, what was the purpose, the point, did editorial mandate the character be revamped, was there a storyline all of that was originally meant TO lead into that just never happened, etc, etc, etc....

"Nope. Nothing like that. The answer to your question 'what the fuck was up with all the changes to Lilith in the 90s, what was the reason any of it happened in the first place' is as far as I or anyone else I know has ever been able to tell....is just....

"I mean, it was the 90s. Comics in the 90s kinda just.....did stuff like that and that's really the only way to say it. Lilith stopped being Lilith and became New Lilith and I would love to tell you that somewhere, someone has an actual reason for that or can speak to the thought process that put all of those changes into play and say whose idea it was and why they felt it was a good one, but like. Honestly? It was just the 90s. Like, the decade itself, or the anthropomorphized zeitgeist of 90s comics, lol. Its That Dude's fault, They did it. They killed Original Recipe Lilith. She's dead and we got this Other Lilith instead and it wasn't even because one of the many, MANY dramatically continuity-altering Crisis events happened, because this was nowhere near any of that and also that might actually make way too much sense and allow for a satisfactory explanation and there will be NONE of that here!"

But yeah. So that's what happened to Lilith. The 90s happened to her, it did it, like, the whole decade itself, and the absolutely, obnoxiously HILARIOUS part of it all is after all of that, ultimately the simplest way to ever answer the same question in the future would be to again just say "Idk, honestly. It was just the 90s, yknow?" and leave it at that.....

And no matter how little sense it might make if you're not in the iykyk portion of the audience for this part........tbh, most other fans I know who were reading comics in the 90s and have their own particular associations with that decade and its influence on comics, no matter what they are in contrast to my own or how much or how little overlap exists between our impressions...

I can say "The 90s happened," and shrug and for as little as that actually offers in terms of explanation, most 90s comics readers will just blink at that, take it at face value and go "Bummer. We lost some good ones that decade."

And that's the story of the non-answer for Why Is Lilith Like This Now Tho and how its actually just "The 90s did it" and for all that this is a nonsense answer that shouldn't convey anything because it doesn't actually say or explain anything, it still somehow happens to be not just the correct answer but the only answer, and most readers from them can hear that and think yeah that tracks. I get it.

And they do and I hate that because I AM NOT A FAN OF COMMUNICATION THAT DOESN'T ACTUALLY COMMUNICATE OR MAKE ANY SENSE ESPECIALLY IF DESPITE HOW MUCH I HATE THAT I STILL SOMEHOW END UP AGREEING THAT NO BUT IT DOES MAKE SENSE AND COMMUNICATE POINTS WELL. I CANT TELL YOU HOW OR WHY BUT IT DOES STILL WORK.

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Comics in the 90s, you have so much to answer for.

Like I genuinely hate everything about everything I just said in this post so fucking much, you have no idea.

Also I genuinely stand by everything I just said in this post. I know its ridiculous, and brain-breaking and makes no sense and I don't get it and neither should you. There's nothing to get. Its just also that it does make sense and I do get it and I get it if you don't get it but for those of you who do get it, like. Yeah, you get it.

If it helps at all, I can promise you that nobody is more annoyed about all of this than I am. It literally makes me want to fight the 90s. Like, the actual decade. I want to find it in like, idk, some appropriately weird liminal Twilight Space like idk a Denny's at 2 am on February 29th or what the fuck ever and just be like hey, The 90s, literally what the fuck. We need to talk. Why were you like that. Did you even TRY not being like that? Who hurt you?

fanklfhnklahfklahflahklkhflakhflahflafahlf

[ordinaryschmuck]

The Mess of the DCEU-Chapter 2: Doing Whatever

Salutations, random people on the internet. I’m an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons. And today, we start Chapter Two when discussing the mess that is the DC Extended Universe. DCEU for short.

Last time, we established that the entire franchise screwed itself over almost immediately. It started off with an already divisive Superman reboot, made two bad movies in a row, had ONE decent flick, and screwed its finale over by bringing in a guy to imitate Marvel. Every ounce of reputation the DCEU could have had got thrown to the wayside as general audiences didn’t care about this franchise anymore. Being good one out of five times wasn’t enough for people, and left them thinking why they would save money for whatever DC could make when, at this point, the MCU was wrapping up its ten-year-long narrative and built a foundation of trust with superhero fans. It left DC and WB with what’s basically a dead franchise at this point, with the only reason they’re sticking with it being that they at least made SOME money and try to get something out of it. So what happens when you have a franchise filled with movies that people are already not giving a shit about? Easy. You let creators do whatever.

That’s pretty much the running theme with these next few projects. Due to screwing themselves over and letting public perception that a DC movie is going to suck anyway, DC and WB allowed near complete creative control, letting writers and directors do whatever the hell they wanted and make each movie feel more like their own thing, even letting some movies that exist in their own universe just to tell a story with characters like Joker or Batman. And honestly? This is the best period of movies that DC has ever had. These next set of films have a better win/lose ratio where the fans of them are less toxic and more, “Yeah, I can see why you hate this. It’s still fun for me, though.”

By the way, that’s the best word to describe this entire era: Fun. Everyone, both the audience and the people making the movies, were having fun with most of these projects. Each film felt unique in its own right, catering to a director’s vision while still being loosely connected to any narrative DC wanted to make. And that loose connection allowed the DCEU to feel like it had more life in it compared to the MCU. Each movie in the MCU felt the same, which was its intention. It was telling one continuous story and needed a similar style to each film to make it all feel like it’s in the same narrative. But with people not caring about the DCEU’s narrative anymore, DC could promote each movie as something to go out and see without worrying about the grand narrative of one story. Because of this, directors could add their own sauce to the film and make them stand out from the usual stuff you’d get from the MCU. As well as feel less pressure to watch twenty-one movies just to understand the new one coming out. DC went from a failed attempt to a worthy competitor with its next five films and one TV show. Now, not ALL of them were good, and we’ll see that complete creative control isn’t always a good thing, but it’s a lot better than what they WERE doing. And we’re going to see just how and why together.

Also, don’t worry. Gonna be a LOT nicer this time. Again, this is probably the DCEU’s best era, and there’s not many films that make me angry as the last five did. Now, let’s start things off with a movie that had no right being this good.

Aquaman

This movie is best described as pure, unadulterated dumb fun. The story is simple as Jason Mamoa and Amber Heard go on a world-traveling quest to find the magic mcguffin to stop the generic bad guy from taking over the world. There’s nothing really groundbreaking about…anything in this story. It’s filled to the brim with cliches and generic action movie nonsense, all of it being stuff that’s fine but dull if it’s on paper. But in action, with James Wan’s direction? This movie is GOLD. Especially through Mamoa’s performance.

Personally, I don’t think Jason Mamoa captures what I consider the perfect Aquaman. To me, believe it or not, I think the best version of Aquaman comes from Batman: The Brave and The Bold. He’s boastful and jovial, enjoying the thrill of being a superhero and going on adventures that he can tell his friends about later. I feel like that’s the best personality for a character as outrageous as Aquaman, and Momoa doesn’t really give that. WITH THAT SAID, what he DOES offer isn’t too bad either. He’s like your everyday action hero, kicking ass and making silly quips as he solves his problems with a good punch to the face like the bumbling dumbass most jocks could relate to. Yet the movie also allows him to be humble and caring, sometimes even solving problems with strategy and cunning. It’d be better if he was ALWAYS like that, but this is also a character who saved a little girl by tackling a giant bell like a linebacker. I’d love a more intelligent Aquaman, but I’m fine with a muscle headed one too. James Wan makes it work with this story, effectively making it a “Might is right” film through the action.

Speaking of, the action in this movie is AMAZING. The choreography and camera work do well in making you feel each swing and punch the characters make at each other. There’s this one set piece where it cuts back and forth between Aquaman fighting Manta and Mera fighting faceless goons in armor. But instead of a sudden hard cut, the camera always pans over to each character’s battle, almost like a video game switching between players. And that’s the best way to describe the action in this movie. It’s like watching a superhero video game instead of playing it. Like this one scene where Aquaman takes out these generic enemies only for stronger ones to pop up after the first wave is dealt with. Or how the final battle starts like the beginning of a Mortal Kombat match. It’s all just so much…FUN. It’s pure, dumb fun! I’m having fun watching a DC movie, and it’s actually intentional AND beneficial. Unlike Zack Snyder’s films of taking dumb action too seriously or Joss Whedon’s attempt at not taking it seriously enough, James Wan crafted action that’s perfectly stupid but knows to slow down when things need to be serious. It strikes that right balance of seriousness and insanity that not many people could do for superhero projects.

Now, not all of it’s easy to ignore for dumb fun. Oceanmaster is another generic bad guy with no fun personality to match his evil, world conquering plan. I’m fine with villains taking over the world, but at least make them chaotic and fun like Loki or have some deep seated philosophy like Thanos. As for Black Manta, he’s fine but it does feel weird that Aquaman’s arch nemesis is just a side-villain in this movie at best and sequel bait at worst. And the romance between Aquaman and Mera is just…the most cliche straight couple romance out there. You have the intelligent and proper woman who kicks ass falling for the bumbling buffoon that surprises others with how capable he actually is. It’s not really doing it for me, even if some of my favorite fictional couples go by that formula.

Aside from all that, Aquaman is still a really great time. Not to mention a financial hit, being the highest grossing film in the DCEU’s lineup, earning a billion dollars around the same time Marvel put out Avengers: Infinity War. Turns out that if you let a director make a movie fit with their vision, you’ll get great financial success. And it won’t be the last time…

Shazam!

It’s a real shame that Zachary Levi turned out to be such a huge piece of shit in real life because, truth be told, this is one of my favorite DC movies. Probably…top ten-ish favorite superhero movies in general.

The weakest complaint I’ve heard regarding Shazam is that it’s a kids movie. And…Yeah, no shit. It’s a movie where a kid gets to turn into a superhero. That is the ultimate wish-fulfillment of any sugarhigh preteen, and the movie nails that energy. Each actor captures how excited and goofy kids would act if they were hopped up on superpowers, able to do anything they want. I’m not sure if it was intended to appeal to kids first, but if it was, so what? This is a premise that works great with them and, even then, it’s still a movie with an edge to it. You have this scene where people get mauled by the seven deadly sins, but you don’t actually SEE it. At least, you don’t see MOST of it. It’s a lot like how Gremlins can be considered a kids movie despite people dying or this…weirdly intense monologue about a girl’s dad dying in the chimney. Despite how dark things can get and the occasional swear words, I’d say this is the perfect film to watch with kids as long as they’re prepared for slightly more mature stuff. Because while there is a bunch of childish charm to this film, there’s still some maturity added into it. And no, I don’t mean swears and death.

Billy as a character, when he’s BILLY, adds this solid amount of drama to the film. His attempts to find his mom while trying his best to not be TOO dismissive towards his foster family is what makes this movie so great to me. I love this moment where he says he’s not really Darla’s brother, thinking pragmatically until he realizes he made her cry. He feels guilt immediately, tries to apologize, but still backs out as he’s not comfortable with emotional confrontation with someone he’s not trying to get attached to. Asher Angel does a great job at conveying all of that, and he does even better when Billy reunites with his mom. You FEEL the nervous excitement he’s feeling as well as the emotionally devastating heartache when Billy realized his mother wasn’t the perfect woman he always imagined. These moments are great and it adds a sense of seriousness to the film on top of the goofy fun times with Zachary Levi pretending to be a child.

There’s also some decent stuff with Savante, who’s…more on the generic side but still a solid supervillain with a commanding presence and solid motivations. His origins perfectly cement why he would use the power of the seven deadly sins, getting super dark and explaining well enough of why he would stick to this dark path. It also works that he’s the only character who rarely makes jokes. He has a couple bad guy quips, but for the most part he remains with this serious stature that makes him the best kind of villain for this movie. I mean, what’s more intimidating to kids than this big, imposing adult who lacks fun?

But what really gets me with this movie is not the goofy superhero antics or the slow serious moments…Okay, it is that, but what mostly grabs me is the charm. The kids, the family, the overall energy of this entire movie is just so damn charming. I had a big smile throughout most of it, watching everyone goof off and have fun together, with the moments that tugged at my heartstrings being when these characters are going through some emotional stuff. I don’t want to see these characters sad, they’re so cute and charming! That’s not fun! Though, I will admit that the overall charm kind of stops this movie from being anything grandiose and epic, but at the same time it doesn’t NEED to be. Shazam knows what it is and it sticks to being something fun for most superhero fans…Except for Snyder fans. They hate fun (Last Sndyer fan jab. I promise).

If there’s anything to really complain about, it’s the juxtaposition between Zachary Levi and Asher Angel. These two RARELY act the same, especially with Levi hamming it up as this man pretending to be a child. But even then it doesn’t really bother me much because I’m a guy who grew up with Ben 10, a series that has the same concept of this movie but, like…times ten. It comes with the same problem at times when the vocal performance of Ben’s aliens don’t match up with Tara Strong’s voice for Ben, but I learned to let it go because the alien action was so cool and the occasional comedy was handled so well. It’s the same here, and I can accept Billy being a little goofy as Shazam because he’s going through what might be the ultimate sugar high with all that power and electricity. At least, I can accept it THIS time. Yeah, we’ll get to how I feel about the sequel later.

For now, I’ll say that Shazam is a charming, good fun time. It’s not one of the BEST superhero movies, but good enough where I absolutely want to watch and rewatch it again. So far, that seems to be two wins in a row for DC. Can the studio keep this streak going?

Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh–Depends on who you ask.

I think the best way I’ve heard someone describe Birds of Prey (I’m not saying the whole fucking title) is that it’s a girl’s night movie. Something for you and the fellow ladies to go out, watch some badass women kill douchebags, and have a good time. Does it succeed in that? I don’t know, I don’t watch those movies. But I DO think that’s what DC was going for with this film: To give something good for the ladies in between giving more badass men for the boys to root for. And for an attempt, it’s fairly decent.

The energy in this movie is infectious, nailing the insanity that is Harley Quinn. It’s violent, funny, and has a cartoonish style to it at times. I mean, a guy used a slingshot to fire a firework ball into Harley’s apartment to kill her. That’s some Looney Tunes nonsense that would only work for Harley Quinn and not much anyone else in DC. Same goes with the action set pieces, which feel like ideas that were made for Harley Quinn by having her fire her way through a police precinct with a beanbag gun, kill guys in an evidence locker with a bat and cocaine, have a final battle in a funhouse, and participate in a car chase with rollerblades. It’s the kind of intense and wacky stuff I expect from no one else, and this movie understands that. And everyone looks like they’re having fun, hamming it up as these characters but still knowing to take the job a little seriously. Especially Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and, to me, Ewan McGregor as Black Mask. Margot looks like she’s having a blast to play this character, more so in this film than in any other. She’s allowed to go fully nuts with it, and I love it. As for Ewan McGregor, he seems to have fun playing this psychotic manchild who can be equal parts funny and disturbed at times. There are even moments where he expertly makes me uncomfortable, like this one scene when he assaults this woman at his club in a display that felt…too real that I did NOT want to watch it again on a second viewing. It DOES feel like his character was meant to be The Joker at times, what with how obsessed he seems to be with Harley and with her doing his bidding while trying to cut ties with him. But, at the same time, I’ll take Obi-Wan playing diet-Joker over Jared Leto and his stupid cow tin laugh. So I’ll definitely say that this movie does great with him and DEFINITELY with Harley Quinn…It’s the rest of the Birds of Prey where the movie tends to struggle.

You can tell how much the Birds of Prey are an afterthought for this film just by looking at the title. They get top billing, but Harley’s subtitle takes way more attention from it. This is basically a Harley Quinn movie that only becomes a Birds of Prey movie by the final thirty minutes. It’s a shame too, because these other characters COULD be highly entertaining and endearing. Hell, Huntress alone feels like she could fill a movie by herself with her tragic backstory and histrung personality. We don’t get to see how great of a character she could have been until the end of the film, and the same goes for the others with Montoya being the straight man and Black Canary being in-between trying to make sure everyone is sane but still egging others on if she feels like it. These actresses have great chemistry together and we don’t get enough time to appreciate it until the movie’s about over.

Another BIG issue with this film is that it’s trying a little hard to copy Deadpool’s homework. You have Harley Quinn helping this kid from getting killed in this story that’s told out of order with the occasional fourth wall break. Those last two parts are meant to match the insanity of its main character, I guess. But in Birds of Prey AND in Deadpool, it makes the narrative flow feel nonexistent and it might have actually worked better for this movie if we got to see events unfold AS they’re happening. It straightens out a little bit halfway through, but it doesn’t stop the whole movie feeling like a mess so they can quickly establish how cool their characters are and then explain why they’re cool later.

Birds of Prey CAN be a good movie. A great one, in fact. But it feels like it was a Harley Quinn movie first and then someone said “Make it a Birds of Prey” movie halfway through the first draft of the film. And maybe that was the case. Maybe it was meant to be a film focussed on just Harley Quinn but these other three women got thrown in for funsies. Regardless, if it WAS just a Harley Quinn movie, I’d be more fine with it. But because it’s meant to also be a Birds of Prey film, it falters way too much in that regard. It’s still FINE, I’d say you’d have fun if you’re in the mood for some #GirlPower for one afternoon. The problem is that if you’re looking for something MORE than fine, it’s not the movie to do that.

Plus, this was the first box office flop for the DCEU. Previous movies made more than enough money back, with some exceeding far past expectations, but Birds of Prey was NOT one of them. You could blame this on the fact that the movie came out a month before the entire world shut down due to Covid, but at the same time…so did Sonic the Hedgehog. And yes, a kids movie on a nostalgic propriety can ALWAYS do better than an R-Rated comedy starring superheroes that not many people have heard of. Still doesn’t change how this was NOT the financial results that DC wanted and left them a little wary of this universe. And…things wouldn’t really get better for them.

Wonder Woman 1984

Oh, boy, this one was…something else.

When I first saw this one, I liked it. I thought it was cute and a little fun, with the mindset that the only ones who could hate it are those against comicbook campiness. But I was also watching it late in the night, and it made my tired brain neglect facts like how it’s heavily implied that Wonder Woman raped a guy and how this movie was a little TOO goofy. And it’s the goofiness that’s the most jarring part of this film. I mean, yes, the rape stuff is VERY bad, because no matter what justification you give, it’s still implied that Diana had sex with a man with no control over his actions. If you think longer than a few seconds about what happened, it leaves this uncomfortable feeling in your stomach that won’t go away. And, to circle things back, the same can be said with the goofiness of this film. If you think a little too long about what happens in this movie, it becomes VERY questionable.

How is Diana able to fly when she couldn’t in previous or future movies?

How did she remain a secret for years until Batman V. Superman after doing all this superhero junk?

How did those thieves not turn to paste after falling onto a car?

How is it even physically possible for a satellite to allow a man to touch people?

These are just some of the questions that pop into your head when watching and, again, you’re not supposed to think about them as the movie wants you to accept all this goofiness. Now, don’t get me wrong, campiness and silly comic book logic CAN work…in a universe where it fits. The DCEU is not really that universe. It’s always been this franchise that tried way too hard to be grounded and realistic only to RECENTLY dip their toes into that silliness. But even then, with their last three movies, it’s all stuff that fits the character. Aquaman looks like an eighties action hero, so he has an eighties action movie. Shazam is a child who can turn into a superhero, so it fits to give him a childish comedy. Birds of Prey is a girl power film, so might as well turn it into a girls night film. But Wonder Woman 1984 is a direct sequel to, well, Wonder Woman, a film that was grounded and serious for most of the runtime. To go from the film where Diana struts across No Man’s Land like a badass to a campy flick where she tosses criminals around like ragdolls WITHOUT killing them is not the best move. The best comparison I’ve heard is that it’s like going from Gremlins to Gremlins 2. One movie tried to take itself seriously while the other was just…insane nonsense because it was purposefully meant to be bad. It’s a hilariously good time, but you can tell that it’s not even trying to be the same as the first one. I wouldn’t call it an improvement, but a…different movie. That’s the same with Wonder Woman 1984. I definitely wouldn’t call any of it an improvement to the first Wonder Woman, but a director making a different kind of film. One that might have worked better if that’s the type of film audiences wanted.

To be honest, implied rape scene aside (Seriously, get that out of the movie) I don’t…hate this one? At least, I don’t have the same amount of rage as everyone else does. I question a lot of the logic and the tone is way too different, but I kind of had some fun. I liked the action scenes, having Wonder Woman rely on Wonder Woman things like her strength, bracelets, boomerang tiara, and lasso to fight bad guys. Get that sword, shield, and god killing move out of here, because Wonder Woman does not need that to be a badass and this movie ALMOST proves that. It’s still a little silly at times, but it at least showed Wonder Woman being cool. I also like Maxwell Lord, who can be a charismatic villain at times. His motivations are a little lacking and his powers KIND OF vague, but the sleazy personality on display made for a good time, largely in part because Pedro Pascal turned up the charm for this one. As for our other villain, Barbara, I think her path to the dark side is done decently enough. Though, the CGI on her final form is a bit rough around the edges, despite how much I want to enjoy seeing Wonder Woman fight her arch nemesis Cheetah. And if the implied rape was taken out, I can get into the romance between Steve and Diana, which is still cute enough with some half-decent imagery with Diana only seeing Steve instead of “Handsome Guy” (Yes, that’s the actual name of the man who Steve took over. It’s…rough). So, I definitely don’t hate this one. More like I consider it a guilty pleasure. You know, if I ignore nonsensical logic, rape, and the fact that Gal Gadot’s political believes are still beyond questionable. Yeah, don’t think I forgot that.

Wonder Woman 1984 is still a messy film and I can absolutely see why people despise this one. It’s nothing like the first and, if not for the fact that this originally came free with an HBOmax subscription, WB might have lost SO MUCH money if it was released into theaters, as bad word of mouth would stop a LOT of people from seeing it. At least, more than the predicted $100 million by putting it onto streaming. Speaking of which, due to the world shutting down for a WHILE thanks to unfortunate circumstances, it made studios think that they can make some money by putting their big blockbusters on their streaming services. With Disney, they tried a thirty dollar rental for Mulan and Black Widow on Disney+ and WB putting movies up for free on HBOmax. I don’t think either worked out for them and, regardless of how you feel about any movie that came out during this time of change and new normals, it negatively affected some studios in ways they couldn’t make up for. WB started noticing this with DC, but were willing to give it time to see what could be done. Especially when one movie may or may not have given the studio inspiration of what to do when things got drastic…

The Suicide Squad

Or as I like to call it: THE BEST DCEU MOVIE!

And I don’t even NEED to rewatch this one to refresh my memory about what does and doesn’t work. Unlike previous DCEU movies where I only saw them once or MAYBE twice before making this whole bullshit thing, The Suicide Squad is a film I’ve watched five or six times since it’s release, with me loving it just a little bit more on every rewatch. To me, this is James Gunn’s best work in terms of superhero movies. The Guardians of the Galaxy films will always be the best parts of the MCU, but The Suicide Squad stands on top because it feels like James Gunn unrestrained. There’s more cursing and gore, an extra emphasis on how DARK a superhero world could be, and this AWESOME way to incorporate chapter titles that make it feel like a comic book brought to life. To me, The Suicide Squad feels like what the DCEU should have been from the start. And no, it’s not because it’s funny…I mean, it IS very funny. It’s a James Gunn movie after all. But there’s more to it than that.

Back when Batman V. Superman came out, EVERYONE saying that its faults lied in the fact that it was too serious and needed to be funnier, but trust me when I say that those are the complaints of teenagers whose only frame of reference on superheroes was the MCU. I should know, I was one of them. And there are MANY more things wrong with Batman V Superman than not making it an outright comedy. Its flaws are numerous, and feels like the DCEU trying too hard to set itself apart from the MCU, forgoing comic book quips and jokes and leaning too far into gritty realism. While that can work for some superheroes, it doesn’t for others and when I see Superman destroying buildings to fight Zod or Batman killing criminals for some Kryptonite, I feel like I’m watching movies that are more obsessed with intense violence than they are of telling a superhero story. Truth be told, the stuff Snyder did would have worked BEST if he tried it with any other superheroes or even made his own original ones. Making darker and more mature superhero movies would work as a counter to the MCU, which is mostly fun action comedies that sucked general audiences in with fun characters, crossovers, and cool action scenes. DC and WB just went about things the wrong way, with The Suicide Squad proving how it COULD HAVE worked.

You want to know why I’m not bothered by characters going for the kill in this movie, even against mind-controlled victims? You want to know why I laugh at Peacemaker and Bloodsport having a pissing contest over who can kill the most people in the most badass way? You want to know why I laugh HARDER when those people turned out to be just soldiers in a rebellion? That’s because The Suicide Squad is a movie about a TEAM 👏 OF 👏 SUP 👏 ER 👏 VILL 👏 AINS! Believe it or not, that’s a hard concept for people to grasp, as they’re not huge fans of bad guys doing bad guy things other than Harley Quinn robbing a purse from a deserted store. Here, it’s okay that they’re messy or operating off of their own morals and doing extremely brutal things because that’s just what villains do. Heck, it even makes it seem semi-logical why Waller would use supervillains to clean up the US government’s mess. If they cause too much damage or act too brutally, Waller likely has a backstory planned that states how supervillains broke out and went on a tear in a foreign country because…they’re bad guys. That’s what they do. And while that’s never explicitly stated, it is something that the audience is allowed to pick up just by looking at Waller’s actions and noting how she was willing to let a whole country die than let anyone know that the US government was involved. It’s the result of something known as GOOD WRITING, which fans of the 2016 Sucide Squad probably don’t like given how they still think THIS movie is a downgrade. I’ll never understand why, but good for them and their…opinions.

And the good writing expands to the other characters, making everyone identifiable and some of them incredibly complex. There’s a ton of scenes that feature the Squad shooting the shit and letting their dynamic personalities work off each other for great laughs and better heartfelt moments. Two of the best scenes in the movie, in my humblest opinion, are the one on the bus and the other in the bar. On the bus we get to see Ratcatcher II and Bloodsport explain why they are the way they are, through their personal history and their fathers. It’s a scene that shows how Ratcatcher isn’t as simply labeled as a villain as the rest and even hints that there’s a softer side to Bloodsport. He’s still a psychotic murderer, but he was still willing to share why he had such a fear for rats when he didn’t really need to. It wasn’t anyone’s business, but because Ratcatcher II shared her pain, he still felt more comfortable to do it too. And when we get to the bar, it shows off how well these characters connect and how they’re able to have fun. Peacemaker’s warming up to the team, Bloodsport and Rick Flag acting like buddies and showing off that they WERE close on the battlefield, and letting Polkadot Man have fun for once despite his shattered brain. This is all a part of what makes James Gunn and his superhero movies work: He knows how to make us care about characters by breathing new life into them. He sometimes takes creative liberties in adapting them, but the changes he makes are often for the better. Something like Bloodsport having a fear of rats might not be from the comics (I haven’t read anything Bloodsport is in), but it’s the same as giving Star Lord a love of music. It’s a choice that allows audiences better connect with the character by humanizing them and giving them something a lot of us can have, perfectly utilized for comedic and thematic purposes. This type of thing is James’ Gunn’s bread and butter, and I knew it was working in this movie when he actually made me give a shit about Rick Flag, a forgettable douche in the first movie turned into the perfect straight man to these whack jobs and weirdos. James Gunn knows how to make me care about characters, and it works best for this movie when it’s explicitly clear that NO ONE is safe.

The Suicide Squad is probably the DCEU’s darkest film. It establishes that quick by starting off with this cast of characters you think you’re going to follow for the rest of the movie, only to kill most of them off in a massacre that holds no punches for anyone. Not even the funny Boomerang guy from the last film. But it works for two reasons. For one, it lines up more with what I expect a movie called THE SUICIDE SQUAD to be like. And two, it establishes stakes. By showing us that characters can die, it makes us worry for the ACTUAL Squad we follow through the movie and makes us question if THIS will be the scene that kills them. Plus, the more we spend time with these characters, caring about them and their journeys, it makes us worry MORE if that final death comes. The best part is that death is rarely treated as a joke. Even if you DO laugh at first, the movie is smart enough to make you realize “Oh, yeah, this whole thing is incredibly fucked up,” making almost every death have a purpose and matters…Except for Milton’s death. That really was just an outlet for jokes. But despite that, this movie is not afraid to show how ANYONE is capable of dying at any point and that you shouldn’t be TOO hopeful for some of these characters. And the darkness doesn’t stop there as James Gunn takes comic book characters like Polkadot Man and Starro the Conqueror, yet finds twisted ways to point out how AWFUL it would be for them to exist in real life. For Polkadot Man, his own existence is one of torture, revealing how a person getting powers as a result of a lab experiment can be awful for the body and ESPECIALLY the mind, making him the most tragic character out of the Squad. As for Starro, the movie manages to make a giant starfish who can control people’s minds with smaller starfishes…into one of the darkest villains in a superhero movie. It’s just a simple trick: Reveal that a person will die if a starfish latches onto their face. There’s no hope, no getting them back. Once the starfish is on, that person might as well be dead. Yet despite being a simple trick, it’s an effective one in making Starro a threat by being more than a giant monster. There’s some graphic horror that works in making you fear a giant fucking STAR FISH. It’s stupid, but it embraces that stupidity and makes something to fear instead of something to joke about…I mean, they DO make jokes, but more often than not, they’re showing how Starro is a dangerous threat despite how goofy he is as a concept. Which is more than I can say about other superhero movies, whether they’re from DC and Marvel. That’s because The Suicide Squad is a movie unashamed of being what it is: A goofy film with goofy characters played completely straight.

The only issues I have with The Suicide Squad really are just nitpicks. Some jokes feel like they’re stretched a bit thin, but those are the exception and not the norm unlike some of the MCU’s worst films. And Harley Quinn feels a little…useless. You can cut her character out of the whole movie, and nothing would really change, making her feel like a studio mandate if anything else. It's almost as if WB said, “Look, people like Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. We can make her our Robert Downey Jr or Hugh Jackman. We NEED this!” But even then, I don’t HATE her inclusion. In fact, I think that this is some of the best Harley Quinn stuff since Batman: The Animated Series. Her monologue about why she had to kill that handsome prick reveals so much about how damaged The Joker made her, all while still showing her insanity when she basically has a fake argument with the guy in the middle of it. Or her breakout, which is the most fun and visually impressive action sequence of the film, showing just why this clown should not be underestimated. So I definitely like her being in the movie, I just wish she had more of a narrative stake in the story.

In the end, if my biggest complaint for The Suicide Squad is something I still like, then I feel as though this movie is doing pretty much everything right. THIS is how DC should have set itself apart from the MCU. It might be funny, but it’s more than that. It allows itself to show off more unique characters and take more mature risks all while embracing comic book wackiness. And while it can go to dark places, that darkness is warranted given WHO this movie is about. There’s a reason why I threw a fit over Batman and Superman killing people in their movies. You can throw out every excuse in the book about how it was warranted, it doesn’t change how Zack Snyder and WB misunderstood a hero’s job. It’s not taking lives, it’s saving them. I can take it with villains and it makes sense why THEY get the darker story. They’re supervillains, some of the most vile characters in superhero media. It makes sense to give them the dark story where they get killed or kill others. Darkness works for them, but it doesn’t work for EVERY character. Much like how Marvel can have a goofy, funny movie like Guardians of the Galaxy and a dark, gritty TV show like Daredevil. Darkness is effective when used the right way for the right characters, and it works for The Suicide Squad by doing just that. Lots of people love this movie, with the only ones who don’t are the ones who aren’t a fan of James Gunn’s style or his sense of humor. That’s fine, I can absolutely understand why someone could be against that. Just, you know…don’t be a prick about it. But love it or hate it, WB saw this film as an absolute win. Such a win that they allowed James Gunn to work on another project quickly after for the DCEU’s first, and only, TV series. And it’s…alright.

Peacemaker

Gonna be honest, the show peaks at the intro. It’s fun, the song they chose is a bop, and I can tell everyone had a blast to make it. As for the rest of Peacemaker? Well, one thing I’ve heard from fans of this show (and fans of James Gunn) is that it’s better than every single Disney+ show that Marvel HAD to make to justify that service’s existence. And aside from Loki and X-Men ‘97 (Which are both REALLY fucking good), I can absolutely see why people will say that, but let’s not pretend that it doesn’t share the same faults that the MCU shows do. 

For one, this doesn’t really feel like a TV show. It feels like it was written as a movie first, but got stretched out to fill an eight episode format. That’s how every other MCU show on Disney+ operated, with WandaVision and She-Hulk: Attorney At Law being the only ones that actually FEEL like TV shows with isolated plots that make them feel episodic while telling an ongoing story. With something like Peacemaker, you remember plot points more than you do episodes. For example, in WandaVision or She-Hulk, I’ll remember that there’s an episode where Vision has gum stuck in his circuits, messing him up for a town talent show, or how She-Hulk got group therapy with C-List supervillains. When rewatching Peacemaker, I remembered that there was an episode where the characters fight a gorilla, but forgot the EXACT episode because this is a LONG story split up into eight parts. And you feel those eight parts because, like other Disney+ shows, there is way too much padding to meet that episode length. Jokes are stretched out for way too long, episodes are just long scenes or plot points that would have been condensed for a movie, and there’s a LOT of repetition as characters often feel like they’re running in place instead of progressing as actual people. Like the character Adebayo, who says once or twice every episode that she isn’t made for this shit. Literally, word for word, it’s the same sentence throughout the season all so she can have this badass moment where she goes “Because I’m MADE for this shit.” Her little catchphrase is something that would have been perfectly fine if said ONCE in the beginning if this was a movie, but because this is a TV show and people will absolutely forget some little line she said in episode one, we gotta have her say it every episode to hammer in the one time she finally decides that she IS made for this shit. Despite all the times she slowly proves that she is in every episode, we gotta have Adebayo constantly say that she isn’t because then her character will develop too quickly before we get that big climax. And it’s not just her, as Economos shifts between being useless and being proactive or Harcourt being cold and being caring all for the sake of making these characters stagnant until they finally decide to let their development stick near the END of the season. And it hurts especially because…I like these characters. Everyone has a well-defined personality with the actors having impeccable chemistry with one another. I love seeing them all interact and crack jokes, but it’s a testament to how frustrating over-serialized seasons can be when characters aren’t allowed to grow and we’re left with being entertained by stagnant personalities for eight episodes.

And that’s another problem that Peacemaker shares with some MCU shows. Its episode length is too short to be considered a real series and too long for how simple of a plot it has. It’s the characters trying to stop an alien invasion, something that could work for a series by having them stop little parts of the invasion at a time, which they sort of do. There’s at least an ATTEMPT to make each episode stand on its own, but fall short because we’re always building up to the next set piece or plot point. And because of that, when we do drift away to other characters or one-off plots, it comes across as a distraction to the ongoing story rather than an actual show with ongoing episodes. Like, Peacemaker going to an elementary school for a day and showing up kids’ parents is funny and Vigilante purposefully locking himself in prison to kill Peacemaker’s father IS fun, but they’re segments that aren’t long enough when they have the potential for lasting a whole episode. And you have characters like Judomaster or Sophie Song, who provide nothing but more distractions with no real payoff. What’s the point of Judomaster if all he does is kick ass, eat cheetos, and get his ass kicked by people who got lucky? And why spend so much time with Sophie Song, showing how she’s a fun character who works well against Peacemaker’s RACIST father only to unceremoniously kill her off to be a literal vessel for the plot to move forward? If Peacemaker was just a movie and these two were bit characters who just needed to be killed off, it would be no problem. But because this is a TV series and those need BIGGER casts to explore, it feels cheap to try that with these two characters only for it to lead to NOTHING. At least, nothing that feels like a true end to their character arcs.

I know I keep ragging this show, but these are the faults I can’t help but think of whenever I hear people talk about how it’s the best thing in the DCEU or the best superhero series ever. There are actual faults that are prevalent to other superhero shows, especially the MCU ones. It’s worth discussing those first before highlighting the positives, which the show absolutely has. For instance, like some of the better Disney+ shows, it develops a character that didn’t have that much attention in the movies or left that great of a first impression. Just like Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff,  and Loki, Peacemaker gets another, better chance to shine on his own, diving deep into his philosophy and how he became so damaged in believing in it. I didn’t give two shits about him or his nonsensical fights for peace via killing in The Suicide Squad, but here he’s probably one of my favorite characters in the DCEU. John Cena does a great job of toeing the line between idiot manbaby, violent loonatic, and fragile human being. The show even cleverly challenges his philosophy by having him deal with his father that’s the antithesis of it, as well as the leader of the aliens who believes that they’re on the same page for doing what it takes to accomplish peace. It’s actually clever writing and gives the show something to say other than “The good guys are the ones who stop the bad guys who are going to do something awful.” I think it handles things perfectly well in that regard, making Peacemaker and everything that revolves around him the best part of the series. I love his tragedy and how he deals with his father, especially all the confusing emotions one feels for an abusive family member. You want them to love you but know deep down that they treated you like shit for all your life and that will never get better. And the fact that you’ll never fully understand the true love of a father, never getting that chance in your life, tears you apart. Peacemaker is flawed from ten ways to Sunday, but it at least TRIES to be about something and strengthens a character that not many cared for. 

There’s also some good stuff that carried over from The Suicide Squad. While the jokes feel stretched out, a lot of them are still pretty funny, and the deleted scenes from the credits do show that everyone was having a blast to be a part of this. The comedy’s mixed well with the action, which is just as gory as The Suicide Squad, but fit with better shots and stunts that make it more of a thrillride. The dark messages are also strong, this time focussing on how grim a shadow government could be instead of supervillains. I may give Adebayo crap for saying she ain’t made for this shit every episode, but I’ll confess that she did better than I would have. The morals are grayer than a spring day in Gotham, and the show does well in painting how decisions characters make are the best call but are nowhere near a good thing for a person to do. Shit gets grim and, just like The Suicide Squad, it effectively showcases the darkness of a superhero world, this time on a (slightly) smaller scale while still not forgetting the zaniness. Like, we get Peacemaker and newcomer Vigilante showing up in full-body, comic accurate costumes throughout most of the season instead of wearing civilian wear or black leather for the sake leaning towards the darkness. Things get grim, but it’s pretty great to see a full-costumed Vigilante, his face covered for most of the show but still showing how expressive he is through body movements and vocal performance. TAKE NOTES MCU.

When you blend all these positives together, you’ve got yourself a decent TV series that’s only held back by the problems plaguing serialized superhero television. Is it one of my favorites? Not by a long shot. But I was at least glad to have watched it, and I hope Season Two makes some improvements…Still not sure how Season Two will work, considering…things, but I’m optimistic nonetheless.

But despite being decent at best, Peacemaker marks a fifth success in this era of the DCEU. Excluding WW84, everything in this era ranges from okay to spectacularly fun, having a MUCH better success rate than the rough beginnings. At least, it does for the audiences still somewhat invested in the DCEU. Unfortunately, the box office returns and streaming numbers weren’t giving WBD the highs they wanted. This meant that the DCEU needed to try something MORE to justify its own existence, otherwise, what’s the point of keeping a dead universe around if it barely makes the company money? And we’ll see what drastic turns this franchise makes as we close things out in part three and discuss how the DCEU basically went out with a whimper instead of a bang…

[wormholxtreme]

2, 4, 7, 16, 19, & 23

Mun Meme | Accepting

2. what is your blog or graphic aesthetic or motif? why? It's mostly whatever @ppctts makes me because I CANNOT DO ANYTHING aesthetic XD but honestly she's made me so many pretty things and it's mostly around Kaylee being a sunshine, sunflower, star child and I am so grateful to Gin that she spends any amount of time making me these pretty things. I love her so much.

4. what genre do you primarily favor answered here

7. what universe have you never considered writing in? why? uuuuh well I'm sure there are some universes/fandoms that I'm not familiar with/even realize exist so those because of my ignorance LOL but I'm gonna say for the same reason DC stuff?? It's intimidating and like yeah I'm here for comics but I just don't know DC that well and I don't wanna try to manipulate DC story lines to the already complicated Marvel shit XD

16. how have your faceclaim choices changed over time? So Happy once upon a time was Michael Weatherly in an oooooold thing I wrote, back before I really had an idea of his character beyond the little bits we get in comics. But when I decided to bring him on for the sole purpose of simping after @ppctts the queen of fcs @dr-foster suggested Jay Ryan because of IT Chapter 2 and honestly I have not looked back.

For Kay, admittedly I had a very different FC for her adult verses but that person has since been what's the nice way of saying triggering and just not a good person. I don't always change my FCs over cancel culture stuff because I believe people are allowed to make mistakes but this was beyond even my comfort level. But I'm so glad I changed Kay's adult fc to be Joanna Garcia Swisher. She's precious and adorable and it really gave me an avenue to explore this kind of character further than what I had originally thought of, plus Joanna was originally my @cheeseburgersandwarbirds FC for Carol before we stumbled upon the amazing Yvonne and I thought it was a nice call back to our gaia days XD

19. who was the first faceclaim you remember using, who? for what canon? So throw back to gaia days in 2009 I was in fact using RDJ for my Tony. It wasn't too long after the first Iron Man movie came out when my lovely Noon invited me to come write with her. But it was before I knew much about the comics. So I decided to go back and throw myself into the comics reading from the very beginning when I realized Tony was a little different in the comics than the movie. He was younger, blue-eyed, had a sort of classic rat pack charm that didn't exactly translate into the movie because they were going more for his sarcastic vibe which was fine but I realized I really enjoyed comic book Tony more and around the same time there was this show called White Collar and just Neal Caffrey had all the charm, vibe, good nature, snark, intelligence, and suave that comic Tony had and so it wasn't very long that I started using Matt Bomer as my Tony FC also back in 2009 and honestly I've never looked back.

23. What skills have you gained by roleplaying? uuuuh typing rather quickly without looking at the computer???? XDD I don't know. Maybe some patience? I've learned a lot about myself, and I've learned that not everyone is going to like you. It stings sometimes but when I get focused on the people who love and care for me it outweighs a lot of the negative that comes with RPing.

[whatyourusherthinks]

Deadpool & Wolverine Review

Is there a reason I should review this movie? Everyone already saw it and formed their opinion on it. Maybe I should just skip this one...

Don't even think about it thunder thighs! You think you can give this movie the same treatment as Babes? ...Who the fuck are you? Where's Buggnutz? I gave him the week off, I'm just making sure the BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR gets the proper respect it deserves. Now hold on a sec- Just tell us your history with the franchise Betsy.

Uh... Well I saw Logan Good and only the first Deadpool Unacceptable, should've watched every movie the character has been in before watching this one. Even X-Men Origins: Wolverine? YES! But I don't want to! I know what happens in that movie and Deadpool 2, and I didn't have any trouble understanding the movie! Yeah but if you watched those the trailer would've made you moist, wouldn't've? I doubt it. I like Logan a lot and Deadpool was great when it came out, y'know, when I was sixteen. But I haven't seen either in like 7 years and have no desire to revisit any X-Men movie. I'm just more of an Avenger comic reader, y'know? Fucking liar, you've only got DC comics on your shelf. We fucking caught ya bitch I bet you don't even like the MCU. Hey thanks for that segway!

This is gonna be the first and only chance I get to talk about the MCU this year, unless Venom forgets to take it's medication again, but I like the MCU a lot. More than most reviewers seems to, anyway. I have some differing opinions that some of the other fans too (The first Avengers movie is the best one, eat my entire asshole.) but I liked most of the movies in Phase 4 or 5 or whatever well enough. Hell, I'm one of the like sixteen people who watched The Marvels, and that movie was a lot of fun. If you are tired of the MCU, that's fine. I feel like you can stop talking about it if you want to. Amen and praise Stan Lee, now get to the sticking your dick in the movie! In a good way or a bad way? Up to you *audible wink*.

What's The Movie About?

CAMEOS. CAMEOS CAMEOS CAMEOS. WHAT PLOT IT'S JUST FUCKING CAMEOS. It's more than just cameos dicksquirt. Yeah barely. It's something about Deadpool's timeline being erased and he needs Wolverine for some reason to fix it. And Wolverine's sad because he let his X-Men die. But it's also a Deadpool movie so you don't fucking care. They're lying watch the movie eight times to catch the subtle storytelling they clearly missed. DON'T DO THAT.

What I Like.

The music is good. Hoo boy are we off to a screaming start. Chill. I was just saying that I like that the Deadpool movies use unconventional songs for action scenes, and the Madonna song they use over the final battle was cool. I really liked the cameos that made up the resistance team against the villain. Spoilers artfully dodged, wonderful dismount! And they were pretty much the only cameos I liked. Never mind, tripped at the goal line. The action is also really good. As befits the character, it is brutal and hilarious, but I wasn't expecting the how well they showcase some characters' powers. Weeooo Weeoo backhanded compliment alert! Highlight for me was the fight scene over the opening credits. I really liked the fight and how creatively sacrilegious it was. Plus, some of the humor made me laugh. The send off the Fox Studios over the credits was sweet, and I can see fans of pre-MCU Marvel movies not only getting a kick out of the movie, but really appreciating the fact this movie exists. So that's very nice. Beautifully prosed. Now, everyone stop reading here mmmkay? Just rest easy that some unknown and sexually frustrated fumble-cunt agrees with your pretty little opinion. You don't need to see the rest. Stop driving away my readers! I ain't got much of them to begin with.

What I Didn't Like.

Almost everything good this movie does has some parts that were dumb or annoying. Like half the comedy is obnoxious. God, tell me something new! Kinda like your interruptions, fuckhead! The character of Deadpool is as faithful as ever, which means he can be super fucking annoying. At least the other characters think so too, but it doesn't help that Wolverine saying fuck every other word was getting on my nerves. Pot calling the kettle blaaaaaaack. Well it sounds weird! Also, not only am I trying to cut back on my swearing a bit, but also I change it up every once in a while. Shitheel. Hehehe sweet talker. Now tell me the villain's lame even though you've never read about this character and don't know how faithful she is to the source material. Um, yeah, that's true. But even if she is faithful it doesn't change that she's bland. You thought the finger-mindreading effect was cool, admit it! Uh, yeah also true. But it makes no sense! Who are you, the fucking mind police, fingerbanging edition? Who cares what if it makes sense? It extends to the whole plot though! The time travel stuff (Spoilers) IT'S IN THE TRAILER! Is not cohesive with the MCU explanation as a whole. It would help if the plot wasn't clearly an afterthought, but clearly I'm the only viewer who fucking cares. What? The movie can't make up it's own thing? Not if it's gonna pillage the MCU crumbs for cheap fanservice and jokes! AND SPEAKING OF CHEAP JOKES, why is it funny that Deadpool is gay? Because getting fucked in the ass is funny. Why?! Seriously, sit down and tell me why is Deadpool being gay or bisexual or whatever funny. I'm not saying LGBTQIA+ people are above being made fun of, Soundslikethat'swhatyou'redoing but I just don't get it. And not only is this a well that the movie comes to time and time again, but it's all over the marketing! At least it's better gay man representation than Mean Girls. ...Fuck you. Gladly. Can you at least admit that this movie is too long. What?! Are you on all the cocaine Feige confiscated from the cast/prop department? No, but during for the entire final act I was waiting for the movie to wrap up! And my god! Can a Marvel movie have stakes again? MCU movies have never been great for having plots with lasting consequences, but at least they were good at faking it. THERE WERE TWO MOVIES BETWEEN INFINITY WAR AND END GAME. Wait wait wait, you wanted the movie to kill Wolverine and Deadpool? YES. This is definitely gonna be the last movie where Hugh Jackman plays Wolverine and definitely should be the last Deadpool movie, so why not? Hell, isn't the whole point of the final fight scene to tell us that there is a million versions of Deadpool in the multiverse? So you could totally kill him off and still keep Ryan Reynolds on the hook for whatever cameos you want. Christ Buggy was right, you are a sociopath! WELL MAYBE IF MOVIES STOPPED FAKING CHARACTER DEATHS I WOULDN'T COMPLAIN ABOUT IT SO MUCH. Stakes are only effective if you sometimes follow through with the threats the story gives. Bathos be damned, my balls are the shade of blueberries.

Final Summation.

The movie's fine. After all that? You're not even gonna give us the good shit you whingeing coconut? Well the movie ain't worst movie I've seen in any aspect. It's not the worst superhero, Fox, or Marvel movie I've watched, hell, not even the worst of any of those movies I've seen this year! But it's also not the best thing since self-lubricating dildos. I'm giving it a begrudging recommendation, not that it matters because if you want to see this movie even slightly you already did.

We're just gonna end of self-lubricating dildos? YEP AND YOU CAN LICK MY CINNAMON RING BITCH.

[us-the-voices-and-more-voices-2]

hot take, most of if not all fictional characters can exist in the dc universe (comics version) with like zero problems.

if you tried with the marvel universe it’d just not work, idk why it just doesn’t work.

like I break up the dc universe into 4 parts.

YE OLDEN DAYS

which is anything from prehistoric to end of WW1

No meta’s it’s just normal people

which is like 1910s-2010

in where meta’s (or just people with powers, aliens, magic users whatever) were unheard of, rare, or hidden. But still existed and just weren’t out of hiding yet.

Oh fuck there’s so many meta’s oh shit

Post everyone finding out that aliens and magic and supernatural people exist, and everyone is just “oh, yeah in my home town there’s this guy. He’s super fast and catches bad guys” and just everywhere.

it’s not acceptable to be a meta human but like they exist and live their lives.

THE FUTURE..

in which it is simlatanously amazing and so horrible that time immigrants are a thing, meta’s are accepted and life without them is a distant memory.

also because of the DC universes fast and loose multiverse laws, (WTF even is cannon anymore) people from slightly different or vastly different universes can very easily travel between each other’s worlds.

so with these era’s and parts you can basically fit any media into the dc universe and it’d make sense.

could Hannibal exist in the dc universe? TOTALLY 👍

could shezow? YES 🙌

Rick and Morty? Penguins of Madagascar? whatever!

the universe is not bounded to anything, talking animals and sentient sapient creatures are a normal thing.

crimes and violence and aliens and anything all exist.

3rd wall is broken and whole, there’s paradoxes everywhere and many things can happen at once!

that has been my hot take

[izzysarchivedblogs]

Do you have any Marvel headcanons for Grace?

ALWAYS ACCEPTING // random questions and asks and anons

Oh, yeah totally! I keep putting off my write ups I have planned, but yeah.

🎵 So on an expansion, as well as deviation, from how Grace's powers work and exist in a Marvel setting from her vague canon setting.

ONE Yes, you will be compelled to sing if Grace starts up a song; no, she can not control you or force you to do anything (that you wouldn't inherently want to do)

TWO She can't control you, or make you do anything; there is some light influencing she can do, but not to influence you to do this or that. She can influence/amplify a specific emotion through song, so if she needs you angry than it's an rock ballad with yelling, but she can't give you a reason to be angry; it's just Grace drawing out whatever you anger you already have, and making that at the forefront and most present feeling you are now feeling

THREE Her powers still exist around drawing out truths and feelings, which makes herself a potentially good interrogator for that fact

FOUR However, in additional to those base powers is that she can do a thing like a Song Barrage, which is literally mental assault in specific area range (if she's outside it can be much broader, but requires a lot of exertion or needs an ambilifier) This barrage of sound, is meant to confuse, concuss, and knockout those caught in it. That's the scale of what it can do, base on how Grace amps t up; but it's basically continuously steam of sound (like turning all all the loudest music at once).

FIVE She can do sound / sonic blasts with her voice like Black Canary from DC or I'm forgetting who from Marvel, I'd say like Songbird but Melissa's is visual and it's really not similar, and she does literal sound barriers, and you should check out Melissa Gold/Songbird if you aren't familiar with her character in marvel, her power is neat. BUT YEAH. Grace has like sound force, concussive blasts of sound, both audible and like you can physically feel it (can't see it)

SIX I've decide that IDOLS in translation to Marvel setting, would all be tied to Mystic Arts; and that means that Grace could learn spells and mystics arts, it would require her to some training and teaching to sort of awaken the innate power within her, and her spellcasting would in fact be hinged upon her having to sing/have a musical element to casting the spell.

SEVEN She has healing powers, but they are not of any kind of flesh o mortal wounds. She cannot heal a bullet wound, do heart surgery, touch you a heal a burn, or anything. Her musical ability can heal wounds on the soul, psychic injuries, she can help you reach peace or resolution in your grief, and so on. She can't make you forget, or take it away; but she can heal psychic and wounds on the soul. Presently she ability to sense these wounds needs refining, is rather weak; but over the years, as she becomes more Calliope, her eyes will literally be able to see wounds on the soul in visual representation.

EIGHT So lets go into the song powers, they are psychic/mystic in how you would classify them. When you are singing with Grace, while she isn't actually reading your mind but if you are imaging yourself on a boat, or somewhere else as you sing your feelings, than there will be the illusion (visual and metaphorical and metaphysical) of being on a boat, of doing that action even though you and Grace will both be literally still exactly where you are, in the whatever place the song started. It's pretty neat, if not a little freaky at first. AND THE SAME APPLIES if you catch Grace singing, and if you focus on her singing and drawn towards her, you'll see whatever Grace is projecting; like sometimes you will be taken in a black space of nothingness, with just a spotlight on Grace as she sings; you can easily break out of it, if you stop listening or need to get somewhere, but. . . hey, stay a while, join her and than it'll probably become your song, or the both of yours.

🎵 SO THERE'S KIND OF THE EXPANSION ON HER POWERS, now let's go on with her power.

🎶 Right now, Grace is still Grace. Her powers are but a fledging at the moment. She's more Grace than Calliope; but as the years go on and she starts to gain Calliope's memories, her abilities will get stronger, grow, change a little too, and maybe new abilities will pop up.

🎵 HERO NAMES. Grace typically does not have one, but if she had to have one. She would simply be Muse, or The Muse. Grace, The Muse. That's at least when she starts out, and enters into the Idol and Superhero world. As the years go by, and she grows stronger in her godhood and memories come to her, than she might start going by Calliope as her 'hero' name.

🎶 If Grace to be on a superhero team, than the team that would b most fitting for Grace would be the Defenders actually. Speaking on hero business, Grace absolutely is not a vigilante, she does not see herself as one.

She just can't help that godhood does come with duties, and she is drawn to The Arts, people of inspiration, people who need help creatively, or need help because of their emotion of their soul. Calliope the Last Muse, and the Muse of Muses, duty in old days would have been inspiration great works of art from people, seeking creative souls (seeds, watering them), making sure they do something grat with their life.

Going back hero business, you can blame her roommate Freddie and their bandmates, Brian and Kaz, for promoting Grace as an "ally and sidekick" for superheroes, and as "badass songtress" and "healer and witch"

🎵 How to find Grace. She is still in the ban Edge of Elysium, with Freddie, Brian, and Kaz. They have a two or three nights a week show, at the club/bar, The Underworld (yes, that one started up by Peresphone). So you can find her there, after the sets unless EoE has gone on tour. Technically, Grace is there most nights. As the Marvel world state, she kind of got left the keys to the place. She and the band, are kind of in charge of The Underworld, and so it definitely has become a idol-and-power-friendly bar, and yes, there is nights where she warns the patron she's going to be using her musical abilities, and casting those mental illusions for the whole crowd, fun night, do get warned when it happens (that's why the bar has noise cancelling headphones). and as responsible for the bar, they hire bartenders, Grace and EoE organize all the other acts/theme nights on the non EoE nights. Also The Underworld bar is in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in this setting, cause that makes sense.

🎶 Grace only knows anything about Greek Myth and Superheroes because of Freddie (who i will write her and brian and kaz as npcs as needed), and Brian + Kaz know superheroes too. Grace will literally meet like someone like Daredevil, she has no clue who he is; and Freddie will just WE'VE LIVED IN NEW YORK, IN HELL'S KITCHEN, AND YOU DONT' KNOWW DD. and She'll just "oh wait. actually, yeah, no I don't pay attention." Freddie, Brian, and Kaz will literally drag her for days about this.

ANYWAYS THAT'S GRACE'S MARVEL SETTING HEADCANONS.

She'd mesh really well with characters rooted in mysticism and Asgardians; but also work with just about any character. I have a lot of ideas for her TBH in a marvel setting.

[matchupsblog]

Hello, you can request fanfiction, reader insert, character x character, headcanons, matchups and whatever you want really. I won't write smut and I can't do fanart but I can write just about anything else. I won't write about people that actually exist or anything that could even be considered as pedophilia. Fandoms I can do are:

-Marvel (All apects of Marvel: Avengers, Xmen, most defenders, fantastic 4 etc)

-Hunger games

-Most parts of the DC universe

-Star wars

-Harry Potter

-Pretty much every horror film created, and if I don't know it I will watch it for this

-Dirty Dancing

-Umbrella academy

-Hamilton

-Grease

-Divergent

-stranger things

-Peaky blinders

-Red Dwarf

-Game of thrones (seasons 1-4)

-The office (american)

-Rick and Morty

-Last of us (I haven't seen the series yet so it would be mostly game orientated)

-Hellboy

That's all I can think of but you can try other stuff, because I probably missed some stuff. Yeah some of the stuff there's weird to put on the list but I have no idea what other people watch/read. I'll probably put some other stuff on that hasn't been requested and feel free to request privately if you want. Doesn’t have to be romantic either, platonic, whatever. You just let me know and I’ll do my best to make it.

[orlissa]

Can you tell us a bit of how translating works? Do you get to pick your projects or do whatever is given to you? Is there a limit to how many you do? Does the author pick you or the publisher?

Um, okay, so a lot depends on the publisher.

I'm basically a freelancer, and so far I've worked for 5 different publishers (and I've had a couple of odd jobs inbetween. Actually, my next project is textual part of an oncoming exhibition on ancient Rome). Currently, I work for two.

Do I get to pick my projects?

Err... Not really. So one of the publishers I work for now looked at my CV and basically put me in the "epic fantasy" box. They are the ones I work less for, but I have buddies there, so the whole relationship is really lax. They also do comics (Marvel, DC, indies), and we have talked with one of them how fun it would be to do some comics together in the future. But, yeah, I'm in the "epic fantasy" box, so they'll just sometimes pop up that "hey, we have a book for you!"

When I first applied to the other place, they just sent me a text right away that was basically my "trial period." Once I submitted that, they sent me a list of about a dozen titles and I was free to choose from them, as many as I wanted. What I ended up choosing were first books in series, so it was understood that I would be seeing through the whole series, and once I cleared my queue, I was free to choose which second installment I wanted to do next.

Also, I mostly do YA fantasy for them, but once they quickly needed somebody for an erotic romcom, so they offered it to me as well, while apologizing because "it's usually not my style."

That being said, I can totally say no to a book offered to me. It has happened before. I'm not working for that publisher anymore, but not because of me saying no to a book.

Is there a limit?

I'm only working on one project at the time. Depending on lenght, a translating a book takes somewhere between 1-3 months. (I'm paid after "sheets," and that's also how I measure lenght. One sheet is 40.000 characters, spaces included. My current project is a YA fantasy just under 300 pages, that'll be around 12-13 sheets. My previous project was an adult fantasy over 600 pages long, and it ended up being just over 31 sheets. Generally, I do a little over half a sheet a day.) Whenever I take on a project, I set my own deadline with the publisher, then once a book is done, I move onto the next.

Does the author pick me or the publisher?

The publisher. I don't have much insight to the legal part of things, but basically as far as I can tell the author's agent/original publisher negotiates foreign rights, and once the deal is struck, they don't have much to do with the foreign text (but the cover art might be a completely different thing). In many/most cases the author doesn't even know I exist.

...The being said, I've made contact with several authors ot ask questions and iron out details (I almost always find some kind mistakes in the text, and sometimes correcting them requires the input of the author). My experiences have generally been favorable (50 something British guys writing epic fantasy while being super into historical warfare are absolute sweethearts), but I have encountered some annoying red tape.

[evilwickedme]

Tbf I don’t think a single character is treated well by the fandom lol. Nuance dies in the Batman fandom 😂

This is so real!!!! It's actually a bit of a nightmare to have read literally any comics and also look for good fic, it's why it takes me so long to get to some of these fic requests. But I've been in fandom a very long time (well, for the average Tumblr user; I first read fic in 2008 or so), and I've seen a lot of characters get treated this way. I saw this problem in HP and in SPN and in BTVS and marvel where certain characters got flattened or completely mischaracterized by the fandom at large. The problem with batfam is that due to a combination of factors this happened to literally all of the characters. An average batfam fic has nothing to do with the actual DC comics characters and it's fucking bizarre, actually.

WFA I think made it worse somehow. For me, WFA was a gateway into the comics; I read it, got a good grasp on the basic players, read some fic, and then dove into whatever comics I could get my hands on. But for other people it seems as though the only material that exists is WFA and fanfic. A lot of really prominent writers literally just plain admit to not having read a comic. Now, some of those have read enough fic by competent authors that their characterization is still on point; others, tho, are uh... Very involved in the fanon.

Basically, it's not weird that some characters are completely flanderized or flattened by fandom. It's just bizarre that this happened to every single batfam character. Like:

Bruce is either a good guy trying his best or literally evil

Dick is a good older brother with a kind heart and a thick ass and that's it. Sometimes the writers have vaguely heard about Nightwing 93 but only sometimes

Jason has pit madness and is nigh on abusive to Tim or is babygirl who loves Jane Austen, no in between

Tim is woobified and is defined entirely by being a genius who drinks too much coffee

Steph is waffles girl

Damian is the literal devil and antagonistic towards everyone except Bruce and Dick and also nobody in any fandom can write children, fyi, y'all need to stick to writing teenagers and up bc y'all either extremely underestimate or overestimate what children can do

Cass is a sweetheart and everyone's favorite and that's literally it

Babs is a super genius but not as smart as Tim of course. The one and only good thing about fanon is that she's nearly always Oracle

Duke is not there

Kate is not there

Harper is definitely not there (although tbf she's in even less comics than Duke and I don't own any of her appearances)

And yeah this is the mess that the fandom has created. It does honestly get exhausting sometimes

[theshaddowedsnow]

I posted 14,578 times in 2022

That's 14,578 more posts than 2021!

185 posts created (1%)

14,393 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@incorrect-spideytorch

@chamiryokuroi

@yuriinadress

@natasharomanovofficial

@kluvcomicsnfantasy

I tagged 397 of my posts in 2022

#fanfic - 54 posts

#dc - 49 posts

#spideytorch - 42 posts

#writing - 35 posts

#timbern - 27 posts

#billy batson - 26 posts

#tim drake - 24 posts

#peter parker - 24 posts

#timber - 23 posts

#johnny storm - 20 posts

Longest Tag: 121 characters

#theyre tbe group of pettiest people out there and they didnt immaditaely go 'the avengers hate you so we'll support you'?

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

OKAY HEAR ME OUT

Big dramatic reveals are Great, even a casual "Yeah I know" is Great

But hear me out

Bernard finds out Tim's identity not because he figured it out, not because Tim was injured or truth serumed or whatever.

No, be finds it out because Jason got annoyed one family dinner that he couldn't make a death joke and just made one

In front of Bernad and loudly

And Bernard is like: wait what?!?!?!?!?!?

224 notes - Posted April 25, 2022

#4

Bruce: What is your intentions with my son?

Billy, panicking because Damian and Jon and him are on a Super Secret Kids Only Mission: Uh, I'm taking him and Jon out on a date!

Clark, zooming over at the speed of a panicked father: Jon is going on a date and he didn't tell me?!?!

Billy: *internally* Robin and Superboy are going to kill me

238 notes - Posted July 2, 2022

#3

Bernard had known a long time. He had known since High school who Tim was. It wasn't hard to figure out, and while Tim went great lengths to hide it, if you knew what to look for, it was easy to sniff out.

So, when Tim sat him down in their now shared apartment, Bernard was prepared. Be was going to let Tim tell him himself, when he was ready.

"Look, I should have told you sooner, I know I should have," Tim sighed, messing with the sleeves of the sweatshirt he had stolen from Bernard back when they first started dating. "I'm just... I never dated someone who didn't know before we dated."

"It's alright Tim," Bernard soothed.

"I know you're a vampire" "I'm Red Robin"

The two stared at each other. Neither spoke.

"Bernard what the hell?"

"I thought it was obvious!" Bernard defended. "Wait, you're Red Robin?"

"You thought I was a vampire?" Tim gaped.

350 notes - Posted July 22, 2022

#2

Y'all ever think Billy just casual hints he's a foster kid/homeless to the Leauge?

Like, they don't know Marvel's identity, but things just kinda Hint At It?

Like Superman and Marvel are evacuating civilians and like... Marvel not only remembers the homeless exist, reminds Supes they exists, and knows all the poteial Aves they are? And all be says is he gets it and doesn't blame Supes because "if I didn't have experiences like them I would have forgotten too" or aome line like that?

Or just how much get gets along with Jason? Like even post-ressurection Jadon. The two talk for hours about the best spots they've squatted or how Captain Marvel of all the Justice Leauge appreciates what Jason is doing. Like, he may not fully approve of the method, remember he's still an idealist and a kid, but he understands the motivation and reason for it and behind it.

Or he just casually mentions he's an orphan and "grew up in some rough spots before finding my family."

Stuff like that.

353 notes - Posted June 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Tim: things my conspiracy boyfriend let's me do; listen to his theories and comment on them

Tim: things he will not let me do; suggest an even wilder theory on the same topic

570 notes - Posted July 6, 2022

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