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sineala · 3 years ago

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Holiday comics

This month I've been asked to talk about winter-holiday themed storylines! It's been miserably hot where I am; winter sounds nice right about now. I don't think many of the comics I'm going to name are going to be new to you. You can probably guess what they are! But maybe you'll have fun sitting down and reading them. Put on the air-conditioning and get some ice water.

Marvel has had a whole bunch of holiday issues over the years, and I'm not going to talk about anywhere near all of them. The most recent one I can think of is last year's King In Black Iron Man & Doctor Doom team-up, which features Tony and Doom facing off against a symbiote-possessed Santa Claus. I've never really enjoyed any symbiote-themed Marvel comics -- although I really liked the Venom movie, go figure -- so it's not one of my favorites, but it might be your kind of thing.

My favorite issue in this genre obviously has to be the Avengers vol 5 Annual. This was the annual that came out during Hickman's Avengers run. It's not written by Hickman -- it's by Kathryn Immonen -- and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the events of the run. You can read it without any familiarity with the rest of the run, I promise. It's definitely the happiest issue in that entire Avengers run. It's probably one of the happiest issues of Avengers that you will ever read. I had gotten into Steve/Tony comics relatively soon after this issue came out, and I remember seeing panels on Tumblr without attribution and not knowing if they were canon or fanart or edits. (I kind of enjoy the fact that comics fandom has this problem, actually, even if that means breaking people's hearts about that "solid dick" panel every so often.) And then it turned out they were canon!

You've probably all read it, but this particular annual is set on Christmas Eve. Almost all the team has cleared out for Christmas, leaving a skeleton crew to watch the tower. Specifically, Steve. Tony asks Steve if Steve's going to be okay before leaving for his private island. It's very sweet. But then the actual plot kicks into gear, and some kids who had been taking a tour have stayed to cause mischief, and it's up to Steve to stop them. And also, additionally, Tony and several other Avengers, because when Tony said "private island" he meant that he was shutting himself up in a bathroom with a swimsuit and swim fins and a crab floatie. Yep.

This is also the issue with the famed "Captain Handsome" line because not only is Tony a guy who has canonically used "Captain America" as his own password (good going, no one'll ever guess that) he gives everyone else their own personalized passwords to the tower, thereby making Steve identify himself as Captain Handsome, which I think says an awful lot about Tony.

Anyway. It's the best, and if you haven't read it, you definitely should.

Marvel also puts out a lot of one-off holiday specials that are usually anthologies of winter-themed holiday superhero stories. There were a few of them in the 70s under the title "Holiday Grab Bag," which I have not read. They were revived in 1991 under the title "Marvel Holiday Special." They don't do them every year, I don't think, but there have been a fair number of them.

So obviously these don't all have the Avengers in them, though the Avengers often make cameos; I skimmed through them just to check. It's also probably worth noting that although they are mostly Christmas-themed in nature, they aren't all entirely Christmas-themed; there's a story in the 2011 issue that has Ben Grimm and Kitty Pryde celebrating Chanukah, and the 1992 one has a funny story of Doc Samson attempting to tell children about Chanukah and embellishing it wildly to keep them interested, so that superheroes and nuclear weapons are now involved in it. He is not invited back.

They do have a few stories that might be of interest in the specials. The 1991 special has a story called "Precious Gifts" (by Len Kaminski, who you may remember from early-90s Iron Man) where Steve is volunteering at the VFW for Christmas (as Steve, not Cap) and meets a woman who wants to talk to him about how sad she is that her brother died in WWII and she doesn't even know how. Steve of course asks what her brother's name was. And she says his name was James Barnes, and that's pretty much when Steve's brain bluescreens.

This is Rebecca's first appearance in canon; she later shows up at the tail end of Jurgens' Cap run and then again during Brubaker's run; I haven't actually read either of those. MCU Stucky fandom really ran with her as a character, but here in 616 she and Steve don't know each other at all. He didn't seem to know Bucky had a sister at all, and she didn't know Bucky was Steve's partner, so after Steve figures it out he goes back (as Cap) to tell her about Bucky so she can at least know that Bucky died bravely, and he gives her a patch from one of Bucky's uniforms. It's very touching. I'd never read it before, so I'm glad I found this.

(I really like the scene with Steve interacting with the children at Rebecca's house, because I think it captures two key facets of Steve's character: (1) the angst about how he will never have a normal life and a family, and (2) his terrible sense of humor. "What's Thor like?" "Big." I feel like one of the things I would like MCU fandom to know about comics Steve is that he is, pretty much, Steve "Dad Jokes" Rogers. Not, like, as pithy hero banter, but in everyday conversation.)

This issue also has a Christmas-themed splash page of Steve and Diamondback that I think is pretty cute. Steve is holding up Rachel and Rachel is holding up Steve's shield so it serves as the star on a Christmas tree.

The 1992 issue has an Iron Man story entitled "Holidays on Ice." An ice-themed villain is angry that he can't find a job, so he decides to go ruin the Stark Enterprises holiday party, which was going pretty well until then. Tony suits up and of course defeats the villain handily and then offers him a job, because, well, he's a nice guy and it's Christmas. This is exactly who Tony Stark is, as far as I'm concerned. It's sweet.

The 1994 issue has a Cap story where Steve is chasing human traffickers on Christmas Eve (cheerful, right?) into a farmhouse "where [his] grandfather lived sixty years ago" because I guess someone didn't know Steve was the son of immigrants. Maybe it wasn't canon yet. Steve saves the kid and reminisces about Christmas, the soul of America, human trafficking, et cetera. I would recommend the previous Cap story over this one.

I think the last holiday special I can recall that had Steve and Tony actually interacting was a Gwenpool Holiday Special, and that was way back before Secret Empire (but after Secret Wars), while Steve was still old. I don't recall much about it except that they were attending the same party.

But the one of these that you definitely want to read is the Marvel Holiday Special 2005, which has an Avengers ensemble story by Jeff Parker; if you're familiar with comics because of their Steve/Tony potential, you'll probably recognize his name because he wrote several of the first issues of Marvel Adventures: Avengers, and though this is a early New Avengers-era story it definitely has that MA:A dynamic. It's not particularly shippy as far as the Steve/Tony goes but if you enjoy Comics Being Comics, you should know that this story is called "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santron!" and features the Avengers fighting, um. Santron. Santa-themed Ultron. Yesss.

Anyway, it has the Avengers attending a holiday party at the Sanctum Sanctorum, because why not, and it's generally amusing and has some great team dynamics and I love Santron. There is an unfortunate subplot involving all the male Avengers maneuvering to get Jess Drew under the mistletoe which I think was supposed to be funny but to me came off as kind of creepy. But other than that, I really enjoy this issue.

That's all I can think of as far as holiday special issues go, but there are of course issues of regular comics that just happen to be set in or near various winter holidays. I actually can't think of any holiday-themed Cap issues, but I can think of a couple of Iron Man ones. You probably think I'm going to talk about the second drinking arc, but I'm not -- well, okay, not directly -- because even though that definitely features winter it's not really very holiday-themed. But there are other issues that fit the bill.

Iron Man #313, published in 1995, is called "Resolutions," and I feel like New Year's Eve definitely counts as a winter holiday. Which is when it's set. It's by Len Kaminski, who you may remember from several paragraphs ago as the guy who wrote that story about Bucky's sister. Ha. He's clearly very good at winter-holiday-themed character moments, because that's what this issue basically is. If you've read it, you know exactly what I mean; if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's one of the only issues from this era of comics that I bothered to track down in paper.

So the entirety of Iron Man #313, pretty much, is about Tony going to an AA meeting on New Year's Eve and recounting his entire history of alcoholism up to this point. If you need a convenient refresher on Tony's drinking problem, this is actually a pretty good issue to pick up; there are later issues that recap Tony's alcoholism, like Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man #500.1, but this issue features the motivations and characterization that get the most play in fandom. This is the issue where Tony recounts a New Year's Eve he spent as a child. The one where his father forced him to down hard liquor, which Tony did in an attempt to impress him. (Tony describes his father as "not a bad man," because Tony is not a very reliable narrator where his father is concerned.) Anyway, yes, this is that issue. It's dealing with the fallout of Tony drinking during the Vor/Tex arc, though if you love yourself I would suggest not reading the Vor/Tex arc and just reading this. It's good.

The only other issue I can think of that's at all holiday-themed is the arc toward the end of Iron Man volume 3, "You Can't Always Get..." (IM v3 #62-63), which is itself a sequel to "Jane Doe" (#51-52), which I would recommend reading if you enjoy Tony funding a women's shelter and generally being a really good human being. As far as I can remember, the first arc isn't holiday-themed; the second one takes place during the Christmas season, but the women's shelter from the first arc plays a big role here.

Mostly what you will want to read here is Tony and his girlfriend Rumiko going Christmas shopping in #62. The issue opens with them going shopping and Tony carrying all the bags and also taking Ru to go see Santa Claus. After that, they're walking down the street talking about what they really want. And Ru asks Tony what he wants, being as he's The Man Who Has Everything. His reply is: "Something money and power could never buy... something I've been searching for all my life. Someone to watch over me."

Fandom tends to feel like that quote is a pretty telling look into Tony's psyche, as far as I can tell. I think we all like it. So, yeah, that's worth reading.

I'm bad at writing conclusions, but anyway, yeah, that's all of the winter-holiday comics I can think of that are Steve, Tony, and/or Steve/Tony-related; I went through the Marvel Holiday Specials so you did not have to. Definitely read that Avengers annual if you haven't, though. It's a good one.

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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X-Men Evolution Reviewcaps: Rogue Recruit

My series long look at X-Men Evolution rolls on as eveyrone’s favorite goth reworking of everyone’s faviorite southerner debuts. The X-Men and Mystique race to bring Rogue to her side after her powers accidently coma a boy. The X-Men try the usual compasion.. while Mystique just tries attempted murder and gaslighting while wearing a wolverine costume. Mother of the year! Meanwhile Kurt tries to get Kitty to likes him, Kitty does something profoundly stupid to prove Wolverine wrong that ends up proving him right, and Wolverine grumbles and is kind of an asshole. Well at least one of those is just an average tuesday for him. We’re going Rogue, Rogue, Rouuuuggeeee under the cut.

Onto episode 3 though this time I did actually get around to watching a few in a row, so while i’m not MILES ahead of this episode, I do have a better sense of where things are going and where this falls in line with everything else. And this is a big one as it’s the debut of Rogue, easily one of the shows more popular characters from what I can tell and it’s no real suprise. In most incarnations Rogue is a huge fan faviorite, with a tragic but very useful and intresting power that makes for good stories.. and okay in the comics and carton she’s also fanservice incarnate, but that’s not exactly a factor here so moving on. And here is no exception as naturally, with her goth apperance, and general moody outsider atittude, she was a huge hit with goths and emos one and all! And eveyrone really, it’s a good take despite being almost the oppsite of the angsty but still fesity and funloving 90′s version.. and the ironic part is BOTH are entirely accurate to the comics. And yes like the last time about to dive a bit into the comics.. but unlike the shiar thing this is throughly relevant to how the character is portrayed here and a neat history less for those not in the know, so buckle up.

What’s intresting is both adapt the character.. just at vastly diffrent points. See most probably think of Rogue as she is now: Bubbly, Scrappy and able to throw a man into a mountain, if still understandably mopey about not being able to touch anyone, thoguh that issues come and gone a dozen times by now because comic books can’t resisit undoing things to meet fan expectations despite most dedicated fans wanting some fucking change once in a while.

But that’s due to years and years of character development: When Chris Claremont first intorduced her, in an avengers annual no less.. she was a villain, a member of her adopted mother Mystique’s brotherhood of evil mutants, and unlike here, we’ll get into that, she was a fully willing member at first, gleefuly following her mama’s orders to drain the powers of one of Mystique’s most hated enemy: Carol Danvers, aka Ms Marvel and the future Captain Marvel. Yeah this one takes some explination for you non-comic fans, and even some of you comic fans who might not get how one of the more iconic x-men villians has personal beef with Carol.... granted i’m pretty sure half the marvel unvierse has personal beef with Carol in present day after Civil War II, especially tony for murdering him, but story for another time. It’s actually pretty simple: Chris Claremont was writer of x-men for a decade and easily the most important x-men writer period who created a ton of iconic and well loved characters and shaped Cyclops, Charles Xavier and Magneto into the characters fans know and love among others. And around the same time as his x-men run’s early years in the late 70′s, he was writer of Ms Marvel, and took Carol from a half hearted girl counterpart to the first Captain Marvel with a wonky two identties gimmick, into the asskicker and feminist icon we know today. As such Mystique debuted there and when that book ended, Claremont slided her over to the x-men and the rest is history. And this wasn’t an isolated incident: Sabertooth, aka wolverine’s arch enemy and one of hte more famous mutant baddies, debuted in, of all comic books, iron fist, with Claremont bringing him back years and years later as part of the mutant massacreing Marauders, while Misty Knight and Coleen Wing were breifly supporting characters in x-men inbetween Iron Fist’s cancelation and Iron Fist becoming bros for life with Luke Cage and forming the heroes for hire, bringing the two along as supporting characters in the process. It’s a process writers have contiuned to this day; Bringing a character from other unrelated comics in to keep them out of comic book limbo and one i’m in favor of: as long as their writing the character well and they fit why not. And like her momma Rogue DIDN’T debut in the pages of X-Men, but in Avengers Annual #10. And no Chris wasn’t writing avengers, though it wasn’t really unusual for another writer to hop in for one annual to pinch hit for the regular writer for whatever reason, with Chris Claremont being one of the few who wrote every annual himself for his run on X-Men. What was is he did so for one reason and one only: To get justice for Carol Danvers after a recent story had screwed her over BAD. Two things before we start: If you haven’t heard of this debacle, my apologizes and rape and abuse trigger warning. If you want to skip this portion of the review just ctrl f HIGHER FASTER FURTHER MORE and you can move right on past this clusterfuck and the aftermath. Anyways in Avengers 200, Carol gave birth via terribly contrived mystical pregnancy to Marcus, son of avengers foe and sometimes ally immortus and creepy asshole. Marcus is revaled to have brainwashed carol into loving him , and making love to him so yeah he raped her physically and mentally and the story ends iwth the “Happy ending” of him whisking carol away with him to his limbo dimension while everyone else is fine with it despite him admitting to using the “subtle manipulations of his machines” to make her love him. So yeah, he kidnapped carol to his limbo dimension, mind controlled her, had his way with her, had her give birth to him so he could come to earth then took her back with him.. and not ONE avenger raced a hand, shield, repulsor or hammer, and yes the big three avengers were very much present for this debacle and very much cuplable. IT’s a throughly disgusting hideous story i’ve only see played out thanks to Linkara, long time comics reviewer and all around sweet guy, reviewing it, though with the panels show to show yes all of this is there, and have no intrest in EVER reaading this vile piece of garbage. If your still curious or after just hearing about it want to see it torn to shreds, here’s the review for you.

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It’s terrible for a variety of other reasons. Naturally Chris, who’d put a LOT of time into building up carol and like any creator who sees their character throughly dragged through the mud, was PISSSSSED.. and so were fans who rightly rioted at the issue, so editorial was more than happy to let one of thier biggest draws right the ship and also allowed him to take Carol back home to the x-men with him. As for how that happened, after Rogue stole her powers, Carol fell in a river and was rescued by her best friend and fellow Chris Claremont alumnis Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, who brought her to the x-men since she was a friend of theirs, where charles fixed her mind, though Carol was left with no emotoins attached to most of her memoreis. When the avengers, after scrapping with the brotherhood in some neat bouts, came to visit their friend.. Carol instead laid into them for letting Marcus take her, poitned out just how fucked up it was as well as how, and this actually happend, the avengers downplayed her concerns and tried to get her to connect with her demon spawn instead of worrying about her while others made jokes. Basically just one long page of chris claremont unloading on the issue and Carol unloading on her former friends before staying with her new ones. And to the issues credit the rest of the team. .takes it, is utterly devistated to realize what they’d done, and reflects on if they can ever make up for it or if they even deserve forgivness. She would eventually, mostly because people wanted to forget this story after that for good reason, but it’s still a damn cathartic moment. HIGHER FASTER FURTHER MORE.. so yeah Carol was now with the x-men, who did end up meeting Rogue during a mission to wipe themselves from goverment records for good reason. And to his credit Chris not only used Carol’s lack of emotions tied to her memories for good drama but gave carol a huge power upgrade as binary, if your curious as to where her glowy headed distctrugion of an entire starfleet in her solo film came from. So okay after about a paragraph not really involving her we get into why this is so important to rogue’s character; Rogue now had Carol’s personality and memories trapped in her head and her mind was blurring between them, something this episode would use, and was falling apart as a result and with her moms Mystique and Destiny unable to help a despearate scared and repetnant Rogue went to her last hope for help saving her sanity and her soul: The X-Men. The X-Men, having both fought her and bonded heavily with her victim, naturally were less than pleased about this, and Colossus outright attacked Rogue before charles stopped him, not unresonably given the circumstances. However after talking with her and realizing both how badly she needed her help and how genuinely she wanted to change, going from a brat in love with her own power to a scared young woman terrified of what she’d done and what she was becoming, decided to roll her into the x-men. And everyone revolted: Carol was understadanbly piss and famously punched Rogue into orbit, while the rest of the x-men threatned to walk. Charles however refused to back down and gave one of his finest speech and one of the characters best moments:

To me this is Charles Xavier, a man who will accept and try to help anyone, regardless of their past, because it’s the right thing.. because they deserve a chance and he will GIVE IT TO THEM. It’s a powerful and well done moment and the x-men relucntantly take her in as a result, eventually seeing her as family as she proved herself. So yeah THAT is why I took so long to get here and went through ALL of this: Because this series adapts this period in it’s own unique way, taking out Rogue’s outright villiany mind, but leaving in her being a moodier, more closed off person who is constantly afraid of once again stealing someone’s very soul. She still has her confidence, as idd the comics version, it’s just tempered by a wall she puts up between her and everyone else that wasn’t as present by the time the 90′s series adapted her. And there are other bits i’ll get to as we go and in future episodes, I just felt this story was important as it colors Rogue’s journey here, hence me taking a good portion of the review to dive into it and even then I have more bits to give as we go. So with all this exposition that’s probably lost ya’s out of the way, this is Rogue Recurit. Pitter Patter. We open in the mighty Missisipi, neighbor to my home state of missouri and home of the deep fried shoe. No wait that’s connecticut my mistake. We meet our unfriendly neighborhood goth moping outside, not really enjoying the dance and probably only having gone because her mom told her not to.. Destiny not Myistque mind. More on that in a minute. She’s being watched by two guys: Cody, who if you know your x-men lore you know this never ends well for him, and his friend uh.. let me check my noootes (Checks wiki while shuffling papers to simulate notes) Ty. Turns out Cody’s been starring at Rogue all week but dosen’t even know her name which to be fair, minus the muscles and being on the football team, is pretty much me in high school and is just as pathetic in 2000 as it would be from 2007-2010. I mean if I just went for it I PROBABLY would’ve been shot down, and the one time I did I indeed was, but at least I would of went for it and maybe learned more about women and not been such a dipstick for the next decade.... “sigh”

Point is Cody awkwardly asks Rogue to dance but like most cool kids, including the kind I hung out with in high school and tended to crush on, she’s there to look COOOOL and mope a bit.. and again tell her mom she can’t tell her what to dooooo. But Cody’s awkwardness and sincerty gets her to say why not, he means well.. a little pity dance can’t hurt. So they dance and then Ty causes this entire episode, yes really, by shoving Cody into her because they happen to be dancing seperatley because Cody’s a goddman gentleman ya maroon, and is respecting her personal space, and IS actually hitting it off as she seems to be enjoying herself. Had he not done that, he at least MIGHT have gottne a kiss before what happens next.. during the fall he accidently touches her skin, which had been mostly covered up and goes into a Coma while Rogue is now stuck in a stupor wondering who she is. Yeah as I omniously hinted at Cody is the guy in every version of Rogue’s origin story, including I assume the 2000′s one where until doing some research i.e. going to wikipedia then letterboxd to find out if his name was given, who she has her first kiss with.. and thus the poor sap who first gets hit with her absorbtion power and traumtizes her. And here it’s no exception. Cue the opening credits. Which despite this setting up the slow arc of Rogue joining htem.. has Rogue in an x-men uniform with the team. Not that the arc is particuarlly subtle about hiding it, we’ll get there but still. After the credits Ty is wondering what she did to him.. even though she barely moved when he fell on her, and Ty shoved Cody into him, and for all we know Cody just went into shock. He also easily could’ve fell on an epi pen or something.. I mean she could’ve stabbed him wiht one but that’s more of a candian thing than a southern thing.

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So Ty, who while understandably given Mutants aren’t public and Rogue herself had no idea still casued this by shoving Cody into her without thinking about if either had any medical conditions or if Rogue you know WANTED to phsyically touch him that soon, and yes diffrent standards and all but even 2000 this was stupid, decides to mess up things further when Rogue tries to run and tries to block the way. Now granted I get it on some level: For all he knows Rogue drugged his best friend and she needs to be there anyway to answer the police.. but counter arguments 1) She may have a record (She dosen’t) and while not having DONE anything may get brought up on charges anyway. 2) If she DID drug cody with a needle of something WHO SAYS SHE DOSEN’T HAVE MORE AND CAN’T JUST STAB YOUR DUMB ASS 3) she’s got a VERY distinctinve haircut with a white streak, wears a very specific outfit she probably son’t have time to change out of , and everyone there saw her. YOu can tell the police what she looks like. They will find her. No instead she tries blocking her and she football tackles him.. because Cody is a footballer because this show, much like Tommy Wiseau, weirdly loves football. though unlike the room most instances it comes up, the first episode, cody being one here, and a future episode where the objective is to get the ball from your opposing x-man, all make some sense versus “Let’s go put on tuxes and play football because that’s what friends do huhhhhh?”. But yeah THIS is why I brought up Rogue’s past: becuase this episode heavily uses the part where she had Carol’s memories.. and would occasionally get messed up between who she was, with one issue having her lapse into being carol to rescue her ex from capture, which he dosen’t take well for obvious reasons. This episode uses something similar with Rogue’s brain a bit fried from taking in cody and thus not being sure where she ends and he begins, which is a very intresting idea and was a cool wya to go about having her powers activate. I mean sure it’s the second time in two episodes a mutant’s powers have traumatically awkaned. but both were distinct and interesting and it’s a staple of x-men stories to have this sort of thing happen.

Meanwhile Rogue’s caretaker Destiny, who we flashed to a bit during the awakening of her powers, calls Mystque. I mentioned her ealrlier in jokes but for those unaware both here and in the comics Destiny is a pre cog, although sh’es an elderly woman in the comics, or rather was having died decades ago in real life, meaning she can see the fuuuuttureeeeee. And thus she saw what was about to happen but couldn’t prevent it. Mysitque is apparently railing her out on the other end over it.. and not in the fun way they usuallly do. And that’’s not crude ininsiuation.. in the comics.. Chris Claremont wrote them as a gay couple and only didn’t explicltly say anything because Jim Shooter was a homophobic moron, even if he had the common sense to stop the kitty and colossus thing because dear god why was that a thing, chaste or not dear god why. The point is Chris fully meant both as lesbians though Mysitque became bisexual under other writers, and the two finally kissed on panel, in flashback last year and Msique wanting her revivied, the x-men can come back from the dead now in comics and Xavier and Magneto refusing for complicated reasons I won’t go into here, and Desitny herself knowing they might not and telling her to burn Krakoa to the ground if she dosen’t get to come back is a major bubbling plot point that got set up earlier this year. So yeah I fully see them as a couple here. ANd yes mistue was with her even as an old lady, it’s really sweet and misty is also immortal so they’ve been together a long time. Also fun fact you probably dind’t need to know: Chris Claremont FULLY inteded to have it turn out the two were Nightcrawler’s biological parents. Mistque is a shapeshifter and can become a man after all.. I like to think that’s what happened here since thankfully the show decided NOT to go with the “kurt’s dad is a demon” explination from around the same time.. and yes that’s a thing and yes it’s fucking stupid and only ever worked under jason aaron who made Kurt’s dad into a pirate who raided heaven and lead to the x-men pirating up alongside a about to come back from the dead nightcrawler to kick his ass. And yes much like the misqute shapeshifting a dick to make a child being shopped around, this actually happened. Comics are awesome sometimes and I genuinely wish Destiny was kurt’s mom. Also yeah spoilers Mystique is nightcrawler’s mom here as usual, including possibly in the movies but it’s kept vauge in both timelines.

Destiny explains that while she kept Rogue’s powers under wraps, giving her a phony skin condition and having her wear skin covering clothes, she couldn’t keep her away from teenage things forever and figured she’d be fine.. she was wrong but hey her precontion isn’t something she can control and she can still see the fucking future, so it’s not like it’s a bad trade off. Myistque is of course coming to collect her but Destiny warns her that, naturally, the x-men are going to be there soon.

Speaking of the X-Men, Wolverine is breaking into the x-men mansion in a ninja costume while storm tries to thrwart hm. Yes there is actual context to this and he is a trained ninja so this fits.. yes really he apparentlyt rained with ninjas as part of his backstory and later had a samurai sword fight iwth his girlfriends dick of a dad twice and has had many since then since even with his claws the image of wolverine wielding a sword is fucking awesome. He crawls through the vents but Storm freezes them and he’s forced to enter the danger room and then tears some machines apart because chuck stops him because APPARENTLY their expesnive.. even though he can afford to buy his teenage son a sports car and himself a fucking rolls, so no Chuck I don’t see why Logan would assume you can’t afford to buy more death machines.

Scott rightly asks what the hell their supposed to learn from one of their teachers putting on his ninja robes and trying to sneak into his own house while another teacher tries to murder him. And yeah with enoguh episodes I can fully say my assement was accurate, and not only that this scott has a bit of a temper at times, being a bit quicker to fly off the handle while also having a clear sarcastic streak, something his comics counterpart would thankfully soon pick up and that’s come back in full under jonathan hickman:

It’s.. a long story.. a bunch of racist genocidal scientests decided to inject themselves with devolving serum to protect their project from the x-men.. okay maybe not that long a story. BUt I LIKE that this scott is flawed, but not enoguh to make him unlikeable just enough to round him out: He’s charming, empathetic and a tactical genius.. but he can also be hot headed, sarcastic and impulsive. I’ts a nice ballance that dosen’t prevent him from being likeable or useful to the team, but keeps him intresting and gives him room to grow. What I really am liking about the series so far is the team is fairly fleshed out.. except Jean and Storm unforuntantley as Storm really hasn’t gotten enough screne time to shine like her comics counterpart and Jean is just sort of “popular girl type a who’s sweet to everyone, but also still badass”. She’s still better than the 90′s cartoon, as she can actually do stuff more often and is a vital member of the team, and has mor eof a personality, but I hope we get more to her as we go. But otherwise the characters are layerd, flawed but likeable, and enjoyable to watch, and it helps with these earlier more awkard episodes, papering over the weaker aspects with strong character.

Anyways Logan explains why they did all this: both to show the kids how to infiltrate big complexes, which given most x-missions are “investgate a base of some sort wher eno good is coming of anything”, case in point the mission in the picture above, it’s a valid and useful skill, and to test the mansion’s security, suggesting since the vents are crawlable to electrify them and add poision gas. Storm objects to the poision gas part as well.. their only enimies besides mystique are two teenagers who while dicks don’t really deserve to choke to death. Wolverine’ relucntantly agreers.. he’ll get em next security update. Next timeee. Kitty meanwhile wonders if anyone else is freaked out and just gets blank stares.. a great gag and a great bit of character as she just joined and had a fairly normal life before all this. Kurt assures her she’ll get used to it, but his telporting over and offering popcorn fails to impress her and she nopes out of there, though Jean reassures him chicks will dig the fuzzy eventually. This is a nice nod to the comics where , with Kurt being the only non-human passing x-man, Kitty was afraid of him for some time, but slowly came around going from being horrified to him to defending him to evelangenlical lunatic reverend stryker, he was a preacher in the comics but no less vile or murder happy, telling him that kurt was one of the noblest souls she ever met after he angrily lambasted him as not in god’s will because you know, he looks like a demon.. and apparently is half of one but let’s ignore that bollocks shall we? Here i’ts more he’s coming on a bit strong on top of that, but it still works reconfigured like that. Anyways enough teen romance, to me my x-men as Charles needs the full team for a mission and it’s the first time we’ve HAD a full team mission which makes sense: Episode one only had two active x-men and one who just joined and episode 2 only needed a smaller team for both subplots so we split the team minus storm in half. Here we have our first full mission: To find Rogue as Xavier believes she’s a danger to herself and others.. which isn’t exactly wrong when her power can abosrb at a touch and she has two entirely diffrent minds overlaping in her head. I do questoin however going in full combat gear, as they do. Bringing it, no sweat what if someone shows up to attack them, their apparently aware of the brotherhood as of next episode... which makes little sense but whatever. But when they land they go out in full superhero gear which not only ends up playing into myistques hands , more on that in a bit but makes htem look super supscious. And this could just be wanting more costume action early on which would be fine.. if the previous episode hadn’t had jean in plain clothes to talk to kitty, because yeah most people freaked out about their powers probably wouldn’t assume the best of someone in tactical gear iwth a big x on their costume! Gah. I”m glad I went ahead simply to know the x-men do get smarter.. a little.

Anyways, that stupidity aside on the jet Kurt is flying for the first time with Scott proud of his skill saying he’ll be an ace.. and taking it back when Kurt starts driving with his feet.. even though to me that’s just as impressive as while he has that classic arms behind the head relaxed pose, he is still paying attention, has his feet on ten and two and, and it’s a fact that I forget sometimes: His feet are just as, or at least, almost as good at gripping as his hands. It’s why he can wall crawl like spiderman. Their llike gorilla feet but better. So yeah that joke dosen’t really land. Meanwhile it’s time for what an older man thinks two teenage girls talk about.. and I just noticed looking at the credits this episode is written by Simon Furman, one of the more renowed transformers creators and write of the UK comics and later the US comics, as well as the first few mini series and one shots for the first idw continuity.. granted the latter is a bit infamous for what he did to arcee, which I both don’t know enough about and don’t have enough time to get into here, nor have I read enough of his work to gush, but I sitll felt it worth mentioning. ANd it’s not uncommmon for comic book writers to write for animation: Greg Weisman started in comics before moving to animation with Captain Atom’s post-crisis solo series, Dwayne McDuffie had a rather sizeable career in comics as a writer and editor and returned to writing comics in the 2000′s for a stint, and Marv Wolfman helped make the treatment for beast machines, while Peter David’s done scattered episodes of various shows, most memorably for me Ben 10. So not a HUGELY uncommmon thing but still worth noting. Anyways legend or no, he still makes the rest of this scene awkward as Kitty fawns over scott, Jean ends up agreeing and in annoying fit of jealously kurt ports to the roof to do .. some sort of stunt to impress kitty and end sup having to come back in due to wind resitance, teleproting on her by accident and pissing her off. It’s not a terrible scene, as it shows some vunerablity in kurt and furhters the jean scott love triangle but in revisiting it it just feels a tad awkardly put in there, especially since so far kitty having a crush on scott goes nowhere and love triangle wise it’s more Jean, Scott and Rogue.. more on that next time. Wolverine mutters about kids in annoyance.. so for the first and probably last time in my existance I feel the exact same as wolverine for one shining moment.

Mysitque arrives and is angry at her wife for letting their daughter get away, Irene reitrates the dance thing.. you get it. Luckily having a precog for a wife is handy for more than timing your orgasms to happen at the same time, and Irene knows she’s going to Cody’s hosue which she thinks is her own and that’s where we see her next. Now while this episodes quality is mixed... I do like this element of Rogue torn between two identites not sure which is her.. it’s thorughly intresting and hasn’t been used enough in adaptations, though the 90′s series did do a good job with it’s own take of having Carol and Rogue fight for Rogue’s body.

At any rate wolverine attacks.. wow jesus wolvie I know you don’t like kids but this is a bit far.... at least go back home and take it out on duncan if you need to murder a teenager sheesh. Of course it’s actually mysitque whose trying to make her afraid of the x-men, shifting into storm next. It’s not a terrible tactic.. it has specific faults i’m saving for the end, but in the short term using the x-men in costume to scare her, then having Irene show up and tell her their mutant hunters.. it’s not bad. It also nicely back fries when the x-men arrive, charles unable to pointpoint her due to her brain being scramble, and end up going down the alleyway with Wolvie in tow causing her to book it.

Kurt, whose really on the ball outside of the plane stunt this episode, comes up with a better plan than “Chase the frightened teenager around missiipi and hope it works” and realizes since she’s clearlys cared of logan, even if they don’t know why he can try talking to her while in inducer form. Logan relucntantly agrees but tells kurt to keep an the rookie, i.e. kitty which pisses her off. Remember this for a second from now.

So Kurt.. actually succeeds in calming her down, pointing out he like her was once freaked out, that being diffrent is okay etc, usual line but it works.. then ... yeah that second from now is now now as Kitty decides “she dosen’t look so tough” AND TACKLES ROGUE. Who they know has the power to absorb things by touch even if she’s mostly covered, and who was about to turn to their side. Just because Logan, it turns out CORRECTLY, insulted her. Just.. jesus this is bad writing.. Kitty isn’t this obnoxious or usless later on and while she could sometimes fuck up in the comics..it was less noticable since she was the ONLY teenager, and still once fried a demon with a jet engine. Here? She hasn’t done any of that so she just comes off as a dumbass brought on a mission too soon who causes her friend to not long after this get his powers absorbed by rogue.. though weirdly she dosen’t get his blue skin, which annoys me a bit but whatever. Animation budgets. Point is kitty lost their target and got kurt comaed. Kitty paniced realizes she can reach the professor telepathically, and we do get a great gag of her doing so too loud, while Logan grumbles about not going with them.. which is a godo point.. why didn’t he just.. you know take the costume off. even if she panicked if she learned who he was later, they would at least have her on the plane and could easily knock her out gently, especially logan since he recovers fast and would the instant his healing factor came back, and then deal with her panic and her fear of them they didn’t know about back home versus here. He didn't even have to come with her just hang towards the back in plainclothes. Instead his telling Kitty she sucks caused her to prove that assessment accurate. So Charles goes to help while Storm, Cyclops and Jean continue the search They find her and Jean shows her empathy again, and I have to admit the character really isn’t that bad in moments like this.. the only reason I ragged on her coming to kitty last time is she made the rookie mistake of telling Kitty about her telepathy, which, while better sooner than later, was done so clumsily it backfired. Here.. she genuinely and softly talks to Rogue, and offers her a communicator which looks like a neuralizer for some reason.. seriously why not just hide it in a compact or a watch or something Chuck? But that aside i��ts a nice moment.. that storm accidently ruins by showing up and terrifying her away. Yeah that’s PART of my problem with the episode right there is jwhile it changes up setting and what not it’s still just “The x-men find Rogue , get her calm, then she runs when one of the x-men mystique traumatized her with shows up”. It just gets old fast despite some clever switches here and there.

Thankfully we’re at the climax and since Mystique saw all that she shifts into Cyclops.. and up until now I haven’t mentioned this but it becomes a glaring issue here: Mystique’s dialouge when shapeshifted when coming up is basically variations of I’M GOING TO KILL YOU. Which not only is a bit dull, as she apparnelty knows the x-men and at least could make them sound like evil versions of the people we know but also REALLY dumb... again i’m saving this for the end of the episode because it all comes together with her endgame for Rogue, but even if you haven’t watched the show given what’s happened with Toad and Avalanche you can probably guess. But yeah while watching I WAS going to lambast her for not using Jean.. but she’s actually clever here, using Scott who Rogue hasn’t met to unerve her already, then shifting into Jean to take back the chance she offered. IT scares Rogue out who naturlaly books from Jean.

Rogue then touches storm.. and Cyclops promintently craps himself as he realizes “Oh shit an already scared and psonically scrambled teenager just got an omega mutant’s levels power but with none of the experince and 80 times the angst”. So yeah Rogue’s powers spin out of control in what’s a great sequence and she hit sa transformer but ends up running. Xavier decideds to call this one a wash, and can’t find her anymore anyway as Cody has faded and decide she has to come willingly. Kurt reawakens to Kitty’s delight. Yay that mildly annoying subplot is done. We end at the school and this is what i’ve been building towards folks: Myistque enrolls Rogue in the school, comersrates on magneto on a job well done and Rogue looks at her commincator. And now for the reason I was a bit patient on this: Mystique’s plan is really shortsighted and dumb. Now pretending to be the x-men, that works.. but her impersinations are so shallow, ESPECIALLY for an experinced shapeshifter that the minute Rogue gets to know any of the x-men, her entire facade will start to crumble. Or if she touches one of them and gets their memories.. which never happens even when she borrows one of their powers next time but hey. Instead of making the x-men seem like gaslighting manipulators she makes them seem like petty murderous villians.. when 5 minutes with Scott or jean or just watching either will cure that. And sure as we see next time she TRIES keeping her from talking to them for too long.. but as we also see school projects happen and she can’t control EVERYTHING without raising some red flags with her faculity. She’s principal, if a teacher’s supscious she’s abusing a student she brought in, they hopefully won’t hesitate to call someone to look into it and as a shapeshifter running a dodgy mutant milita made up of students you brought in that’s the last thing you fucking want. It’s really not even a remote surpise this only lasts three episodes before she turns, and makes me question why do this arc if it’s going to be so half assed? In the comics Myistque was not only a master planner, even getting her team jobs as goverment enforcers when she realized being anti-human terrorists in a very racist climate was just going to get them all killed, but she also CARED about Rogue and her using empathy and kidness on TOP of the manipulation would make Rogue trusting her so much make more sense than “Well it’s you or the attempted murderers”. It’s just really fucking sloppy and to it’s credit Wolverine and the X-Men ended up doing this sort of plotline 80 times better, with Rogue being a villian for a while AFTER the x-men had broken up, left her with nothing, and things had only gotten worse for mutants.. and I think bein ga double agent, it’s been a while, but her reasons for turning there feel natural in comparison to this. The x-men aren’t much smarter as they only connect the dots that maybe it’s a shapeshifter, a shapeshfiter I belive xavier, storm and wolverine alread know about and coul’dve told the students. Gah.

Final Thoughts: This episode isn’t very good and in reviewing it I really realized it when it took me 4 or so diffrent sessions to finish this thing. While it has good parts, like a lot of ROgue’s stuff, the danger room break in, it’s held back by stupid decisions, a stupid villian plot, and a waste of great POTETIAL stories for a half assed one from a writer who clearly can do better and a show that will soon enough. Glad to finally be done with this one.. I might not come back to evolution for a second, but when I do I promise it won’t take this long.

Next Time on X-Men: Evolution: Blob debuts, crushes on jean to an obssesive and quickly very stalkery degree and also nearly murders duncan with a locker... so he’s clealry a mixed bag. Meanwhile Scott and Rogue get paried up on assigment and Paul wears out his welcome Like this if you enjoyed it, I have other x-men evolution reviews in the x-men tag on my blog, as well as other animation goodness, and if ther’es an episode of another x-men show, including the gifted and legion as i have hulu, or marvel show in general you’d like me to cover just drop me a pm to comission it for a reasonable fee. ANd until next time, courage.

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violetganache42 · 5 years ago

Text

HOLY SHIT!

Today's issue was too close for comfort! I'm dead serious when I say this: all my expectations about what would happen were thrown right out the window! I mean, where do I even begin?!

[Spoilers under the cut]

Sonic having to face off against an infected Shadow and most of the citizens of Sunset City…

…at the risk of making his own infection getting much worse than it already is!

Shadow may not be as fast when he's a Zombot (faster an average Zombot though), but he had the strength to deal serious damage to Omega's body…

…complete with the other Zombots piling up to tear him apart! No joke: I gasped at the sight of Omega's body being critically destroyed!

And the pièce de résistance:

Sonic getting overwhelmed by the situation he is! And can I please say Jack Lawrence has been quickly becoming one of my favorite Sonic comic artists? Because he did a fantastic job emphasizing the fear on his face; hell, it's on par with how Diana Skelly drew Sonic when he first got infected! When the solicit for this issue came out, I was legit afraid this was where he was going to become a Zombot and it sure did a damn convincing job at that! Speaking of solicits, I am glad the solicit for #23 is staying true to its word because…

…a fully recovered Silver is accompanied by Tails to rescue him and what's left of Omega! Can you imagine the sheer happiness I experienced when I saw all the Zombots being lifted via psychokinesis? We are literally witnessing a zombie-like apocalypse and we already have a "sigh of relief" moment for the time being.

With that rollercoaster finished, we also got some interesting stuff that follows.

We finally get a full look at what the building for Restoration HQ—formerly Resistance HQ—looks like! I don't know if it matters to anyone, but it certainly matters to me! I mean, where on Mobius were they exactly located during Sonic Forces and the events following it? I also like how it has sustained some damage whereas its surroundings have suffered much more. It strongly suggests that this area is still recovering from the War against the Eggman Empire, and seeing that there's no Zombots in sight, there's no telling how much more damage they'll cause to this location if they do show up.

Some much needed moments between Sonic and Cream. I am a huge sucker for their older brother/younger sister dynamic and I'm glad this issue has provided with some. :)

Sonic breaking the unfortunate news to Rouge is worth noting. She is dead focused on dealing with the Zombots yet she can't help but turn her head after hearing the news. Yes, she is mad at Shadow for taking on the Zombots, but from that movement in the right panel alone, we can see she is also upset. She had witnessed her friend fall victim to the Metal Virus as she tells Amy their evacuation efforts were taking a turn for the worst; hell, this issue literally kicks off with her looking in disbelief as an infected Shadow pins Sonic against the truck by the throat.

Despite everything that happened in Sunset City and how she's annoyed with what unfolded in the previous issue, at the end of the day, Rouge still cares about Shadow. I mean, let's face it; yes, that idiot should've run when she told him to, but he's her idiot. (Before anyone says it, I have heard about why Shadow was portrayed that way in Issue 19 and I would rather not discuss it because the fandom has vented on it well enough, so it's pretty much like beating a dead horse. I will say that this recent ordeal reminded me of what Commander Firebrand said in a video of his… and also this to a further extent.)

First, we get the named locations of where the Chaotix and G-Merl, Cream, and her family reside in. Now, we get the names of new and unseen locations like Cascade City and Turtleshell Island? I do like the varying world-building elements they included.

And now, on to something I find the most interesting out of the entire issue. …Well, a few things, actually.

First off, Sonic near the end of Sunset City's crisis and during the aftermath.

Throughout most of the issue's second half, we are treated with two intriguing aspects about the current state of Sonic's dilemma. I won't post all the panels as there are plenty for the reader to see, but I did select some good examples, especially for the second point.

Starting with the second panel of page 12, there are a few small bits of the Metal Virus on Sonic's spines, but they have not spread at all, something I'm sure you noticed in the previous panels I posted. Tails has mention the Mach One speed is capable of combating the Robo-Flu (Thanks, Tangle. XD) and keeping it at bay, so I have a hunch that this must be a variation of it being stablized for now. Think about it: we've had Sonic running all the way from Echo Mine to Tails' workshop, which drove it into temporary remission, and the many instances of running to shave off as much of the Virus as possible. With "The Last Minute" coming up, who knows when it'll start spreading again.

All the running Sonic has done to avoid becoming a Zombot is finally starting to take a toll on him. Exhaustion has struck ever since Silver and Tails arrived to let him escape and get rid of a huge chunk of the nearly spread Metal Virus. Throughout his time at Restoration HQ, there are various instances that illustrate how tired he has become, especially on pages 17 and 18; there are a couple wrinkles next to his eyes, which are also slightly lidded. And here we thought he needed some major sleep during and after the events of Unleashed. Now this is just me, but if he's risking sleep-deprivation in order to help the uninfected and thwart Eggman, then he better at least have an iced latte because he really needs the caffeine.

Second of all, the entire last page devoted to Starline, specifically what he has planned for the Zombots.

Me: Oh, snap! The events of another Sonic game occurred in the IDW-verse!

Everyone:

…Okay, I won't lie. I am well aware of how the fandom is not the biggest fan of the Deadly Six, but I will say this. If they do end up appearing in the near future, then I hope Ian characterizes them well to where they're at least endearing. We have a whole history's worth of Sonic comics that proves it, especially in Big's case because I have seen comments of how he did a great job with his character and recall seeing one comment on how someone changed their overall opinion on Big. We also got Scourge, who went from being the bland, womanizing Evil Sonic to a popular and beloved bad boy among the fanbase all thanks to Ian. Long story short, what I'm hoping for throughout the Deadly Six's appearance in the IDW comics—and if they make more appearances—is to highlight what makes each Zeti unique and even give them some sort of depth to make them compelling. Just throwing that out there.

On that note, what makes this last page interesting for me is what Starline says.

It's clear he's starting a plan of his own to control the Zombots, but how exactly is going to do that? Is he planning on going to the Lost Hex to put his plan into motion? Since the Cacophonic Conch inhibits the Zeti's abilities, including their magnetokinesis, and was used by Eggman to enslave the Deadly Six, will he stumble upon it and use it in a different manner? If that's not the case, will he strike some sort of deal with them? How exactly will Eggman react to this when he finds out? What sort of impact will this manuever have on each other? …Will this have some sort of connection to the big surprise in the 25th issue? I honestly don't know, but we'll have to wait and see when "The Last Minute" and more stories gets published.

…AND ANOTHER THING! I honestly thought "The Last Minute" was going to be a three-part "Meanwhile" story that details what Sonic's friends have been up to during the events of Issues 17-20, but I'm glad that's far from the case because I don't know how they would've reacted if they learned and/or ended up encountering Sonic as a Zombot. I know for damn well I would've been an emotional wreck if that did end up happening.

#my post #comic panels #idw sonic #idw sonic spoilers #kyle don't look

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secretlystephaniebrown · 7 years ago

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I'm new to the Batman comics and was wondering if you could answer a question? I saw another blog talking about Batman adopting kids and how it helped him recover which I follow for the most part. But then they said he relapsed after Jason. What happened to Jason? I don't mind spoilers, it helps me get through the darker parts.

… oh gosh you poor soul.

Okay so um.

Well first of all let me start off with saying that if you can find it, you should track down the animated movie Under the Red Hood. It’s a very solid, if streamlined, adaptation of everything I’m about to tell you, and it probably will do a better job than I ever could.

Let’s continue this under the cut, because this got long, and I have pictures, some of which will be… unpleasant, as will be the topics discussed. Warnings for violence, death, and references to sexual assault below!

Now, since you’re new to comics, I’ll give you a quick rundown.

(Batman (1940-2011) #368)

Jason Todd was the second Robin, and he had the misfortune of being the first attempt to make the role a legacy.

He was a very controversial figure. Dick Grayson was widely beloved, and while Jason had his fans, he also was present in a time in comics when many people, both among the readers and the writers for DC, believed that kid sidekicks weren’t dark enough, and fans of Dick often found Jason to be unlikable and too edgy. Jason smoked, he was lower-class and drew attention to a lot of the less palatable parts of Gotham, his mother died of a drug overdose, and he became Robin by stealing the tires off the Batmobile.

(Batman (1940-2011) #408)

And infamously, towards the end of his run as Robin, he might have possibly killed a rapist who would have gotten off otherwise because of diplomatic immunity.

Batman (1940-2011) #424

… yeah. That was a thing.

A lot of Jason’s “bad Robin” stuff which he has become slightly infamous for was in fact retconned in after… everything else, but, as seen in this story above, Jason was a character who was pushing a lot of traditional boundaries in Batman comics, and the violence and temper were there from the beginning, but it was presented as something that Jason was relatively in control of, and that Bruce was helping him with.

(Batman (1940-2011) #411 - for context, Two Face killed Jason’s father)

But Jason had some bright spots; he joined the Teen Titans briefly, he was Robin present for For the Man Who Has Everything, one of the most famous comic stories during that time, and had a pretty decent relationship with Dick Grayson (which… they retconned later.)

(Batman (1940-2011) #416)

And then, in 1988, one bright DC executive decided to try a gimmick to drum up publicity for the upcoming storyline Batman: A Death in the Family. (Because those always work out well.) It was decided that in the upcoming story, they would have a phone poll, to see if Robin lived or died.

The vote was taken, and the people spoke. Jason was to die.

(I’ll note here that there’s a LOT of controversy about the vote; apparently there was a robo-calling scam, people were charged per-call so younger readers couldn’t vote, people weren’t sure if the question pertained to Dick or Jason, and some people voted just to see if DC would actually do that.)

So Jason undertook a rather fascinating story where he discovered that the woman who had raised him wasn’t his birth mother, and began to track down his birth mother. After a few false leads, including Lady Shiva, he eventually tracked down his birth mother, Sheila Haywood, who was a volunteer doctor in Ethiopia. Jason and her had a relatively cute reunion, before it was revealed that Sheila was involved with the Joker, who was blackmailing her.

Batman (1940-2011) #427

Jason, against Bruce’s advice, revealed his identity as Robin to Sheila and offered to help. She then lured him into a trap, where the Joker beat Jason to near-death with a crowbar.

(Batman (1940-2011) #427)

While she smoked a cigarette.

Batman (1940-2011) #427

The Joker double-crossed Sheila, because he’s the Joker, and left her and Jason both to die in the warehouse with a bomb. Despite his injuries, Jason tried to rescue Sheila and get them both to safety, but he wasn’t fast enough.

(For the record, anyone who blames Jason for his death here can fight me. He was trying to help his mother, and it bothers me a lot that most interpretations cut out this angle.)

(Batman (1940-2011) #427)

Sheila, possibly having some regrets, managed to tell Bruce that Jason had tried to save her before she died. Jason had no such opportunity to exchange last-words with Bruce.

(Batman (1940-2011) #427)

Bruce had arrived at the warehouse just in time to see it blow up, which shook him to his core, and for which he blamed himself.

I can’t emphasize enough how huge this was to comics at the time; the death of Robin was a major shakeup to the status quo, and for years Jason Todd was defined as one of the three perma-dead characters in comics. (The others being Bucky Barnes and Uncle Ben.)

The Joker then… went off and had a wacky sideplot about getting diplomatic immunity by becoming the ambassador for Iran, and then he tried to blow up the United Nations. It was… weird.

But back to Jason, his death severely shook up Bruce for years.

Batman: Gotham Knights (2000-2006) #45

His costume literally haunted Bruce in the Batcave in the form of the memorial case, and Jason’s death affected Bruce’s relationships with the next three members of the Bat Family; Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Cassandra Cain, while the Joker became cemented in his place as The Man Who Killed Robin.

Batman: Gotham Knights (2000-2006) #44

Batman (1940-2011) #629

Brucefrequently hallucinated Jason, and his fears of losing anotherRobin/Batgirl/protege (compounded by the fact that The Killing Joke happenedjust beforehand) lead to extremely over-protectiveness towards Tim, and shaped hisentire relationship with Stephanie Brown prior to her run as Batgirl. Butthat’s a post in and of itself.

Jason came back from the dead in Under the Red Hood. (The movie version of which kind of… simplified Jason’s death by cutting out the bit about his birth mom. But the details vis-à-vis the Joker and the crowbar remained the same.) In the comic, we don’t see how Jason got resurrected, but it was revealed in a later comic that, in a major event called Crisis on Infinite Earths, a character named Superboy Prime punched the walls of reality and resurrected Jason Todd.

Batman (1940-2011) Annual #25

Yes. Really.

Anyways, Jason then had to dig his way out of his own coffin in one of the most horrifying sequences ever.

Batman (1940-2011) Annual #25

Jason then wandered Gotham in a catatonic state, living on the streets and scavenging for food, until he and his still-retained fighting skills were recognized by someone, who called Talia al Ghul. Talia tried to help Jason recover on his own, before realizing that wasn’t going to work, so she shoved him in the Lazarus Pit (against her dad’s wishes), which solved the catatonia, and, depending on your interpretation, possibly made Jason violent and angry.

Most more recent adaptations/continuity reboots chose to place Jason’s resurrection solely as a Lazarus Pit endeavor, which I’m iffy on, simply because Jason digging out of his own grave was an image that really stuck with me when I first read the comics.

After escaping from Ra’s, Jason started to figure out his new place in the world. Jason discovered that the Joker was still alive, and that there was a new Robin.

Batman (1940-2011) Annual #25

Red Hood: The Lost Days (2010-2011) #4

This enraged Jason, who set about on a multi-year journey to learn the “skills that Batman never taught him”, before making his return in Under the Red Hood. (Which, I should note, occurred almost directly after the infamous War Games saga, where another Robin, Stephanie Brown, was killed. This isn’t actually addressed in the story itself, but on a meta narrative level, it’s interesting to note.)

Batman (1940-2011) #635

Jason became a Crime Lord known as only The Red Hood, which was the Joker’s original nome-de-guerre. He played a series of mindgames and plots, before finally revealing his identity to Bruce. His endgame eventually lead to him kidnapping the Joker, beating him with a crowbar, giving Bruce a gun, and telling Bruce that he’d either have to shoot the Joker, let Jason kill the Joker, or shoot Jason. Bruce found a way around that, because he’s Bruce, but Jason vanished afterwards, leaving Bruce dealing with the fact that his greatest failure, to save Jason, had literally come back to haunt him.

Jason went on to be a villain/anti-villain of various flavors, featuring in Battle for the Cowl, and the preboot’s Batman and Robin by Grant Morrison, before getting an image shift in the Nu52, primarily in Red Hood and the Outlaws, which shifted him into anti-hero territory.

But that’s another story entirely.

Hopefully this has answered your questions! Panel credits all go to @renaroo, who’s always the best to call up for screenshots.

#Jason Todd #Steph Reads Comics #Bat Family #Bruce Wayne #DC #Steph Replies #Steph Speaks #Anonymous #anon #asks #Steph vs The Bat Fam

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cosmosogler · 7 years ago

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hi guys. today i was very sick again. i got up on time and showered. i made myself a bagel for breakfast and before i could even eat a single bite i almost threw up and passed out.

suzanne and harrison covered my teaching sections today. i don’t know how to make it up to them. both of them said not to worry about it. i wish they would humor me at least though.

so i stayed home and... basically did nothing but draw and play with snoopy? i finished an entire scene. the first page took almost twice as long as normal (~7 hours on and off) because i had to design and draw about 10 new characters and fit them into the scene. some of them i had to draw more than once. only one of them (besides nastasia) will ever show up again. and that one will just be in a flashback.

it’s similar to the market scene i drew with timpani a while back, but this time i was trying really hard to give everyone personality and the outfits were all relatively complicated. and i had to do actual research into the game i had decided to make a nod at, and i also had to learn how to draw bats within the last three panels.

oh yeah and i had to refresh myself on two-point perspective and try to also freehand some stuff in that perspective because my knowledge on doing angled things is limited.

so like, visually, the page is not technically impressive. i didn’t do anything special with the backgrounds (although the design on the carpet might look familiar if you look close enough). but the amount of work that went into the scene is approximately A LOT.

it’s also a third draft, the two-part altogether. i went through two rounds of storyboards alone.

i’m still not sure how i feel about it. i hope i established nastasia as a kind of quiet observer type of person. by putting her in a group and letting everyone around her talk while she just looks on.

for you guys it’s only been a scene since we last saw blue but for me it’s been hours and hours and hours and days haha. just from the amount of new information i had to cram into my head and then somehow translate into hand motions.

nastasia has so many questions/demands for blue that i’m having trouble figuring out what she asks about first and how to weave in what’s going on with blue in his own head and make sure we also know exactly how nastasia’s doing so we can get to know her really well before things get bad / complicated. i guess it’ll come out a little more naturally once i have it down on a page and i can do nonverbal cues along with the dialogue and stage directions i got in my notes. but GOD!!!!!

i also found a song i really liked when i was clicking around on youtube today looking for new music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_ZRWZv14SA i put it in the comic playlist. and had a digression where i looked up an interview with the singer of the band. i liked what he had to say about feeling conflicted and how he put that into the band’s whole album!

i think what i’m gonna do for the upcoming conversation / traveling scenes is tell it mostly from nastasia’s point of view because blue is on turbo autopilot and doesn’t have a lot of internal monologue going until he cracks periodically.

anyway oh! i forgot, because i wasn’t sure how to process the conversation. but i invited taylor to read my comic after talking to him about manga he liked. i mentioned it was based on a mario game and it was about a guy looking for his wife. taylor made a joke about the princess being in another castle and i wasn’t sure how to react. then he said he wanted to read the whole thing when it was done. i said that might be a few years. i said harrison reads it and thought he would like it, and if he’s ever interested i could show him. he said ok.

i guess i was hoping for a yes / no, and not quibbling around the commitment, and the most obvious jokes. to be fair he’s got no context for what the comic is about other than the premise. i think he figured it was the “stupid pun” kind of story i tell rather than the “horribly depressing” kind. twist ending: it’s actually both.

that’s what was on my mind today. it’s a bit of a relief to have told someone else i draw a comic and be rejected. i had a panic attack when i tried to send the message and deleted it and retyped it several times for about 10 minutes before i finally hit send. i guess it was frustrating to know that he wasn’t gonna read it but he still refused to say “no thanks.” just pick one, dude!!!!!

it was. good. to take a break from physics for a day. i feel like i was doing an arm-day workout for fifty years straight and i finally took a break to do a leg-day. my nose also finally cleared up a little bit in the last hour or so. i had to skip therapy too though, since i stayed home. i made sure to keep the window open since it was just, really nice outside, and i missed going for a long bike ride in that nice weather again. gotta stop being sick!

anyway that’s where i’m at. something good today is that i felt like i was kinda in an art block sort of mood but i just worked meticulously through it and i think i like how the pages came out anyway. they’ll post tomorrow. and i found a new song. so it was... a good productive day non-physics-wise. tomorrow i’d like to get a head start on my grading if i can, in between classes. if i’m well enough to go to class.

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nipponnomad · 7 years ago

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TRANSLATION TAKE 2: One-sensei’s interview with Young Sunday (excerpts in detail)

Thanks to the lovely and talented @isasm, we’ve been blessed with a Japanese transcript recording excerpts from One’s interview with Young Sunday. Even though I already summarized the interview, I thought you all might be interested in reading some passages in greater detail (plus whoever put the excerpts together focused on different parts than I did, so it’s like looking at the interview from another angle). I hope you all enjoy it. Especially everyone over at @one-blog!

(P.S. I’m so exhausted I did this all at work today I’m gonna get fired someone help me aaaaahhh :P)

EDIT: Here’s a link to the summary, which I’ve tweaked to fix a couple mistakes I made before I had access to the transcript. :)

Submitting to Weekly Shonen Jump, the magazine everyone longs to be part of

YAMADA: Hey, you know the student council president from Mob Psycho 100? That page is really intense, where the whole page is that scene with the monologue about the pressure he gets from his parents? And it was like, suddenly it's gone all Yoshiharu Tsuge (TN: A famous Japanese cartoonist and essayist).

OKKUN: Tsuge and Kazuo Umezu (TN: Horror manga author).

YAMADA: That guy's style is totally Garo (TN: Avant-garde manga anthology magazine).

OKKUN: For real! It's so Goya (TN: The painter I guess? Or the Spanish film awards? I'm not sure; the literal translation is "So it's Goya," which is so vague I give up aaaah).

YAMADA: (while pointing at Okkun) We better watch it! We'll get drawn into the darkness of artistic criticism. We've gotta handle this like they do on Sawako no Asa (TN: A Japanese talk show).

OKKUN: (to ONE) So you were painstakingly drawing in secret, you created a homepage, did you ever submit your work?

ONE: I submitted something in my first year of college, it was a 19-page gag manga I drew and took over to Weekly Shonen Jump, which of course is the venue everyone aspires to.

YAMADA: So you did submit something!

ONE: It was just the one time.

YAMADA: So how did it go?

ONE: The thing I submitted was really dull. Even as I drew it I was like, "The moment I show this to the editor, I'll be laughed at." Anyway, the guy I showed it to went through it at a crazy speed, totally passing over the parts that were meant to be funny.

YAMADA: Yes, exactly! That's how it goes even now!

ONE: The editor went through 5 or 6 jokes I'd put in, and I immediately broke out in a cold sweat. I was like, "I'm a complete joke, I wanna go home." After that experience, I'd made an elaborate homepage with a blog I updated incessantly, and my updates only accelerated.

YAMADA: Ah, I see.

ONE: That felt a lot safer than submitting anything again.

Posting Manga on Garake

(TN: This seems to be a type of SoftBank cell phone)

YAMADA: So after that disappointment you returned to what was safe, intending to redouble your efforts. I see. Like you decided, "Let's forget about submitting, make my own homepage, and post manga for everyone to read for free"?

ONE: Basically, yes. I had already made the homepage by the time I submitted, and all these other aspiring mangaka I had met through the homepage were winning awards.

YAMADA: So it was like, "That guy too?"

ONE: I was thinking, "Him too?" At that point I was working under the pen name "ONE," and one of the acquaintances who had won an award was like, "Maybe ONE-san will be next?" That was pretty much why I made the mistake of submitting.

YAMADA: So that's how it was. Like, "What have I done?"

OKKUN: So what did you do then?

ONE: Before I tried submitting, I had bought myself a cell phone (TN: Garake) with a camera on it, and I would take tiny little pictures of the manga I was drawing, getting really up close so the pictures wouldn't come out shaky, and upload them to my homepage. Because there was this cell phone service that let anyone create a homepage.

YAMADA: You're part of that generation.

ONE: That was how I released my super ugly manga on my homepage. At that time, you couldn't view an entire page at a time on your cell phone. When you opened a manga, you couldn't see more than two panels or one word bubble at a time.

YAMADA: So hard to read!

ONE: To get through one scene, you'd have to read through about 15 pages that way. At that time, acquaintances of mine started drawing pasokon manga.

The first serialization of One Punch Man on the web

ONE: I didn't know anything about the culture at the time, but I started drawing pasokon manga and uploading it to a website. As I learned more about creating a series, I looked through that site. It was called Niitosha. (TN: "NEET Society," though the characters used for "NEET" spell out "new capital.")

YAMADA: That's an awesome name! Niitosha is an amazing name!

ONE: The name was meant to be something like a place where NEETs gather, though the actual users were mostly students and members of society. When I saw the site, I thought it was really awesome. All the users were beginners or semipros publishing their own works. People had been publishing there for however many years, and there were more than 5000 registered works.

When I looked at the work my friend was publishing on there, I saw a column called "Send Impressions" or something like that. When you clicked it, you could see the feedback other Niitosha authors had left all lined up. And you could also give your own impressions of the work. This site had been made as a place where beginners could receive feedback.

"I've stumbled across a really good place," I thought. "I wanna draw pasokon manga!" I was bubbling over with motivation. So I got myself a notebook computer and a drawing tablet and started drawing in a program called Comic Studio. The manga I drew became One Punch Man.

YAMADA: What!? For real!?

ONE: Yes.

OKKUN: Your very first work was One Punch Man.

YAMADA: Isn't that just the Japanese dream! Amazing! That's the dream we have in this country! At that time, did you ever think it would be broadcast as an anime?

ONE: I never would have believed it.

YAMADA: That manga could have been a Marvel movie! It could come right after Ant Man! "Iron Man," "Ant Man," "Whatever-Else-Man," and then comes "Anpanman" and then "One Punch Man!"

OKKUN: You put Yanase-san in there too. (Laughs) (TN: Takeshi Yanase, creator of Anpanman.) "One Punch Man" follows the Marvel pattern, right?

YAMADA: They'd definitely have to accept One Punch Man over there! (TN: Overseas). On the other hand, Anpanman would totally have the wrong feel. People over there would be like, "I wanna eat him," it'd be like, "No, you can't do that!"

We've got a self-sacrificial type of spirit in Asia, that's why Anpanman is popular. (TN: Anpanman heals others by giving them pieces of his head to eat.) But outside of Asia they'd be like, "Eh? You guys are eating yourselves!?" And it would never become popular.

Surpassing ONE PIECE abroad

(TN: This was my biggest mistake in my first translation because I missed that they were talking about One Punch Man's popularity outside of Japan. One Punch Man does indeed surpass One Piece in sales in the U.S., though not in Japan.)

OKKUN: Looking at viewer comments, it looks like One Punch Man outsells One Piece abroad. I don't know if that's true, but that's what the comment says.

YAMADA: Believe it, everyone!

ONE: I think One Punch Man is number one depending on the day or week, but I don't know all the details.

YAMADA: See! What did I tell you!

OKKUN: What? What did you know that I didn't?

YAMADA: We're sitting next to the guy who's taken over all of America! That time has finally come! (Laughs)

OKKUN: (Looking at viewer comments) It outsells the Bible!?

YAMADA: Whooooa! Wait a second, wait a second! Is that a Beatles reference?

OKKUN: That was Jesus!

YAMADA: Saying, "We're more famous than Jesus"?

OKKUN: Because there's a Paul in Christianity!

YAMADA: All right, that's enough! We're getting way off track!

ONE: Murata-sensei is so amazingly talented.

YAMADA: But it's really incredible. I think of Kinnikuman, and that's drawn like kids' doodles, two people were just casually chatting and they created this character all by themselves.

OKKUN: Are you evangelizing about Yudetamago? (TN: The duo responsible for Kinnikuman)

YAMADA: I'm not talking about Murata-sensei, but rather I'm segueing into talking about ONE-kun's characters. They've (TN: The characters in Kinnikuman) got such a total One Punch Man feel.

ONE: I guess they do.

The hero who solves everything with one punch

YAMADA: What kind of feeling were you going for with that character? (TN: Saitama)

ONE: There's no point trying to cover it up, I liked all the normal manga aimed at elementary schoolers and I read a lot. But by contrast, I thought it would be funny if the character started with the sort of strength you usually see in the final chapter, and I noticed that after drawing the first chapter.

In that first chapter, I wrote "One Punch Man" because he's a guy who takes out enemies in one punch and goes, "Damn it, I did it in one punch again!" That's all I'd come up with.

OKKUN: So it's like you cut out all the boring stuff.

ONE: Yeah, exactly. From there, it started spreading, and it spread far more than I'd predicted.

YAMADA: Was that difficult?

ONE: No, not at all. On the contrary, I suppose you could say it felt easy.

YAMADA: Most people wouldn't think of starting from the end like that, would they? In that sense, the fact that it feels like the character immediately comes out like "HYAAAH!" and makes you go "Whoa, whoa," is probably why it spread like that. Did all that come out naturally?

ONE: Yeah.

OKKUN: There you have it, he's a genius. We've got a genius here. (Laughs)

ONE: There were various difficulties and dilemmas, but at times when things got tricky, it was like the hero trying to use knowledge and personal experience to push his way through...

Reiji-sensei (TN: Yamada Reiji, the host and a fellow mangaka), you've met and spoken with a lot of different people and absorbed a lot of things in a lot of different situations, so I think you can write all different types of characters. I don't think I can do that. So I just solve everything with one punch. (Laughs)

Of course there are also times when things can't be solved through punching. Within the world of One Punch Man, Saitama can adapt his strength in a flexible way. If he has a problem, it's with regular people or with running out of money.

OKKUN: Or hitting up a special sale at the super market.

YAMADA: That's the issue this week. (TN: The literal translation is "That's this week's guy," I'm not sure what he's referring to)

OKKUN: That kind of everyday stuff. Plus he's just become too strong.

ONE: That's true. As the author, I started by creating a character who's really tough and reliable, Saitama's always there no matter what other troublesome character shows up.

OKKUN: I see. That's what makes it so fun to look at.

YAMADA: A real Mito Komon type of guy. (TN: The hero of an old Japanese period drama)

OKKUN: There will always be justice in the end.

The surprising popularity of One Punch Man

YAMADA: Mob Psycho is the same way. He stays quiet, until whatever percentage comes out, and after it comes out it's kind of refreshing. He's the kind of guy that shows up in a manga like "The shocking answer will be revealed just seconds from now!"

OKKUN: Isn't Mob Psycho drawn as the flip side [to One Punch Man]?

YAMADA: We're moving on to Mob Psycho now.

OKKUN: This program's been all about One Punch Man, it seems like.

YAMADA: I actually think we've showed off One Punch Man considerably well. He's a true human being, that guy. That's become all too rare, I think. Thank you very much. Have I got it all correct?

OKKUN: So you were getting responses from others, but when you posted on Niitosha, did One Punch Man become popular immediately?

ONE: It was pretty quick. I was shocked. I drew and uploaded the first chapter thinking I'd be happy if I got one or two comments like other manga, but then I was sitting their watching the comment column after each update and the number was increasing more and more. There were people who said they were looking forward to the second chapter, so I worked hard and released the second chapter, and within three or four chapters, it seemed like the people on Niitosha decided I was an author who was going to update properly, so I got even more views.

There are a lot of web manga that just stop right in the middle, or chapter one gets posted and the next chapter gets posted 3 years later. (TN: Ain't that the truth!)

YAMADA: That's why we update every week. Every week on Wednesday, everyone can rest assured that the next update is coming.

OKKUN: Saitama's a hero for fun, isn't he? Then he enters the association and gradually rises through the ranks, like he's just flowing right through them. Like he's just going at his own pace. Then he gets this disciple, right? A cyborg.

YAMADA: I need to butt in here, this show has been crammed full, it's time to snag your favorite food and prepare for the second half.

OKKUN: For real!?

YAMADA: It's already been 40 minutes.

OKKUN: You're right. Crap.

One's three themes

YAMADA: When I look at Mob Psycho, and One Punch Man is the same way, I feel like it conveys three themes.

YAMADA: Basically, the three themes ONE has embraced are: "What is power?" "What do we do with power?" And moreover, "What is our true power?" How do people who have power live their lives in relation to that?

So in the end this leads to a theory of life or a theory of happiness, really the mechanism underlying everything, I think that's amazing.

Basically that thing with wanting more power never changes, and it leads to the same problem at the start of both works that you see in common with works by other authors. The character's default is overwhelming power. It's the same in both works.

Looking at it objectively, the people who always win are naturally going to be viewed as protagonists. This is what we always want to show. But first, I want to show some great pictures you've done. Your pictures are the best. This is the scene where the protagonist shows up in chapter 2. This picture, at the very beginning.

YAMADA: Was this the picture you started with on the homepage? What kind of picture did you start with?

ONE: It hasn't really changed. (TN: Between the online and the print versions) But this is much better, because the homepage I used in college was so bad.

YAMADA: When you were taking pictures with your phone?

ONE: Right. I was just drawing these tiny pictures because I was restricted by the camera. You can't just draw tiny pictures, right? So I was drawing pictures and making what looked like reduced versions of them.

OKKUN: Everyone, this viewer comment says: "ONE has gotten so skillful."

YAMADA: He has. He's become so good since the beginning, but these pictures at the beginning are really interesting. This is a picture from the beginning. Reigen is showing up like "BAM," this is chapter 1.

YAMADA: I think this is so awesome.

YAMADA: And this, it looks like Ebisu Yoshikazu. (TN: A Japanese actor—our Tome-chan is way prettier than him, btw!)

(Laughter in the studio)

No assistants or anything

YAMADA: It's like this awesome magazine from the 80's, Garo. Was that an influence at all?

ONE: I actually haven't read it.

YAMADA: Where did a picture like this come from? You just did it and it turned out like this?

ONE: I probably didn't use a reference.

YAMADA: It definitely feels like you didn't copy anyone else's work.

OKKUN: Do you have any experience with assistants?

ONE: None. (TN: I know he has assistants now, though...maybe they’re just talking about when Mob Psycho first started up?)

OKKUN: Ah, that explains it!

YAMADA: If you'd had assistants a lot of things would have been fixed up. (TN: His verb form here implies that would be a bad thing, like ONE's art would lose its originality)

OKKUN: No assistants, and I've been told no editor either.

YAMADA: Like these lines that draw focus to Reigen here, the points hit right here and it just pops like "BAM."

YAMADA: Normally it has that effect. This was done without white out?

ONE: It's a sticker.

YAMADA: Oh, so it’s just put over top! (Laughs)

ONE: Yeah, it's just a sticker from Comic Studio.

YAMADA: So you can do this because you're using Comic Studio, this is awesome.

The Sid Vicious of the manga world

YAMADA: As I think you can see from this program, I take an oblique view of what's skillful in terms of artwork. A picture can be unskilled but still interesting, some pictures have more expressive power and I respect that. That's one way of saying it. Higashimura Akiko's like that too. (TN: The mangaka who did Princess Jellyfish, among other things)

It's a doctrine of expressiveness. A doctrine of anything being good as long as it conveys. I like people saying, "I want to convey this, so let's do it this way." It's so punk. It's avant-garde.

This is especially interesting, Reigen's hand when he's talking on the phone. This is the best.

YAMADA: Everyone has trouble drawing a hand holding a telephone.

(Laughter in the studio)

YAMADA: It's hard to draw. But I don't think you should start with trying to do it properly. All things considered, anything goes. This is punk. This is early hip hop.

YAMADA: Looking at a guy who goes with his gut, I feel like, "This is super unskilled but super interesting, maybe I can do this too." It's like Mashi's guitar playing in The Blue Hearts. (TN: A Japanese punk band) It's Sid Vicious. It's destruction and creation at the same time.

OKKUN: (to Yamada) There's only one person in your class, and he's the one who drew it.

YAMADA: Moreover, the contents seems like it gives rise to some delusion that, "Anyone could draw that!" But in your case, you draw totally differently from anyone else, you give us real human beings.

YAMADA: All fluffy or intense like "BOOM" (Imitates a Dragonball Kamehameha pose) That's how everyone draws. Speaking of which, what is "BOOM"? Nobody ever seems to think "It just went BOOM, but what's actually BOOMing?" There's just this BANG when someone's like, "At last I've achieved power, the world belongs to me!"

Because you're giving us real human beings, we feel like, "No, it really is like that," or "I can totally understand that, but let's not act like that around people."

When it comes to true human beings, those who have power are the ones who must carry it, and there's a sense of security in that. It times of political instability or whatever, those with political power are the ones who have to worry about it. Everything rides on those with power deciding they want to join forces. Which is really interesting. This is the most important part of these drawings.

#one #one sensei #opm #mp100 #one punch man #mob psycho 100 #translation

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ask-bts-stuff · 8 years ago

Note

I like how your drawings of the boys have different things that make them unique. like kook's eyes and jimin's wing thingys. can you tell us all the detail for the boys :0

LETS TALK ABOUT CHARA DESIGN HECK YES

I guess Jungkook’s design is pretty easy to get ahah. Irl he has really big eyes and bunny teeth so it wasn’t difficult for me to come up with! Then for the sparkles: I really wanted to accentuate this “innocent” or “clueless” vibe. His eyes are expressive, you can really see his passion in his eyes when he sings! Not saying that the others aren’t passionate, it’s just that his eyes are so expressive like he doesn’t even need to speak, you can directly see what’s going on (in my opinion ofc). So I just thought that sparkles would be a great representation of that! Also Jungkook isn’t 100% innocent, he loooves to tease his big bros. I know that I didn’t really have the chance to show this side of Jungkook, but since he’s such a tease, the gap between this and his BIG SPARKLY EYES is funny :^DD. At first he only had two “white bubbles” in his eyes, but then I said fuck it and added an entire galaxy. ALSO THE NOSE YES, I removed the nose. I want people to concentrate on his eyes, so I thought that the nose took too much place and was kinda useless? for his design. Actually a lot of people don’t even notice that he doesn’t have a nose ahah. And I think he looks so funny with his mouth on the nose area.

Tae’s design was also easy for me to come up with! He has amaaaaazing eyes, big and elongate, and ofc THE LASHES DAMN. Also he is really playful and that’s what I wanted to accentuate. So I mixed these ideas and bam I created his eyes. I really like it because it looks like he has something in mind like “ha ha ha :^DDD how am i gonna tease ma bros”. ALSO his iris aren’t round, it’s like two straight lines. I think it goes well with the playful side and the “blank tae” side lol. I also draw his amazing brows and his squared smile, he’s so cute ;;;

JIMIN. There’s two Jimin: normal sized and smol. For the normal sized Jimin I just try to replicate his natural eye shape, he kinda has puppy eyes! So nothing big. Of course the lil wings because he’s really sweet and just an angel in general. NOW THE MOST INTERRESTING PART: smol Jimin. Because some people always tell me “WHY DO U DRAW JIMIN SMOL, HES NOT THAT SMOL PLUS YOONGI IS ALSO SMOL, 0/100″, listen I’ll explain. The thing with Jimin is that he’s really cute but at the same time he really wants to give this “manly” vibe if you know what I mean. You know the “IM DA MAN IN DIS HOUSE”. So I just thought “ok, there’s cute Jimin, and manly Jimin but still cute, ok let’s create two Jimin”. Smol Jimin always wants to fite everyone and he’s fierce (like in my “not today what really happened”). That’s why I draw smol Jimin: because it’s funny af. Jimin likes to appear manly, but the fact that he is 30 cm in my comics makes everything pretty funny. This is the reason why I don’t often draw smol Yoongi, because he doesn’t give a fuck.

Namnam ayyy!!! I recently changed his design so it’s a great occasion to talk about it! This man is S O F T, 100 % soft. He’s just cute ok, like look at his smile, I’m sure he’s sad when he walks on flowers. So I wanted him so have big iris (kinda) and also squared ish eyes. Because with this I can do two different things: softysoft Namnam and istg i’m done with everyone Namnam (like in the last panel of the BS&T jpn ver comic), very easy to make :^DD And I added a white bubble inside because cute ok. He’s cute fite me. And finaly the flower on his head. He loves nature so so much so I just thought “why not adding a flower”. And ofc I never forget the dimples.

Hoseok’s turn :^DDD!! I just wanted him to be a sun ok, so that’s why I did. He has sunlight all around him, he’s like a walking sun. His eyes always look like he’s smiling even when he’s not. I also add a slight aegyo sal. THE NOOSE. So Hoseok is the only one with a different nose (i mean Jungkook doesn’t have one so it doesnt count). It’s simply because I personally think that he has an interresting nose shape and I just wanted to draw that! His mouth is basically a heart when he’s smiling and sometimes I add the dimples (i love dimples).

I talked about Gigi’s design here!

FINALLY SEOKJIN. I just l o v e his design. I love to draw him so much. Irl his eyes are really big and he kinda has cat eyes so I just drew that. His eyes are pretty round but yeah not like Jungkook. I like this eye shape because it makes him look sometimes playful and sometimes sassy depending on what I want to draw! Also he has two lashes because he’s pretty. And, the, sparkles. He’s just pretty so he needs his sparkles around him that’s all :^DDD

DONE holy shit it was long to write, I can talk about this forever I’m not even joking

#i just really love to create chara design ok #Anonymous #ask sarah

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raystart · 7 years ago

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Roz Chast: From Free Fall to Full-Time Cartoonist

Roz Chast is one of the lions of old school New York. She grew up in Brooklyn and began publishing cartoons for The New Yorker in the late ‘70s. Years and thousands of cartoons later, her loose line work, handwritten quips, and the frenetic, sometimes anxious, energy of her drawn world have become emblematic of the magazine’s cartoons, and the entire experience of New York.

Lately, she’s joined the legions of creatives who work remotely. She sends her The New Yorker pitches in as PDFs from her home in Connecticut. In the initial transition of moving out of the city, Chast worried that her family would become mall, lawn, and Republican politics obsessed. Instead, she happily reports that she still hates driving and that one of her children is a Socialist.

Days in Connecticut involve errands, drawing cartoons, and playing with her two parrots—who serenade her from the kitchen countertop with demands for waffles, toast, and apples. With her latest book, Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York, Chast has joined a fellowship of writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, E.B. White and Walt Whitman who capture the experience of arriving in New York City.

Chast sat down with 99U to talk about navigating a successful career as a working artist, her thoughts on the best ways to experience New York, and how to spot—and write about—the delightful in every hydrant and pigeon.

What’s a ritual you have when you’re in New York?

I love to walk. There’s something about walking around in New York. It’s inspiring for my work and as a person. I get distracted by what I see and get so many impressions. So walking is almost effortless; it doesn’t take any physical effort at all. Whereas, if I’m on a hike—not that I take many hikes—I’m very aware of walking in this boring way. I think, “Oh roots. Oh snakes. Oh bears. I hope I don’t get lost.” I don’t feel that way in the city. I’m a sedentary person, so it’s a surprise and delight how much pleasure it is to walk around New York.

The above and following images are from Chast’s new book, Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York.

You’ve successfully navigated making a living as a working artist. Were there times when you weren’t sure if it would all work out?

Yes. I was twenty-three and I had my own apartment on the Upper West Side, on 73rd Street. I had gone to art school at RISD and I did not have much positive feedback for my cartoons there at all. Even I thought, “I don’t know where these are going fit in. Because they don’t look like anyone else’s cartoons.” I really did feel like my life was probably going to be a disaster. I thought, “I know this little rowboat is going over the falls. I just know it.” And the only thing I could do was draw cartoons.

Then you started to sell cartoons to the New Yorker and this career seemed possible.

I started selling my cartoons and it was around then that I started to get this idea that maybe I would be able to do what I wanted to do for a living. It was the first time that I felt like maybe things were not going to be a complete disaster. A lot of it had to do with Manhattan and living in that apartment, and making friends with other people like me who had put all their little pathetic eggs into one little pathetic basket.

When you’re pitching cartoons how do you prep your submissions?

I sit at my desk and I sift through the ideas I’ve written down. I wish I had a notebook, but I’m too disorganized. So, I have these scraps of paper that I write stuff down on and put in my back pocket. I have a box to keep all these scraps of paper in and I pull them out, and I look at them, and I see if anything inspires me.

How does pitching the New Yorker editors work?

I’ve had three cartoon editors. I had Lee Lorenz for many years, and then Bob Mankoff, and now we have Emma Allen. There are about forty cartoonists on staff at The New Yorker. We each submit a group of cartoons, which from the beginning has always been ‘the batch’. This can range from five or six to ten or twelve. In the early days people would come and bring them in person. Then they have an art meeting. And then they tell you a few days later.

You’ve been publishing in The New Yorker since 1978. Does that mean you usually get a ‘yes’?

The odds are stacked against you. Let’s say there are forty people under contract. Each person submits ten cartoons: that’s four hundred. And then about another four hundred come in from non-staff people. So you have eight hundred cartoons. The New Yorker buys twenty a week. So, the rejection rate is at least 90%. I do as well as anybody, but most of what I do is rejected.

How do you feel when your pitches aren’t accepted?

It’s kind of horrible. You don’t get used to the rejection. If I don’t sell one week, I’m sad and unsettled, but also philosophical: “I can’t sell every week, life goes on, etc.” At two weeks, I’m more unsettled, somewhat less philosophical. After that, it’s a slide to “They know how terrible I am, they’ve realized their mistake, I suck.” I seriously don’t recommend this to anyone unless they can’t do anything else.

Do you see things everywhere that inspire you for cartoons?

That’s one of the reasons I love the city so much. Not just for the sights. It’s the density of it. I was in the city yesterday and I was with an old friend, hanging out at Bethesda Fountain. The weather was perfect and we’d gotten these ice coffees. And there were these funny things happening all around. Somebody was taking photos of this couple and we didn’t know if they were photographing an advertisement or engagement photos. She was wearing a sheath sort of dress and these four-inch spike heels and he was very well groomed and in a suit. But the funny detail was that he was carrying a Barney’s bag in this sort of obvious way. I just kept looking at that Barney’s bag saying, Do they think this is a glamorous New York photo? They’re at Bethesda Fountain with a Barney’s bag. And I just watched them and there were some people singing opera in the background and it was just so heartbreakingly beautiful and funny too. The Barney’s bag just added that little funny thing.

How does an idea like that become a cartoon?

Mostly, I start with the words. I always do sketches before the final cartoon. My “roughs” often have patches and white-out on them. Once in a while, I get an idea, draw it, and it’s done. Mostly, I have an idea and I have to play around with it until I get it—the drawing, the rhythm of the joke—as right as I can get it.

What’s the first cartoon you drew?

Golly, I drew cartoons when I was little little little, like four or five years old. I remember being a little kid and drawing a weird comic strip about two characters. I can’t remember if they were birds or cats. It had panels and everything. They were making cookies and the punch line was one of them dumped the whole thing of chocolate chips into the batter. At five or six, that seemed so funny to me.

I know you as a cartoonist, so I was surprised to turn a page of Going Into Town and see photographs you took. How do you pick which medium is right for an idea?

I like the variety. For instance, the stand pipes section—they’re so bananas. If I had drawn the one with a million arms, people might think I had exaggerated it and stuck in an extra four. So, there are certain things that I feel like “Look! It’s a photograph; I didn’t make it up!”

It is incredible how much character you brought to street stand pipes.

Once you notice them, you’ll never stop. They’re a little bit anthropomorphic. There’s one cartoon where one is looking away and says, “Shut up, I’m not talking to you.” And the other one is saying “What did I do?” And I can hear her voice. There’s a real Brooklyn kind of twang to it. It’s an old couple. Maybe they just came home from some party, and he made some joke and she’s offended. They just had a fight and she’s pissed at him. And she’s turned away.

How do projects find you? Or do you find them?

All different ways. The main thing for me is my weekly batch of cartoons for The New Yorker. Everything else revolves around that. Some weeks, I might be working on a cover. The other projects usually contact me—sometimes through my website, or a literary agent. Sometimes it’s through friends. There certainly are fewer outlets for cartoons as far as magazines go. Also, cartoonists get paid less for cartoons that appear online, if they get paid at all. But even when I started, in pre-Internet days, it wasn’t possible to make a living solely by selling cartoons to The New Yorker. One had to supplement with other jobs: illustration, selling cartoons elsewhere, doing book projects, etc. I know a lot of people who teach. Bruce Eric Kaplan writes scripts for TV and is a producer on various shows. Zach Kanin writes for SNL. I give talks and do books.

You’ve also collaborate with writers like Steven Martin and Calvin Trillin. What’s that process like?

Collaborating is a lot of fun. I like the sense of humor of the people that I’ve collaborated with, so we can make each other laugh. With Steve, after he wrote the alphabet poems, but before I did the drawings, we went through the alphabet trying to think of good, funny words for the drawings. I often collaborate with writer Patricia Marx. With Patty, there’s more of a back and forth because we see each other frequently and we enjoy collaborating. For process: Patty, Steve, and Calvin Trillin’s manuscripts were done, and were then given to me to illustrate. I have the final say on artwork, but if something’s not working, we talk about it.

Looking back to the 23-year-old who thought her boat was going over the falls, are you surprised by how things worked out?

I’m still happy and amazed that I get to do what I love for a living. Going Into Town is not just a love letter; it’s a thank you letter. I feel deep gratitude and surprise by the fact that I was able to be a cartoonist. New York allowed me to do what I wanted to do.

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