#this is based on a panel from book four so that is in fact:

[piningpercussionist]

I d ont want to work on this anymore you can't make me,, sorry LisIm nation-

[doctorofmagic]

Doctor Strange's disability: a (much needed) chronological review

In view of recent ableism and drama on the other social hellsite involving Doctor Strange's disability, here's my response, based on *CANON* material. (link to the thread on said hellsite here)

Stephen disability is established since 1963, back in Strange Tales #115. The story is focused on a flashback which portrays his journey from the decay of his medical career because of a car accident to his path towards the mystic arts.

Note that, in this very same issue, the Ancient One never says he would heal Stephen's *hands*, but perhaps Stephen would find the cure within. In other words, Stephen was supposed to heal his heart and soul from arrogance and egoism through magic, not a physical cure.

Also note that there are limitations within every aspect of comic books' universes. In this case, we're talking about magic. Magic is not a miracle thing. It demands training and, most recently as established by v4, a cost (Doctor Strange v4 #4).

Another clue that "magic can heal anything because it's fantasy" is not a valid argument within Marvel's magic world, as seen in The Oath. Stephen had access to the Otkid's Elixir, which could heal any disease, but the formula was lost in order to save Wong's life.

One last example comes from Spider-Man Family #5 (2007), featuring Morbius and Spidey. It establishes that healing demands the exact same price when it comes to magic.

Long story short, it's clear that the magic side of Marvel does not offer a solution to diseases through magical miracles. So this argument is totally invalid ~within~ this established universe.

Now back to Doctor Strange... No, he isn't using magic to heal his hands unlike some misleading accounts are claiming. In fact, there are several panels which show that he's actually in constant pain. Here's some examples:

- Doctor Strange - Sorcerer Supreme #48 (1992).

- Captain Marvel v10 #6 (2019)

- Doctor Strange v4 #1 (2015)

He also struggles to hold a pen and write, relying on magic to do so, as seen in the Book of the Vishanti.

Then comes the stupid argument I saw.

"Oh, but Google says his hands are healed!" is not a gotcha moment you think it is. We had FOUR MAIN BOOKS after that (Surgeon Supreme, DODS, Strange v3 and current v6). Allow me to clarify the details in chronological order.

Stephen indeed made a "magic" gamble and healed his hands. That much is correct. But it's not all (panels from Doctor Strange v5 #19 - 2019).

Waid continued this storyline in a new book called Dr. Strange (Surgeon Supreme), which would portray Stephen's duality as the Sorcerer Supreme and a brilliant surgeon. Except the book was cancelled at issue #6 (2020), leaving the character in a kind of limbo. Now enter MacKay.

MacKay kept a little bit of the former storyline as seen in Death of the Doctor Strange #1 (2021). On top of that, his hands appeared healed. However, that lasted only until Kaecilius murdered Stephen and stole his hands.

Stephen's temporal duplicate used a regenerative spell to bring original Stephen back through Kaecilius' body and the stolen hands. In here, we can see that his hands are scarred just like after the car accident (DODS #5 - 2022). OG Stephen died a second time with scars as well.

Stephen is indeed seen writing in v6 but it's not clear if he's using magic or not. Besides, he's not working as a surgeon anymore. Moreover, MacKay considers Stephen disabled as seen in this recent issue of v6 (#7 - 2023): "My own connection to the aether, the magic of the world, the power of the Vishanti, the power of the Sorcerer Supreme... Gone. Without all of that? I am just an old man with useless hands and a blade in his stomach."

In conclusion,

As of CURRENT DOCTOR STRANGE RUN by Jed MacKay and Pasqual Ferry, in the year of our lord Vishanti, 2024, Stephen Strange is a disabled character and no magic or ableism will erase that. Thank you very much.

[chemevan]

sorry for not being active on tumblr (or like social media in general) anymore take this nonsensical drawing as an apology

(based on this)

[Image ID: a four panel comic featuring joe trohman and patrick stump from fall out boy. on the first panel they're sitting on a couch playing videogames. patrick says "i love to do a double jump in mario. joe replies with "i think mario can do whatever he wants". on the second panel joe seems annoyed and says "i think i'm like mario i will read my book of the mario facts", while patrick looks at him. on the third panel joe has a book, and he just has a blank speech bubble over him. on the fourth and last panel they're both playing again like in the first one, but joe looks upset, saying "i can't read" and patrick answering with "mario has never written a book", and his text is way bigger than normal so it doesn't even fit the speech bubble./.End ID]

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

[vibrating slightly, not unlike a heavily caffeinated chihuahua] hello, respectable Raven expert. do you have the time, means and brain juice to infodump at me about Azarath? I am in a hell of my own creation (possessed by a post canon fanfic idea, I'm sure you've managed to catch that from my deranged ramblings in your replies earlier this week) and I don't know how much lore I'm gonna need from Raven's past. Backstory. Stuff. I remember bits and bobs from the show but y'know. You prolly know all manner of juicy bits from beyond it.

That I do, my friend!

So here's the thing: there are a few different versions of canon, and what I consider to be the biggest tone in Raven's upbringing in the comics (they feared and hated her) was directly contradicted by Arella's words to her in the cartoon ("you always had the love of your people" and a "home here [in Azarath]").

But if you're asking for MY take, I've chosen to ignore that line in the cartoon entirely, because they never developed it. The comics, on the other hand, had an entire 20-page issue about it!

(And in the Daughter of Darkness miniseries there's an entire conversation about it, but it's just a couple of panels and it retcons some things that I've also elected to ignore.)

So let's start with what you already know if you're planning a post-canon Teen Titans '03 cartoon series-based fanfic:

Raven was born in Azarath.

When Raven was born, "they looked into [her] future." A prophecy was built upon this, likely what Arella references when she says "It was too late for Earth, just as it was too late for Azarath."

Raven was born to be "a portal" to bring Trigon to Earth.

She was "protected by the monks of Azarath".

Arella tells her those lines about "love of your people" and "a home here."

And that's about all we've got.

(This show, for all its glory, really didn't do much with backstory......)

But if you're anything like me, that's not enough to work with! That doesn't sate your desperate hunger for information and character exploration!

So if you want to follow me on a journey across comic canons and continuities, delving into ~45 years of Teen Titans history, let's go!

It's time to play in my favorite sandbox.

Before we begin: Raven's backstory comes with some heavy tw's, namely for attempted infanticide, attempted suicide, heavily implied sexual assault, and like... emotional neglect? Is that a thing you tw for??? It's Heavy, whatever way you slice it.

Alright, SO! The first thing you need to know about Raven's comic book history is that, so far, it spans about four and a half decades-- that's nearly HALF A CENTURY of stories! There have been times when she wasn't there (dead at the time, mostly), but even the same writer has given her a few different backgrounds.

The original is my favorite. It's the one that's explored the most in-depth, it's the most deliciously angsty, and the one that developes important elements of Raven's childhood, especially Azar.

This was all written in Tales of the New Teen Titans #2. It was part of a four-issue miniseries that existed solely to explore the Titans' origin stories! #2 was 100% solely about Raven.

The vast majority of it takes place in Azarath. I was so tempted to grab some panels for you, but I have all the quotes I need memorized anyways. If you want, you can read it here:

(This is optional, especially if you plan on leaning into the fact that the cartoon DOES differ from the comics. Take what you like and leave the rest; that's the fun part about a franchise with so many different canons, if you ask me!)

But you asked me for an infodump, not a link, and I am eager to oblige.

There's so much I could talk about! But the biggest points that I think could serve in a story are these:

Even from infancy, Raven was taught to suppress her emotions.

This was taken to an extreme level. She was even TAKEN AWAY FROM HER MOTHER so she wouldn't feel those mother-daughter emotions.

Raven was raised instead by Azar, who was the High Priestess to the Azaratheans, their leader, but more importantly, "she was the only one who treated [Raven] like [she] was something special." She calls Raven "my dear Raven" in one panel, which is exceedingly warm compared to the way the other Azaratheans treat her.

Raven's birth caused chaos and destruction throughout Azarath, and for this and her father's identity, the Azaratheans hated and feared Raven. Many were convinced she was evil.

One man was so desperate to get Raven out of Azarath, he tried to kill her as a baby.

Trigon saved her when Juris tried to cast her into limbo. The man was killed in the blast.

Raven wasn't allowed to play as a child; she was trained instead, taught how to use her powers (especially, in the comics, those of an empath and "traveling between the dimensions", i.e. basically teleporting).

She was constantly told that if she didn't control her emotions, control her powers, control Trigon's influence over her, she'd unleash Trigon on the world and he'd end all life forever.

No pressure. /s

Azar died when Raven was 10 years old. Now that she had been taught how to control her emotions ("if you do not TEMPT her"), she was allowed to see her mother.

But her mother was AFRAID of her. On her deathbed, Azar had told Arella not to fear her, but Arella apparently couldn't help it.

The Azaratheans had never told her who her father is. (Implicitly, she didn't know why she had these powers, or why she had to be raised this way, or why everyone was afraid of her.)

Raven met Trigon sometime between age 10 and 18. (I suspect it was age 13, because in the panels between Azar's death and this event, Arella mentions "For the past three years", and there's no other indication of time.)

Basically, Trigon summoned Raven out of Azarath and into the interdimensional limbo, Arella followed, Trigon humiliated her, and Raven tried to defend her mother, but wound up getting her soul zapped by Trigon, who "baptized" her in his, uhh... "essence." (I'm not gonna touch the verbiage there.)

Trigon let Raven and Arella go back to Azarath, but Raven literally asks Arella Who That Was. Was He Really Her Father?

Arella, apparently, could only hold her and cry.

...whew. It's not a happy story. (But it's Raven we're talking about. These things rarely end happily for her...)

That list got longer than I meant it to, oops. There's a Lot Happening in those 20 pages.

Before the backstory miniseries came out, there was also a bit of backstory in some of the very earliest issues of New Teen Titans (1980), but that mostly focused on Arella and how she met Trigon.

Tl;dr on that, Arella was a foster child who felt unloved by the families that took her in, and she turned to the occult. She somehow got wrapped up in a group actually practicing those things. (The 80's comics didn't get into How but later comics did, more on that in a moment). They performed a ritual Bride-of-Satan style, Trigon was who they summoned, and Arella was the bride. And then, well, Raven happened. (She had changed her mind when she saw what Trigon really was. Trigon didn't. He forced it.)

Arella was tormented though, and after trying to get help and not being given any, she tried to commit suicide in an alleyway. Strangers came to her, and they took her to Azarath. (Arella thought she was in Heaven.)

Now here's where it gets... fucky. Come about 2003, right when our beloved cartoon series is starting, a comics writer by the name of Geoff Johns takes on the Teen Titans for the first time in his career (and god, I wish it had been the last). The relevance to Raven is especially in that he added quite a lot of detail to Arella's backstory.

He mostly added that Arella was in fact being abused in her foster homes, implied she was a rebel child, and added details about Arella being uncomfortable during her pregnancy (I believe he was the one who wrote in that panel where Arella's being held down and begging the people there to kill her).

He also added the specifics of how Arella got involved in the cult: She had run away from home, come to a "Church", and drank some water they had. The people who ran the church found her, and inducted her.

Geoff Johns added a LOT to the Teen Titans stories, so you can feel free to take or leave what he did. I won't deny that his revival brought our favorite team back to the forefront of DC's lineup, but he also made my NOTP canon in the most shoehorned way I could've imagined. (A morgue, Johns? Really?)

But that's a tangent for another essay entirely.

A handful of real-life years after that (or before that? The site I'm looking at says it was in 2001, but I didn't read it until like... 2006?), there was an issue of, I believe, Legends from the DC Universe that touched on Raven's backstory a bit.

Relevant to this question, it added that when she was 15, the very first time she came to Earth, she was so overwhelmed (by all the chaotic emotions, via empathy), she had to flee back to Azarath and was unconscious for "seven passings". (What's a passing? Is that an hour? A day? I have no idea. But it's implied to be A Long Time, Arella seems pretty concerned about it.)

For awhile, Raven's backstory mostly went unaddressed unless Trigon was involved.

(And comic writers really LOVE involving Trigon in a Raven story. Most of them try to re-do the Terror of Trigon storyline from around 1984, the New Teen Titans comic book storyline that the season 4 arc of the show was based on! It was epic; there was the prophecy, Azarath's destruction, lots of mystical craziness.)

((But as with many pieces of media, the original version in the comics was by far the best. I think the cartoon is the only successful adaption of that I've seen, besides maybe Justice League vs. Teen Titans but Azar's not even really mentioned unless I want to extrapolate "Mother of Azarath" being a call to her, so they lose points for that. I'm only half joking. At least the cartoon included the rings of Azar, even if they're not NEARLY as important as they were in the original...!))

Fast forward a few years in real-time. New52 did some fuckery with Azarath being a place Trigon ruled, but we don't acknowledge New52 here. It was a mess and the New52 Teen Titans comic was... not great. The Villains Month event also had an issue that hinted at a hero named Alezandra and a different origin story between Arella and Trigon, but that story thread NEVER got picked up to my knowledge.

In the DCAMU (DC Animated Movie Universe), specifically in Justice League vs. Teen Titans, Raven tells a backstory similar to the prior comics in a lot of ways, but she adds in that she didn't "fit it" on Azarath, and she had been aware enough of Trigon being her father ("the monster that created me") that she could summon him to Azarath. (In hopes of understanding more.) She also spent an indeterminate amount of time in his realm. (Hell, implicitly, I think?) And then she trapped him in a crystal and left him there.

In that Daughter of Darkness miniseries I mentioned (one of three Raven-centric miniseries), she tells her school friends about her childhood, and she says there were no other children, and no books. I choose to disregard this, personally, because:

1.) Raven had to have learned how to read SOMEWHERE. Sure, the miniseries says she was barely taught English, and I've always interpreted her diction in the 80's comics to be that of someone who's not used to speaking aloud, but especially if we're leaning heavily on the cartoon, Raven reads voraciously. It's the whole Thing with Spellbound (nudge nudge). Books and Raven are inextricably linked in my head because of that cartoon, and I latched onto that too hard to let it go just because Marv Wolfman randomly decided she wasn't allowed to read as a kid for some reason.

2.) In TotNTT #2, there's a sort of montage splash page where she's looking at a book with Azar, she looks Intrigued, and that just pulls my heartstrings in wonderful ways. I'm Keeping That, Thank You.

3.) This one's a little more obscure, but there's a line in a New Teen Titans issue (I can't remember the issue number) where Wally is checking on her, asking her how college is going, and she says she's doing fine because she was raised by people who knew how to study. College wouldn't be easy for her if she couldn't read, and also it's DAMN hard to "know how to study" if you don't have books! What else would they be studying?!

4.) I see some minor plot holes in the claim of there being No Children, largely because in the 80's issue, she points to other children playing, while she had to train. Also, not to be awkward, but Raven was a baby and her mother wasn't feeding her. She canonically had a nursemaid. But... uhhm. You don't lactate spontaneously, you know? I theorize Galya had children of her own and that's how Raven had anything to eat.

...anyways.

In the comics, in the entire several decades of comic book history, Raven's backstory is absolutely devoid of that "love of your people" and any sort of feelings of "having a home here". For my own personal fanfictional purposes (and believe me, I Have Many of Those. Gestures widely at how my main OC's entire backstory relies on Raven having been abhorred.), I've decided to lean into the comics. There's just so much more information, so much more DETAIL, and so many more EMOTIONS!

If nothing else, I'm not sure I can imagine even mystical, pacifistic Azarath having a child they knew was going to cause the end of the world, and NOT have people who were afraid. That's just human nature, you know?

I'm realizing I didn't say much about WHERE she was raised, so let me remedy that right now: Again, drawing from the comics, Azarath was a place of great mystical power and EXTREME pacifism. When I say "extreme", I mean they don't believe in violence for the sake of self-defense, they don't seem to believe at ALL in self-defense actually. At least not if it means fighting or violence or resistance. Nonresistance, that's the word. Complete and total NONRESISTANCE. Not to defend yourself, not to defend someone you love, never. The ultimate endpoint of philosophies where you just "let it be".

(Raven has always stood in opposition to that. Obviously. Kinda hard to be a superhero and also be entirely pacifistic.)

Azarath was created "between the dimensions" by the first Azar (the grandmother of the woman who raised Raven). When Azarath was founded, they took those peoples' souls and actually separated out the violent urges and sent it all away.

Also, in the earliest 80's comics, it was those same evil urges that later coalesced into Trigon, which lends itself to some REALLY fascinating thoughts if you think too hard about how Trigon was the one who destroyed Azarath!

But most comic writers chose to ignore that little bit and one even made him more of a Green Lantern flavored creation. (I forget exactly how it happened, but Trigon was still created out of Someone's Evil Becoming Sentient, basically.)

The Azaratheans seem to retain that power to pacify violent urges though, if no less than two of the Raven miniseries' endings are to be believed... (Spoiler alert?)

There's so much I could say here, but the line between what's cold hard canon and headcanon is a little blurry for me, because I think my headcanons are fully grounded in canonical fact, but others have interpreted the same lines to mean very different things...

I am physically withdrawing my hands from the keyboard here because I love talking about Azarath, I have so vastly many headcanons about it and some wacky adventures in both writing and certain pop-culture-influenced practices, and I can write a TEXTBOOK on what I know and think and believe and headcanon about Azarath! But it's the background setting to your question. I think the people and events are, perhaps, more important. If you have anything more specific you'd like to know, just ask!

Please! Please ask me about Azarath.

Oh, I do have this tag for all things Azarath, but I don't have a tag on just my Personal Extrapolations and Headcanons. Or canon. (I... really like Azarath. And as I've told you before, I tag meticulously. So of course there's an Azarath tag, too. When I'm babbling, I usually bring up the canon details that lead to my conclusions...)

I will say though, that being raised in Azarath was the only way for Raven to learn how to control her powers / emotions / Trigon's influence. It's a place of study and discipline, meditation is par for the course and they forced themselves to get rid of violent urges, and Azar said if they didn't keep her with them, there was no hope for the world. (Not in so few words. She mostly said "This is what would happen if we Didn't Do This" and showed divinations of places exploding. But that's the idea.)

So there's the infodump you asked for. I've been sitting on this question for two days and mentally compiling everything I want to say. This isn't even everything (I haven't poked a single bit at the tension evident between Raven and the Azarathean Council after she leaves for Earth), and hell, half of this might be extraneous and you may end up using Absolutely None of This in your fanfiction.

But even if you don't use a word of this, I'm SO curious what you'll do with your ideas! I have indeed been watching your tags and I'm delighted to see the creative juices flowing in that direction! Let me know if you end up writing this thing, okay?

P.S.: Calling me "respectable Raven expert" made me raise my eyebrows at first-- I mean, you're not wrong. But then it made me smile. I hope I've lived up to that title, and I hope you enjoyed reading this! Or, at the very least, that I helped you decide if you want to include comic canon or not.

[tsutsumi-kurose]

I find it interesting that Tsukasa reached for Nene without hesitation. It was probably because he needs her to fulfill his goals but I wanna be delusional and say he has a heart and cares for her / people

lol it is very hard to tell with tsukasa!! but he definitely does have a heart it’s just….selective lol.

and i think the fact that it's so hard to tell how tsukasa feels about people makes him and nene such good complements to each other!! nene is so expressive and open, and tsukasa is such a mystery to the audience and especially to amane, the person closest to him. these differences play off of each other beautifully. it's nene's openness and persistence and open-book optimism that gets us so many glimpses into tsukasa's feelings and past and world view and the different attitudes he's capable of embodying and expressing. and i personally think this moment is an example of that!

i think tsukasa catching nene was a very instinctive action he took!! i don't think he gave it any thought:

i loveeee this moment and these two pages like... he makes the decision so quickly that the panel of nene falling doesn't even have time to complete!! tsukasa physically breaks into the panel of nene falling, that's how fast and split second his decision is!! it's such a beautiful use of the space on the page. and tsukasa looks surprised by himself on the next page!! tsukasa is a very calucated person who usually has the upper hand, and in this moment he realizes he has truly given that upper hand and that foresight and that planning up, that he needs to resort to the last resort of calling amane for help. he resorts to what he sees as the impossible!! so i really don't think catching her was just part of the plan. there was definitely an emotional element involved there!!

i also think nene really has a knack for bringing out new sides of tsukasa. she's the reason he revealed that he's called for hanako before with no response!! she challenges him in ways he hasn't been challenged before!! she constantly surprises him and makes things interesting for him. i think she is definitely a very unique relationship in his life, and given all the reactions she gets out of him, i would say he definitely has at least some level of emotional investment in her as a person.

you are right though, that this doesn't necessarily mean he cares about her... but i don't think it's delusional for us to hope that it means something along those lines!! after all, they've spent a lot of time together leading up to this moment, and thanks to time travel, who knows how many interactions they've had that only tsukasa has experienced at this point? there's so much we don't know about tsukasa, constantly!! and i think the way he feels about nene is one of the more confounding mysteries about him.

i think it's very possible he has a soft spot for nene at this point! or at least is developing one. I’d believe it!! after all, if nene falls to her death who will listen to tsukasa talk about amane for four hours straight??

also look at them here:

serious analysis on pause they're best friends here. they are consulting they are looking to each other they are silently communicating!!! where do we go from here!!! nene said :0!!!!! tsukasa said O_O!!!!!

okay back to more text based analysis lol: from a different angle, you could also argue tsukasa's end goal with all of this is extending nene's life, as he's working to grant amane's wish, which, to his knowledge from the conversation in ch91, would be to extend nene's lifespan. so indirectly, but still supposedly his goal in a way!! which is a way to interpret his motivations in this moment as well.

and on the topic of tsukasa's goals, i think they show his heart!! yes, he's got an agenda, but overall his agenda has really just been to grant amane's wish. and it's an agenda he does his best to fulfill, which is a way of showing heart!! he thinks this is how amane can get whatever he wants. so in a way, even if this moment was just about needing nene as a means to an end, the end and the means of getting there are all motivated by his heart!!

but yeah in summary i definitely think there's a lot of depth to this relationship and to this interaction in particular. it haunts me constantly!! i love tsukasa i love nene i love the ways they play off of each other so much!! yes i'm biased because i would steal the moon from the sky for tsukasa and nene, but i really do think she makes him feel a lot!! whether that results in affection for her i think is beautifully complicated and unclear, and i can't wait to see their relationship progress throughout the rest of the manga!!

so i am with you in your delusions anon!! keep the faith!! i certainly will!! <3

[frankendykes-monster]

Based on that tumblr poll, and as Kirby scholar: which is a more compelling character, Doom or Magneto?

What makes Dr. Doom so great — or at least, one of the things, and arguably the most important — is how adaptable he is. It might just be because my attention span was rotted away at a very young age by the Nintendo Entertainment System, but I’ve always been drawn to characters that can work in a wide variety of stories. It helps them stand the test of time, that the core of the character can remain solid while everything else can be shifted and arranged to get the most out of a situation.

Batman’s probably the best example of that, because there are so many different versions of him that have been so prominent over the years that it’s kind of become his calling card. The gritty vigilante is just as valid as the campy crimefighter, who’s just as valid as the world traveling adventurer, and the idea that all of these things can coexist is a huge part f what I love about that dude, but he’s not the only one. If you go down the list of my favorite characters, you’ll see that it’s a common trait. Spider-Man and the Thing have long series that are all about teaming them up with whoever wasn’t busy that month. Even Jimmy Olsen, who’s tied in so tightly with not just a single character, but a single era of that character’s 75-year history, is a character whose “strange transformations” became a running gag that was always leading to something that was new and weird.

Even at their best though, none of them work quite as well as Dr. Doom, if only because Dr. Doom is extremely adaptable, without requiring you to change anything about his character. With a few minor exceptions, most of which are purely cosmetic, there are no distinct “eras” of Dr. Doom. There’s just one continuous character who works perfectly in a wide variety of stories.

And the amazing thing is, he’s been like that since day one.

I’m always fasciated by the way that characters evolve and change over the years — again, this is something I’ve thought a lot about when it comes to Batman — but Dr. Doom is one of those rare major characters that arrives fully formed. Batman, Superman, even the Fantastic Four themselves all took a little while to find their footing and really become the characters that we know. I mean, Batman didn’t even have dead parents until six months in. But Doom? Doom’s pretty much been Dr. Doom since that very first panel.

Sure, the design was refined a little and made more superheroic (like the Mole Man and Namor, Doom’s original look feels like it was a throwback to the pre-Marvel days of Golden Age Timely books and Atlas monster comics), and sadly, that vulture never really made a return appearance, and he has, of course, been built on and refined since then, but in terms of personality, it’s all there. The ego, the hatred, the ruthlessness and deception, the pettiness, the excess — dude just casually sits there petting a tiger like it’s not even a thing — it’s all right there from the first story. Which, I feel I should remind you, is about Dr. Doom sending the Fantastic Four back in time to steal pirate treasure.

Incidentally, I love the fact that Dr. Doom just cold built a time machine in his first appearance and is using it for what amounts to petty (if mystical) thievery, and that this is such a founding moment for the Marvel Universe that his Time Platform has become something that’s just casually referened and accepted as part of the world those characters live in. Referring to the energy trace of time travel as “Von Doom radiation” is literally my favorite non-Nextwave thing that Warren Ellis has ever written:

But yeah, everything’s there. He’s adept at both science and sorcery, he hates Reed Richards because of what he saw as a challenge to his intelligence, and he sees other people as pawns in his complicated schemes for domination. He’s the monarch of a foreign country, which brings a global scale to the New York-based Marvel Universe in a way that even introducing invading aliens didn’t. And all of that adds up to one very important aspect of Dr. Doom: He’s not just a Fantastic Four villain, he’s a Marvel Universe villain.

And really, he’s the first one. He may have even been the first in superhero comics — Superman and Batman had been teaming up since the ’40s along with the original Justice Society, but nobody had really made the concerted effort to build a cohesive universe in the way that Lee and Kirby (and Ditko, and Ayers, and Heck, etc.) were doing at Marvel. Part of that just meant that superheroes could hang out together, but it was just as important that the villains could float from one book to another, too. Before Doom, the antagonists for the FF had been characters that would become pretty solidly entrenched as Fantastic Four Villains, like the Mole Man. Namor, even after he flipped back into being a protagonist, remains primarily associated with the FF, even though he’s been a Defender, an Avenger, an Invader and an X-Man, and even though he started 20 years earlier as a solo act. The Skrulls would get there eventually, but it wouldn’t be until the ’70s that they really became a “cosmic” threat, and even then, individual characters like the Super-Skrull, Paibok and Lyja the Lazer-Fist (the best name in comics) would be inextricably linked with the FF.

You could argue that Dr. Doom is, too, since his major motivation from the start was his intense, specific hatred of Reed Richards, but he branches out very early. He’s as much a villain for the FF as anyone, sure, but it’s not at all out of the question for him to show up and ruin Spider-Man’s day, either.

That story happens in 1963, right at the beginning of the Marvel Universe, and it sets a precedent that shapes the entire line from that point on, specifically Doom. Because the superheroes are so closely knit, because they do hang out together, and because Doom has that “science and sorcery” thing that gives him so many different story hooks, he can show up anywhere.

He and Captain America can team up for international intrigue. He and Iron Man can time travel to the days of King Arthur and battle against or alongside Morgan Le Fey:

This, by the way, happens three times and it is amazing.

He and Dr. Strange can descend into Hell and battle the devil himself Mephisto for the soul of Doom’s dead mother:

He can even show up to fight the Punisher, and it works every time.

Because of all that, because he’s not defined by his relationship with a single character — to be honest, most of my favorite Doom stories aren’t Fantastic Four stories at all, although I definitely love those too — and because there’s such a strong, adaptable base to work from, Doom has really been shaped into a great character. It’s almost like watching the development and evolution of a protagonist, because you can see him in these different situations that bring out and refine different aspects, in the same way that a protagonist develops from battling against different villains and being in different situations. But there’s one difference.

Doom isn’t a protagonist. Doom is utterly, relentlessly, remorselessly evil. And that’s great.

Everything Doom does is in service to himself, and everything is hindered by his fatal flaw, a towering ego that simply refuses to believe that he can possibly fail. To Doom, every failure is simply a minor setback, nothing more, just another slight to be avenged at a later date, and every single thing that he does is geared towards getting to that later date and finally having his revenge. Even in a story like Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom: Triumph and Torment, in which Doom is as close to being the “good guy” as he can possibly be (because he’s, you know, fighting against the devil for the soul of his mom), he’s still full of secretive plans and machinations, and hindered by his own indomitable ego. Even when his mother’s soul is at stake, Doom will not lower himself to beg for help. She is less important to him than his own pride.

The thing is, Dr. Doom is so full of ego, so utterly confident in himself and that his heinous acts are excusable in pursuit of his own benevolent mastery of the world (and that he’s been written so well over the years) that even readers and occasionally creators have bought into it. Mark Waid famously talked about how Doom is regal, but not noble — that he’d “tear the head off a newborn baby and eat it like an apple while his mother watched if it would somehow prove he were smarter than Reed.” And he’s right — that ego is his driving force. It’s not that his mother is suffering, not really. It’s that he has to conquer death and Hell itself to get back something that was taken from him. Even his mother’s soul is a possession — it belongs to Doom, and that a demon holds it captive is effrontery that will not stand.

I mean, this is a guy who built an army of robots that look and think exactly like him, and frequently blames his failures on their “malfunctions.” This is a guy who not only stole the Silver Surfer’s powers, but made sure to put the Surfer in a room where he could see space so he’d know exactly what he was missing out on while he was locked up in Doomsdadt. He is in no way acting for the benefit of others.

I mentioned that Doom is remorselessly evil, and I was speaking literally about that, because it’s exactly the plot of one of my all-time favorite stories, Paul Tobin, Patrick Sherberger and David Baldeon’s Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil. It was originally realased back in 2009 as part of the stealth All Ages line [...] and since it had cartoony art and was ostensibly made for kids, a lot of readers missed out on it.

I’ve been trying to get people to buy those books since they came out, especially Dr. Doom, so I’ve really tried hard not to spoil Tobin’s incredible twist ending for anyone going in. That said, it’s been five years and you can buy it for literally one penny on Amazon, so it is now officially Not My Problem if you haven’t read it.

So here’s how it ends.

For the entire story, Doom is leading various teams of supervillains to accomplish different goals, setting up heists and missions to get to this mystical site that will grant him one irrevocable wish. The implication, both to the readers and the characters, is that Doom’s wish is going to be to just instantly destroy Reed Richards, because why wouldn’t it be?

It’s not.

Doom’s wish is to eliminate his own conscience, to free himself from any sense of doubt and guilt. To always think — to always know that what he is doing is right, even if it’s tearing the head off a baby and eating it like an apple. He will never regret an action, he’ll never wonder if he should do things differently or if he should try to be a better person, because he no longer can. All that’s left is that ruthless, relentless surety in himself, that indomitable ego.

It’s one of the perfect Doom stories, and if you accept that as part of the character, it makes him equally compelling and terrifying. Who wouldn’t want to lead a life with no regrets or guilt? But who would want that if it meant you could never know if you’d become a monster? Is the surety that you’re the hero worth never knowing if you’re actually the villain?

For Doom, it is, because for Doom, there’s only one person who matters.

Chris Sims writing for Comics Alliance, 2014

[kings-highway]

Hello! Can I ask your top 5 fav Haikyuu ships? Also, what made you love that ships?

Mine are : Kagehina, BokuAka, IwaOi, KuroKen, & UshiTen! Sorry for being basic in my fav ships....Also, sorry if you dislike one (or more) of my favorite 😅😭

I think Top Five is a little bit difficult to nail down, since I tend to have different reasons for liking different ships (comparing apples and oranges) but I will do my best!

I think a really easy way to write this list looks like this:

UshiTen; DaiSuga; KuroDai; IwaOi; AranKita

BUT what really throws a wrench in my ranking is the difference between preferred ships and characters I enjoy the most. For example, DaiOi is one of my favourite haikyuu ships, but not based on canon/not something I consider "on par" with the other ships. The only reason they don't make the list is because they're more obviously not canon so I don't really even consider them an option for ranking. I also really like IwaDai probably more than a lot of ships but they don't feel like they can compete with ships that have actual screen time.

Tsukkiyama isn't one of my "favourite" ships, BUT it's one of the few ships that I absolutely HATE seeing split up. I hardly tolerate any other ships for them. I'm sorta intrigued by other first year ships from within Karasuno, but KageHina and Tsukkiyama both are sort of soulmates to me and as a general rule I have no interest in any other ship for any of those four characters.

Whereas DaiSuga might be my obvious main ship, I like Daichi too much to not find other ships with him appealing. So although I say I like them more than tskym/ kghn, I'm also way more okay splitting Daisuga up and dont have as strong a reaction.

The intersection of all this is UshiTen which are constructed both of my favourite characters AND characters I absolutely do not desire to see shipped with others, hence why I give them the first spot.

Now as to why I love these ships... I don't know. If you've been reading my work, you're probably familiar with the kind of storytelling I like. And I think for a lot of these, there's a strong element of the "I'm with you 'till the end of the line," kind of trope that I love, where all of these pairings are pairings you can imagine trusting each other with their lives, fighting for each other, ride-or-die all the way. I really don't like enemies to lovers as a trope, which I know is most people's favourite, but I don't like romances where the characters don't trust each other, or have any doubts. I like romances where love is a support pillar that lets them face everything else. And these ships tend to fill those roles for me. (Side note: rivals to lovers is NOT enemies to lovers. Big difference in my books. Rivals to lovers is great. Thats why KuroDai is up there. Actively wanting to hurt someone and then falling in love with them is what I don't like. Sorry. I like my lovers to also be best friends).

ANYWAY never apologize for the ships you like! Them being basic just means you have eyes and understand their personalities probably. That's why they're basic. Or at least that people agree with you 🤔 I do love all of the ships you had mentioned for sure, and have definitely used them in various ways, so I'm right there with you. And also you have UshiTen up there and as far as I'm concerned as long as they're in the running you're sensible. I respect everyone's ship opinions until they tell me they don't like UshiTen. This is only half joking.

Side note for the "what made you love that ship" part:

UshiTen: the panel where they're in France and in unison call each other their best friend; this sold me on the ship because of the previous/sister scene with Tendou saying he'd say they were beat buds. There was something so immediately endearingly magnetic about the fact that Tendou clearly says that thinking Ushijima will move on with him, only to wrap it up by learning Ushijima flies around the world to see him long after they've graduated. I remember seeing that panel for the first time and just going "oh." Love me two freaks in love. Also the several times Tendou gazes lovingly at him helped...

Daisuga: i don't... Actually remember. I wasn't super into them until the third season or so, I think. I think it was a combination of the fandom/ fanfic I consumed and just learning more about what that relationship could look like. I actually started writing "In the Wood of Japan" not 100% sold on most of those ships but just playing around and trying it out.

KuroDai: the fanart. The fanart for this ship is peak. Especially the people that do little comics. ALSO the fucking stage play actors. Also everything. I'm gonna be honest, if nobody had told me about Daisuga, this probably would have become my #1 ship. I think their chemistry is unmatched and I LOVE me a good captain/ leadership character, so throwing in TWO? hell yeah.

IwaOi: I don't know if I have a moment for these two. They sort of come with the territory, and I am a SUCKER for diminutive names. Also that one scene where Oikawa says Iwa could have done better and Mattsun has to hold him back while Oikawa skips away? Absolute iconic best friend behaviour I never want these two out of my sight.

AranKita: i was really, really late to the party for AranKita but I actually had to go hunting for this ship. I was wondering who Kita's most popular ship was when I wanted to include him in the captain squad stuff and at first wasn't sure if I liked Aran more than Atsumu for him, but I played around with it a bit myself and absolutely fell the fuck in love. I like how goofy Aran is. I also like how when he gives his little speech to Kita and Kita starts laughing for presumably the first time ever, Aran isn't like "woah what" he's just like "NO THE FUCK IS THE LAUGHTER FOR??" like he loves his robot boyfriend but he's not putting up with any shit. Also in that scene where they're walking home, he's SO animated and waving his arms everywhere and Kita just isn't and I just.... mNNHHMMMM. I also love imagining the way the rest of the team wouldn't really know how to handle the idea of Kita being with someone romantically. Like the MEDDLING from Inarizaki is probably insane. Actually as I'm talking about i'm afraid I'm gonna usurp Iwaoi with them.... AranKita might be climbing the ranks.........

[10blue10]

HTTYD continuity: Are there two Hiccups?

First of all, thank you for all the likes and reblogs on my ‘there are two Hiccups’ post. It’s seriously blowing my mind how popular it is. So, if you read it and thought “what? There are two Hiccups?”

Well, no… but actually yes. I wasn’t being literal (I know, on the reading comprehension website? Shame on me), but the thing is, I’m actually kind of right? Just look at these examples from the wiki:

The entire series is based on the six main Dragon Riders moving away from Berk for over a year. However, in commentary, Dean DeBlois has said that they all lived on Berk between the first two films. The second film’s Art Book elaborates on this saying that they all had responsibilities on Berk which prevented them from leaving.

In other words, as far as Dean is concerned, RTTE never happened.

The series also focuses on the six main Dragon Riders exploring lands outside the Archipelago together, while both Dean and the second film’s Art Book state that only Hiccup and Astrid ventured outside the Archipelago as they were the ones drawing up Hiccup's map. The other four stayed much closer to Berk.

Again, we have a direct contradiction between what Dean claims happened pre-HTTYD2 in his (head)canon, and what we see in RTTE.

Numerous other "dragon riders" are introduced throughout the series, when the second and third films themselves stress how Berk is the only community who rides dragons. Dean elaborated on this during a convention panel explaining that that’s why Eret and Drago were so alarmed when seeing Vikings riding on dragons, and why Eret assumed Valka was one of them.

In an interview with the series creators Art Brown and Douglas Sloan, it was mentioned that the show was originally meant to have 4 seasons, spread out over the span of a year and a half, leading up to the second film. Following the many clues and mentions regarding the passage of time within the story, the last 7 episodes of season 4 were supposed to have happened during the same summer as the film. However, when seasons 5 and 6 were ordered into production, the show writers had to carry on with the timeline they had set up, which inevitably lead to the series continuing into negative time; going past the second film.

In other words, the last two seasons of RTTE aren’t meant to take place before HTTYD2 - they take place after it. If there’s better proof that RTTE is on its own separate timeline, I don’t know what that is.

The majority of film characters are portrayed severely out-of-character in the series compared to the films and film-verse media; most arguably Hiccup and Astrid. Aside from having similar appearance and even voices, their personalities and behaviors in the series portray them as drastically different people than their film counterparts.

I would argue that they are more in character during RTTE, especially Snotlout, the twins and Fishlegs. Isn’t it amazing what being fleshed out characters instead of comic relief can do? But there you have it. RTTE!Hiccup is portrayed as drastically different to his film counterpart. When push comes to shove, there are two Hiccups.

Or, you know, three, if we count the one from the books 😂.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to lamenting the fact we live in the timeline where THW exists and not the timeline where the writers of RTTE were allowed to make a full length conclusion movie.

[theficlistpodcast]

You read that right! We have FOUR panels at Awesome Con this year!!! 😱😱😱

Come see us at the many options listed below! Badges are still available here!

Friday, April 4

Um, Actually...Fandom Trivia 3:45-4:30 PM Room 202 Um, actually... are you sure you know your fandom history? Based on the hit game show from DROPOUT, the creators of The Fic List podcast (a fan-fiction book club podcast you should *definitely* be listening to) return with new questions to test your knowledge of fandom facts, figures, and tropes. Reign victorious and be rewarded with the greatest prize of all - being right!

Filters, Warnings, and Tags - Oh My! or, How to Navigate AO3 8:45-9:30 PM Room 206 Archive of Our Own, otherwise known as AO3, is a self-described "fan-created, fan-run, nonprofit, noncommercial archive for transformative fanworks, like fanfiction, fanart, fan videos, and podfic." It is also an incredible resource and repository for fanworks of all flavors - if you know how to use it! Join two long-time fic readers and AO3 lovers as we demonstrate how it all works, from understanding filters and the rating system to its more unique features, like creating pseuds and orphaning works. We will also dive into the history of AO3 - why it was created and how it has shaped fandom as we know it today. All fandoms and levels of familiarity are welcome!

Saturday, April 5

Poppin’ the Biggest Bottles: Celebrating Queerness in Animation 11:00-11:45 AM Room 201 Ten years ago, Korra and Asami walked into the Spirit World hand in hand, confirming their love in the finale of Legend of Korra. Fans were delighted and shocked to see a queer ship become canon in a Nickelodeon cartoon. But how were they able to pull it off? And what effect did it have on other cartoons? Join us as we discuss the history of queer characters in animation and how Korra and Asami helped to further push queer representation in children's animation.

Sunday, April 6

OTP or NOTP: A Tournament of Cosplay Pairings 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Room 202 Blackbeard/The Joker? Jawa/Princess Peach? Vegeta/Bob the Tomato?!? Join The Fic List (a fan-fiction book club podcast you should definitely be listening to) and special guest Emmy (from Empcosique) for the fourth annual (!!!) low-stakes, highly silly Tournament of Pairings. Do we ship it? It’s up to the audience! Cosplayers of all levels and fandoms are welcome and encouraged to drop in, show off, and square up in random pairings to determine the ultimate OTP. Participation in the tournament will be on a first-come, first-served basis, so come by early to ensure your spot! During the event, we will randomly pair cosplayers together, and the audience will vote for the pairings they ship (OTPs). Silliness will ensue. We're voting on the character pairing - not the quality of your cosplay - and the goal is to have fun and generally celebrate fandom and shipping culture.

[randomfandomisuppose]

Reading DC comics in a random order just based on what the library has.

Part 3

[Part 1]

[Part 2]

Before I start this I just wanted to say that the library is genuinely becoming one of my favourite places ever. It’s just, SO chill. There’s nothing I look forward to more than going through the comic book section at this point. I am slowly running out of comics I’m excited to read. Although I’ve definitely still got some I’m hyped for.

There’s, however, some comics that, while they are published by DC, I’m not going to read them as of yet, mostly longer series like the sandman cause I’m aiming for more variety in my “comic book diet” and I want to prioritise reading as many different comics and series as possible from preferably different writers and artists and points in time before coming back to longer series.

It’s highly dependent on my motivation and how hard college is kicking my ass during a certain period of time, but if I come back to the longer series I’d prefer to make one big looooong post or a few big loooong posts on it rather than the four books per visit I’ve been doing. I don’t think I’d have the motivation to stick out a longer series if I started reading it and didn’t like it right now lol.

Plus, I’m looking forward to also going to the other nearby libraries cause I’ve only been to one so far.

Superman/Batman by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness part 1/2 (Dutch)

This one actually has a different name in Dutch; “Superman/Batman: Staat van Beleg.” It basically translates to “State of Siege” or “State of emergency”, as in “In a state of emergency the government can pass policy that it normally would not be allowed to in order to protect its citizens.” Just a fun fact, I thought the name was cool. It’s also written by the same person who wrote Batman the long Halloween.

Anyways, it’s soooo good. The comic starts split between the perspectives of Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent as children and explores the ways they contrast each other. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I LOVE a good character comparison.

They know each other VERY VERY well and it’s fun to see one character being like “I know what the other is thinking”, only for the other to be thinking exactly that. Something I very much enjoyed was acknowledging that Superman is just, genuinely really smart. I’ll let this panel speak for itself.

Batman: “Which one of us was the detective?”

Superman: “I’m an investigative journalist…Batman.”

The story flows really well, I just don’t know how to explain it. It just feels really good to read. I also don’t know how to explain it but occasionally I just get the feeling that both Superman and Batman are actually kinda similar in the way they act sometimes. Like at times it feels like Superman’s just got some Batman-ness to him that I can’t do justice to trying to explain it. It’s an essence. Batsence.

Just, look. This is the back cover. Tell me I’m wrong. These are two besties who would sit on a bench together and ruthlessly shit talk anyone they didn’t like together. (if you ship them based on this comic I get it and have indulged in some shipping of them in the past, however I just very much enjoy them just being the BIGGEST of besties here. It’s important to me.)

Look at them.

Judging you.

I love them a lot.

Anyways, just in general, the whole story is just really cool. I’m enjoying reading it. Would rant to my friends about it in the dead of night.

Damn they just go THROUGH it in this one. Both of them do, but especially Batman. The amount of near death experiences and possible head trauma and back injuries in this thing is truly astounding. Like, almost drowning twice in one comic type shit.

It ends on a cliffhanger, but I have the second comic right here so it’s literally the next one I’m gonna write about lol. It’s a cool cliffhanger though. Was really looking forward to reading the next one when I finished the first one on the bus.

Superman/Batman by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness part 2/2 (Dutch)

Nothing like seeing Lex Luthor going from looking like both a babygirl and a fuckboy (don’t read too much into that description please) to looking absolutely deranged. I’ve never read any comics with Lex Luthor in them and here I’m just like: “Damn the dude is straight up insane. Lost his marbles. Looks like he’d fist fight raccoons in the dumpster.”

He’s the president of the US in this and he reminds me in uncomfortable ways of the current, *ahem*, president/dictator/king of the US. Not the same but bro’s trying to make it so he has no limit to his re-election and is fuelled by power hungry insanity and hates aliens and uh, yeahhhh.

Truly the face of sanity, and this is near the beginning. He hasn’t completely crashed out yet.

He’s a good villian. He’s terrifying because you know he’s manipulative but you also don’t know how sane he is. The longer it goes on the further he gets from normal, calculating villian and the closer he gets to highly emotionally volatile, will fight boars in the forest insane person. This comic was just watching Lex Luthor progressively get worse and eventually crash out. It was fun I have to admit. Like superman is just fucking DONE with this guy.

There were a lot of characters in this and the previous comic that I didn’t know at all, some of them were pretty fun. Some of them annoyed me. If I have to hear ONE more joke about power girl’s boobs I will strangle a man.

Overall though, pretty good. Kinda liked the first part a teeny tiny bit more than the second part but I was invested and that’s always a good sign. Superman was kinda intimidating at points and you know what, I like that. He could snap me in half like a piece of dried grass with no effort, just knowing that should be enough to make him kinda intimidating.

If you read this one, you’ll have fun I think. My only real gripe was the running joke about power girl’s boobs. Like imagine you’re getting introduced to a character for the first time and all anyone is talking about is her honkers. Yeah. No. No thank you. Cut it out.

Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross (1/4)

This comic is genuinely incredible and I cannot believe I haven’t heard it talked about more.

Also.

Before you read further I’m going to stop you right here. If you don’t mind spoilers or need to be convinced to read this, you can keep reading.

If you want to read it at some point, I would HIGHLY recommend reading it before you read further.

Now that that’s out of the way.

The art is fantastic. Every single panel is a masterpiece onto itself, I cannot even BEGIN to imagine how long it must have taken Alex Ross to illustrate the whole series. Wow. I am in awe. His art literally GLOWS. I have never seen anyone use light and shadow in exactly the same way as this man. This man has MASTERED lighting. I mean.

Look at this.

My shitty phone camera cannot do it justice as to how GOOD this looks in real life.

Are you kidding me with this.

Look at this panelling are you KIDDING me- It just sells the chaos of what’s happening-

Anyways, on to the story: It’s REALLY COMPELLING. I have to divide this up into plot and themes otherwise I’m just going to ramble on.

Plot: The story starts off with the original Sandman, Wesley Dodds, as he confides in a pastor about his visions of an apocalypse on his deathbed. After he dies the pastor starts seeing visions of a dark, mysterious and yet glowing caped and hooded mystical figure. We get to learn more of the state of the world through the eyes of the elderly pastor, a new generation of superheroes wreaking havoc on the world, fighting recklessly amongst themselves with no consideration for the civilians around them. In all this chaos the aging justice league, and superman in particular, are seemingly nowhere to be found…

Themes (well, one in particular…):

Religion. OH MY GOD it’s so interesting. Superheroes are compared to gods multiple times throughout this and I find that line of thought so interesting. Religion is a huge theme throughout this comic. What’s more interesting than a god gone rogue? A whole generation of gods gone rogue under one leader. An imperfect god. A whole generation of gods as a destructive, unstoppable almost force of nature that no longer worry about civilians or damage to infrastructure.

Now I’m not 100% sure on this one and there are times when I hate certain superheroes being tied to religious themes, but I’m a fan of viewing superhero stories as a sort of “modern mythology”. (I desperately want to read “super heroes a modern mythology by Richard Reynolds, but I haven’t been able to scrounge up the money from my allowance for a book this month.)

I enjoy Superman as being THE symbol of hope. There seemingly not being any hope with him gone. The fact that Superman is such a Godlike figure that his absense pushes the world into chaos, and yet the story makes it very clear that he is NOT a god. I love stories showcasing the fact that he isn’t this completely invulnerable, infallible all powerful being. Despite him being back it’s not a fix all. Our narrator ends off the issue saying that our troubles are only starting. You end on a cliffhanger. And it’s so fucking good.

Wesley’s visions at the beginning also draws parallels to the idea of the rapture. Or maybe just, hell itself. Everything is drawn in vague shadows and this hellish red. It looks like complete destruction. I love it.

I have no idea where this series is going to go but I’m so excited to find out.

Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross (2/4)

Just assume everything I said about Alex Ross applies to both this book and the next one. He’s a genius and it just, works so well.

Every single justice league member is old, in some cases, REALLY old. There’s just, so much going on in terms of team ups too. Like you’ve got at least three seperate movements and everything feels like it’s building up to this huge conflict. There’s no singular big bad villian to try to kill, I myself have no idea who or what I’m rooting for and it just makes it so interesting.

It’s not clear who the “heroes” are either. At least to me. Each group of people have their own flaws and drawbacks. Meanwhile you’re just watching everything from this outside perspective as you’re following the priest narrating everything. The biggest conflict on this whole thing feels to be socio-political, and that’s my jam.

It really feels like stuff is just going sideways, tensions between different groups are rising. I’m not very sure who I should be rooting for because all manners of characters are making decisions where I can kind of see the argument but where at the same time I’m just thinking. “Is this really ethical? Or in any way effective?”

I have no idea what’s going to happen next, but I’m really looking forward to it. This took a long ass time to upload cause the exams and college assignments started kicking my ass before I could finish the whole series, I might only be able to finish kingdom come in the next publication of this silly little review thing I do. Until then though, stay safe and have a nice day!

[Next part soon-ish]

[sianagrace]

Bedknobs and Broomsticks and the Beautification of War and Witchcraft: Siana’s Panel Presentation

Robert Stevenson and Ward Kimball’s 1971 fever dream of a musical combines action and animation, war and witchcraft, feminism and effemination, and a classic Disney fantasy touch. Based on the books by English children's author Mary Norton, the story follows Miss Price, the town's "crazy lady", "spinster", and secret witch, as she takes in three young siblings displaced from London during World War II. The four join with scammer/magician Emelius Browne to search for a spell that could “end the war”. Let’s take a closer look!

Narratives and Myths: The Disney-fication of Witchcraft

Stevenson and Kimball Disney-fy witchcraft through Angela Lansbury’s character, Miss Price. Storytellers throughout history often present witches as antagonists or villains: Hansel and Gretel (1812), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), and The Sword in the Stone (1963), to name a few. Of course, by 1971, people worldwide could associate “Good Witch” with Glinda (1939), but she was not a catalyst for similarly-natured witches. Miss Price embodies a sense of normalcy and country charm that makes witchcraft seem more like a hobby rather than an all-encompassing characterization of evil. More broadly, Bedknobs and Broomsticks presents magic as realistic, providing the audience with an “anything is possible” mindset.

Depictions of Femininity and Masculinity: Just Feminist Enough

Being a witch simply slots into Miss Price’s identity: she is a single, private, middle-aged woman who lives alone in a large home fairly far from the town center. From our first encounter with her character, we can tell that she does not conform, and has no interest in conforming, to 1940s societal expectations regarding how a woman her age should present herself.

In her article “My Fair Lady: A Voice for Change”, scholar Marcie Ray notes that as America and Western Europe called in second-wave feminism, there came a filmic trend of musicals “[employing] the single girl character to depict the changing nature of (white) female sexuality” (293) as opposed to following a strict love plot. In a later section, “Eliza as the ‘Other’”, Ray discusses the tool of othering the lead female protagonist so she appears to have room for improvement, growth, and assimilation into proper society. Miss Price follows this formula, presenting palatable white femininity and feminism, but ultimately reverting to heterosexual expectations: Mr. Browne, once her anonymous professor of witchcraft, quickly becomes her love interest.

Aligning with the ongoing feminist movement at the time of this film’s production, Mr. Browne’s masculinity, and attached agency, come into question rather than being accepted as fact. His introduction in the film establishes him as a trickster, con artist, and coward. Miss Price turns him into a bunny multiple times, to which he replies “Miss Price, a word about your tactics: if I know I’m being changed into a hawk or a tiger, or something with a bit of flash, but always a fluffy white rabbit? It’s incorrigible!” This power dynamic cements Miss Price, and her playful, modern take on femininity, as the authority and lead throughout the film.

Class and Racial Subtexts: “Portobello Road”

The backdrop of World War II connects all the characters in this film through an environment devoid of abundance, and an expectation of having “less than”. Any hints of wealth or a British upper class can only be seen in what’s left behind during the height of the war rather than through individual characters.

The over ten-minute-long “Portobello Road” musical sequence demonstrates this time of unity through scarcity through color, music, and performance. The street, either through set building or editing, appears gray in itself and tinges everyone walking along the street similarly. This area of London feels communal and bustling while simultaneously being economically disadvantaged. The song, sung by all five of our lead protagonists and by the large ensemble, speaks of riches, fantasy, and possibility: the Portobello Road market is a symbol of hope, even if momentary and unfeasible.

There is little racial or ethnic subtext in this film - past, of course, the significance of WWII and all those groups ostracized, interned, and killed during the time. Portobello Road, however, curiously introduces a densely diverse enclave of London, including spotlight moments of Sikh soldiers, Scottish dancers, and Trini performers. Past their brief musical moments, we do not analyze or revisit these characters. We are, however, shown our five white protagonists interacting with these minority groups in a normalized, meaningful way: dancing, playing, and smiling alongside each other in this utopian street fair. This scene aligns more with the decade of the film’s production (late-60s and early-70s) than it does with the period in which it’s set (1940s). 

Significance to the Audience and Temporality

As briefly mentioned earlier, the character development in Bedknobs and Broomsticks is critical to ensure the comfort of 1970s audiences. Miss Price is just feminist enough, the children as just boisterous enough, Mr. Browne is just crass enough, and everyone is just poor enough. There are many things a contemporary audience can problematize about this film: Miss Price’s reverting to patriarchal expectations of marriage, love, and motherhood; the romanticization of war and, specifically, WWII; Mr. Browne’s sexist remarks about women's memories and professional capabilities. At its core, however, this is still a Disney fantasy with loveable, quirky characters, catchy musical numbers, and an entire additional animated world to fall in love with. There’s a steadfast formula that makes this film enjoyable despite its generational immobility.

Critical Discussion Questions

How do we create lovable characters whose backgrounds are classically/traditionally/stereotypically rooted in horror, antagonism, and/or villainy (ex. witches, con-artists, monsters)?

What generational differences do you see embedded in your film / what changes should/would be made in a remake?

Are love plots actually necessary to the plot of your film or other musicals? What would look different about the trajectory and public reception of the film without a love plot?

@theuncannyprofessoro

[cllnsllvn]

New Plymouth - Wednesday

You know how I said yesterday that today was probably going to be my best shot at a view of Mount Taranaki? Total bust - full cloud cover all day. I even drove out to the start of a trail I was contemplating doing. I ended up choosing not to because 1) it was longer than I had anticipated and I wasn't prepared and 2) there was literally no point in hiking uphill for 3 hours only to have a view of fog and cloud. So, I pivoted and headed to a few gardens instead. The first was Pukeiti - a garden renowned for its rhododendrons.

For those of you in the know, it is decidedly not rhododendron season. In fact, it is the one season that is not rhododendron season, because even winter sees the beginning of the blooms for the giant rhododendrons. I can only imagine how beautiful these gardens must be in the spring and summer. It was still really beautiful - I followed the Rhododendron Stroll first, then circled around to do the Valley of the Giants Walk. They both had panels of information about the plants themselves and some of the early botanists who named and redistributed some of them.

There were still some gorgeous flowers, sculptures, trees, water features, and views! I also enjoyed spending a bit of time listening to the soothing noises of the working water wheel.

After some lunch at the cafe at Pukeiti, I headed over to Lake Mangamahoe, where there would usually be a good view of Mount Taranaki on a clear day. Here was the view today. Really glad I didn't do a 5+ hour return hike based on this view. Beautiful mountain right? It's back there somewhere.

On the way back into town from Lake Mangamahoe, I stopped off at another garden - Tūpare. This used to be a private home and garden that is now owned and operated by the local council. It's built into a hillside, with many walking paths, different gardens, and lots of signs about the family who owned the property and the plants they planted. There was also a very friendly cat who allowed me to give a good long cuddle.

I headed back into town after Tūpare. I didn't mention yesterday, but I had to switch rooms in the hostel today. When I book, I always put a note requesting a bottom bunk - if they assign bunks, hopefully they take it into account, and if they don't, it's still always good to ask. Because I wrote in when I made the booking, the owner of the hostel very kindly upgraded me to a twin room last night because there were no bottom bunks available in the room I was meant to stay in. Tonight, though, I seem to be the only person in the shared room I was meant to be in, which means first choice of bed. Once I checked back in and exchanged my key for the new one, I headed back out for another walk along the coastal walkway.

I think that painting of Mount Taranaki might be the only view I'll get, unfortunately. I walked altogether too much today, and my feet are very sore. On my way back to the hostel, I headed to Three Sisters Brewery for some beer. I got myself a tasting paddle of four beers, and they were all very tasty.

I had a hazy IPA, an imperial red rye IPA, a feijoa peach ice cream smoothie sour (say that five times fast), and a nitro chocolate vanilla pastry stout. I think the red was my least favourite, but the other three were so good. I had an actual feijoa for the first time the other day, and I did not like it one bit. It is so fragrant that it tasted like I was eating soap or perfume. But something about it mixed with these other flavours was so good. And who doesn't love a good chocolate stout? I might even consider going back to try a few more of them - we'll see how the next few days go! The forecast for tomorrow and Friday is for rain, but we'll see what actually happens. Here's hoping it holds off!

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic - Fragments David Ellis

wada sez: Gather 'round, gather 'round, I have two more lost scripts to show ye. These were shared by David Ellis, who wrote just a single Mosaic to be released: "War Story". Not for lack of trying, though! It's shocking to me that nobody picked up either of these scripts, as they're both remarkably good.

"Hobby Time" (Bumblebee) [2010-09-21]

Panel One Iconic image of Bumblebee's robot mode as seen in the "--ation" trilogy. He's projecting a holomatter image of his holo-driver, the nameless hippy-chick female (and be sure to have her image flicker a bit so make it clear she's a hologram and not an actual human). The look on her face is inert; his is full of concentration.

(Also, leave room for the story's title and credits.)

CAPTION (Bumblebee's narrative): Holograms. CAPTION: For Autobots and Decepticons alike, it's functional.

Panel Two Cut to a view of Bumblebee's vehicle mode driving down the highway with the same holo-female at the wheel. Maybe show another car passing by, to get a sense of the Autobots being seen by others on a regular basis. In fact, would it work for the POV of this panel to be from inside some motorist's car?

CAPTION: It allows us to hide in plain sight on various worlds, without the natives wondering why we "vehicles" are moving around without drivers. CAPTION: Find a native, scan it, make a holo, and take care of business.

Panel Three Ideally, this panel should cover the width of the page. It's several versions of the same holo-female, each with a different outfit and hairstyle. The first could be her hippy-chick outfit as seen in the comics; another could be a Goth look; another could be a businesswoman, and so on. Heck, one could be wildly improbable like an heiress with a classy ballroom gown, or something from a Victoria's Secret store window (if that's not too risque), to show that while Bumblebee is aware of the idea of different looks on the same human, he's still experimenting and doesn't yet grasp the subtleties of fashion.

CAPTION: For me, it's something different. CAPTION: A fascination, for lack of a better word. CAPTION: The others don't notice, but I see so many different humans wearing so many different things. CAPTION: There's a point behind it; I know there is, and I want my holo-driver to blend in.

Panel Four We see Ironhide and Jazz watching Bumblebee as he crouches in a corner of their base, projecting his holo and looking for all the world like a boy caught playing with a doll. They look amused; he looks annoyed that they're teasing him.

CAPTION: The others are on my case about it. CAPTION: Prowl tells me not to waste energy on holomatter unless I'm on a mission. Jazz and Ironhide think it's funny. CAPTION: But they don't get it.

Panel Five Tight closeup of Bumblebee modifying the holo-girl's hairstyle. His face has the concentration of an artist's, as if this practice is fulfilling some inner creative need.

CAPTION: This war with the Decepticons leaves so much destruction and chaos, that it's a nice change of pace just to... CAPTION: ...create. CAPTION: And I find myself wondering...

Panel Six Cut to a police mugshot -- front view and side view, holding a nameplate in each one -- of a woman looking very much like Bumblebee's holo-girl, but she doesn't look much like the happy, idealized image Bumblebee carries around. She has a very weathered expression on her face, as she's not happy with the whole arrest-and-booking procedure; she looks like she's been through some hard living. The name and serial number can be whatever you want to put on there, just make it look like a convincing mugshot.

CAPTION: ...whatever happened to that human I scanned once? CAPTION: What's her life like? Is she anything like the way I imagine her? CAPTION: Maybe I'll find out one day.

END

wada sez: I'll be perfectly honest, David Ellis is clearly a cut above the vast majority of Mosaic writers. There's a few things here which make me roll my eyes—the rubbish title, the way it zeroes in on this one woman from Infiltration, and the twist of "aha, she was a criminal all along!"—but it's technically competent stuff that feels like it's engaging with actual human emotions through a uniquely Transformers lens. It's the idea of an image of a person as a proxy for the person themself; of idealising someone until the image becomes entirely divorced from the truth of that person. This is made more complex by the fact that this is also a form of self-actualization for Bumblebee; the woman he's fixating on forms the basis of an identity he is constructing for himself on Earth. The sentence "boy caught playing with a doll" evokes gender non-conformity to me—but on a much more direct level, I imagine many online Transformers fans would relate to this in the sense that we're all too old to be playing with toys, from a typical perspective. It's a story that invites interpretation and should resonate with people for different reasons, meaningfully building upon a minor beat from the official comics. For me, it's the final panel that really lets the script down—I think the dramatic irony of knowing the truth about the woman takes us out of Bumblebee's perspective without adding much to the story. Surely the tragedy here is that Bumblebee's life is so completely removed from human experience that he will likely never see this person again, and certainly never understand her! This next script is also thoughtful in its own way...

"Last of the Line" (Optimus Prime) [2010-09-21]

NOTE TO ARTIST AND COLORIST: This story takes place in the "Transformers: War for Cybertron" video game continuity. As such, all character designs and backgrounds should be noticeably in keeping with that game's aesthetic, with the exception of the last panel, which is '80s-era Generation One.

Also, except for the last panel, all characters should be in colors other than those we've come to associate with the canon characters. We're dealing with player-controlled character models from Team Deathmatch, explained here as other 'bots who walked off the same assembly lines as the characters we know.

Panel One Splashy panel of War for Cybertron's multiplayer Autobots charging into battle on the "Molten" map. We see a dark blue SPEEDSTER SCOUT (Sideswipe's body), a red INTERCEPTOR JET SCIENTIST (Silverbolt's body), a green DEFENDER SOLDIER (Warpath's body), and – most notably – a gold HEAVY RIG LEADER (Optimus' body).

The Leader is bolstering his teammates with a War Cry ability, so it'd be cool to see the glowing effect around the Autobots (likely via computer coloring).

(Also, leave room for the story's title and credits.)

CAPTION (Optimus Prime's narrative): This war has consumed our entire race. CAPTION: Not just as a collective…

Panel Two Reverse-angle shot of four Decepticons, toward whom the Autobots are charging. Bringing up the read is a CRUSHER SOLDIER (Brawl's body); leaping skyward is a STALKER SCIENTIST (Slipstream's body). Charging out in front are two ENFORCER SCOUTS (Barricade's body), distinguishable only by their differing color schemes. Most of the focus should be on the Enforcer Scouts.

CAPTION: …but as individuals as well. CAPTION: We are born on assembly lines, batches of us, numbering in the hundreds.

Panel Three One Enforcer Scout (#1) transforms into his car mode, while the other (#2), continues firing his EMP shotgun.

CAPTION: Hundreds of the same model… CAPTION: …but each one is distinct. ENFORCER SCOUT #2: Flank 'em if you want, but I like the direct approach!

Panel Four The Heavy Rig Leader cleaves #2 in the face with his Energon Axe, causing #2 to drop his shotgun. #1 can be seen in car mode behind Heavy Rig, peppering him with machine-gun fire.

ENFORCER SCOUT #2: Agk! ENFORCER SCOUT #1: Serves you right! CAPTION: Each one has become a fighter in this war…

Panel Five Splashy panel of the CRUSHER SOLDIER in the Autobots' midst, clubbing Heavy Rig and Speedster Scout with his Energon Hammer while using his Whirlwind ability.

CAPTION: …but some are better soldiers than others.

Panel Six Heavy Rig lies on the craggy magma ground, his armor shredded by Crusher's hammer. It's the instant before the Autobot explodes. Maybe include Crusher's foot in the panel as he walks over Heavy Rig's body.

CAPTION: Very few of us from ANY model line have survived to the present day.

Panel Seven Cut to OPTIMUS PRIME (the real one, not just a Heavy Rig), G1-style, set against an Earth backdrop, perhaps a forest of trees in the Pacific Northwest – as far away from Cybertron's Molten map as one could get.

His posture is contemplative, as if it bothers him how few of his kind have survived.

CAPTION: Hundreds of thousands of lives lost. CAPTION: Individual sparks extinguished. CAPTION: Leaving precious few to carry on the model line, and the Cybertronian race itself. CAPTION: I fear this war will lead to our extinction.

END

David sez: This one is based on the "Transformers: Warfor Cybertron" video game. It occurred to me that in a way all those multiplayer matches with player-created Transformers could actually be in continuity, since they're products of assembly lines. The multiplayer matches represent early skirmishes in the Autobot/Decepticon war, and that's why we haven't seen the countless iterations of the model lines that must have existed. They were blown to smithereenies.

[leemurcats]

I feel like Wally and Barry superspeed stress clean/organizing when they don't want to deal with anyone or are avoiding a situation. Kinda like how speedsters go into Flash Time or whatever it's called when they're panicking or trying to hide their feelings from their friends.

I see it being similar to the Young Justice comics (at least I think it was YJ, but correct me if I'm wrong) where Bart went into Flash Time ignored the other members of the Core Four when they came to see him, and was just... reading all the books in the library. Like my dude was so fast, they couldn't see him. You can get a better understanding of it from this post by @givemewallywestorgivemedeath where they have specific comic panels showing just how bad speedsters are at healthy coping.

Like imagine for a second that they do this. Barry Allen, at least my understanding of him which is partially based off a lot of headcanons (and projection but shush), is fairly organized. I think back to one of the animated comics (which might not be canon, I'm not sure but I liked the story) from a couple years ago, where he'd just come back to his job as a forensic scientist and was shoved into the archives for a while to organize everything. He seemed happy doing it, even using a little superspeed to hurry along the process. And I feel like a forensic scientist has to be somewhat organized and clean if they want to keep all the facts of a crime straight. I know it's a fandom (I think) interpretation that Barry takes cases when he's stressed to keep his mind off things, but imgaine him, when he's alone in the house and can't rant to Iris for whatever reason, he just goes full malewife mode and obsessively does a deep clean of the house, going as far as to reorganize the plates and glasses in the cupboards and taking meticulous care that it looks comepletly imacculate. Once he's done, he's probably hungry so he cooks himself a meal. He then has to put everything back in exactly the same way. Then he looks at the time, and knows Iris should be home soon, and speedruns setting up a romantic little date for the two of them.

And then Wally. There is no doubt in my mind that the man compartmentalizes everything. In the comics I don't think he's all that neurotic, but I still feel like everything has a place in his mind, however odd it might be. Especially when he was younger with the fab five. There was home, where he had to be quiet and obedient or else fear for his safety at the hands of his father, and his "job," if you can call it that, where he's a quippy extroverted kid. When he grows up, I think it starts applying more to time periods in his life than aspects of his present life. Most of it would be due to the overlap between his personal and superhero life, so it would be near impossible to seperate the two at this point. I mean, the guy works for his Justice League coworker when their both civilians, and one of his best friends, who used to be a super villian, works in the same building. Instead of a here and there situation, it would be a before and after. Before and after he got his powers, before and after he met Linda, before and after escaping the speedforce, and so on.

This might just be me projecting, but sometimes organizing or cleaning in one area of my life, can help make sure I can seperate everything evenly (for lack of a better word), and I can definetly see Wally doing the same, happening mostly before he got trapped in the speedforce when it was there vs here, but occasionally now when he gets overwhelmed. Sometimes when he stayed with the titans, they'd walk into the kitchen to see it comepletely reorganized. Sometimes Barry or Iris would visit him and see his room looking like it was a memorial rather than a 14-year-old's room that was actively lived in. As an adult he reorganizes and painstakingly cleans everything. Kids left their toys out? What are you talking about, they're neatly put in the bins like they should be. Stains on some the the clothes? Might as well do all the laundry. Oh, and don't forget to perfectly fold, match, and put them all away. Finished some leftovers and needs to clean the tupperware? No problem, while he's at it, he'll match the lids by size and reorganize the plates and bowls to save more room. Sometimes he completely changes the wat something is normally put away and leaves detailed notes to everyone who might, who just maybe, might have the slimmest possibility of being affected, telling them where he put everything.

Are they legible? Perhaps, on a good day. Probably not. It entirely depends on how he decided to write said notes. Did he decide to bullet point everything, skipping lines for each new point for visibility, or did he decide to write it like a fanfiction author who has never heard of an enter key? Does he use proper punctuation and grammar, or does he write like a seven year old during English? Is the handwriting even readable or is it just chickenscratch that only a pharmascist can read? Who knows? Wally West does what the vibes demand, and right now the vibes demand dyslexics to suffer! Or that a speedster halfway across the world responding to his stress and just perked up like a cat who has been awoken from a nap? Who knows? Not him! It's probably fine.

It was, in fact, not fine, as Linda broke into her own house instead of using her keys and speed talked at Wally to make sure her husband was okay. She then smacks him upside the head for making her worry so much.

[randomcomicbookreading]

Ms Mystic #2 (1984)

I bought this comic-book because of the Neal Adams cover. Nice surprise after discovering he is the author of interior pages also. Even not being a Continuity Comics' book, Ms Mystic is property or Adams, according the credits. In fact, it had a reprint/relaunch on Continuity a few years after.

The basic concept lies on a group of ecologist super-heroes. At the beginning of the book, we have a resume page that tells the story so far, more than enough to understand everything. We are in the middle of Ms Mistic (and friends) origin story: She comes from another dimension, brought to our planet by accident by a group of tecno-ecologist scientific warriors, while they were in the middle of a battle against the security forces of a specially toxic factory. The second issue starts with an inconscious Ms Mystic exploring the story of Earth in the astral plane. There, she makes contact with Mother Earth (really) and convinces her to provide elemental powers to the team, that is fighting (and losing) in the physical plane. Voilá: We have a full brand new super-hero team. The narrative/stylistic core of the book can be found in its central pages, where the events of physical/astral planes are narrated in parallel along double pages, dividing both narrative lines with a strong black line.

The astral section is based on a psychedelic near-Metal Hurlant imaginery, with our heroine naked but "convenient covered" in the fashion of Barbarella. Mother Earth looks like she comes from a Victor Moscoso poster. In general, coloring is outstanding in comparison with the average comic-books of that time, supported by a equally superior paper quality.

The physical battle section is more conventional, with a general design fully valid as base to create a toy line, with the homogenic super-hero team uniforms, the techno-monster evil warriors and action vehicles.

It's remarcable that, in oposition to other sensationalistic covers by Adams, this one reflects a literal scene of the interior. In fact, the cover is used as first panel on page 24. Also in the cover, we can watch a clearly intentional joke from Neal Adams, depicting the elemental super-team as if they were the Fantastic Four.

This second chapter of Ms Mystic finished in a thrilling way, with the main character cruelly impaled by the death device where she was restrained (it would not be possible in a Comics Code Approved book). I've had enough curiosity to look for the next issue on the Internet and dowload an old scan. I'm not going to spoil, but I can say that the #2 was the last one penned by Adams before passing his role to one of his clones.

Purchased at Radar Comics (Madrid) for 2€

[masterchef901]

We're weird here, right? Yeah? Good. Let me tell you about the fucking MAGICAL narrative journey that is the CoD Zombies story. It's weird, it's jank as hell, and by the end it has me thinking seriously on the implicit meta-narrative to it. Also, the story ends like 4 separate times.

So we begin with CoD: World at War.

"Nazi Zombies", a minigame unlocked by beating the main story, where you get to feel more justified in sinking lead into a horde than possibly anywhere else in gaming, or life for that matter. Over the course of the original maps, the devs see positive fan response and put a little effort into it. We get perks, fancy technomagic laser guns and wonder-weapons, and even some characters and lore.

That lore, by the way, is "The nazis were experimenting on mysterious rocks that turned out to turn people into zombies. Then the zombies broke out. The end." Our heroes, meanwhile, are all simple as hell. A Japanese honor-obsessed samurai, a German mad scientist, a Russian whose only desire in life is vodka, and an ultra-macho rambo-esque American with an IQ only marginally higher than that of the zombies they'll be working together to slaughter. Basically, all stereotypes, but played for that over-the-top sort of comedy enough that I'll be generous and call them 'caricatures' instead. This group would eventually come to be called "Ultimis".

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Back by popular demand, is the Zombies mode, now no longer exclusive to the nazi brand of zombie, because the story's going international. This time, our heroes are going on a tour of WWII-era conspiracy theories. Ancient Vril mysticism, Shangri-La, nazi moon bases - basically the plot of Iron Sky 2. Simple, except not really, but definitely absurd in a fun, goofy way. Notably, the loading screens and advertising also framed these maps in a sort of "comic book"-y way, to help us understand the level of narrative consistency and complexity we'd be seeing here.

(Before continuing, by the way, we also have the absolute TREAT that is the map "Five". Seriously, go watch its opening cutscene, and then imagine those characters being your friendly voices for the duration of the game)

The critical thing here is that, while WaW had some "easter eggs", they were just cute little bits and bobs. "Interact with some rocks hidden around the map, play a song", stuff like that. But Black Ops easter eggs were something else entirely. Trying to explain these feels like explaining the conspiracy theories that inspired the maps. "Go stand on the floor panels to enter Eclipse mode. Then find the four wall-dials and set them to specific values. Now use the shrink ray on a specific rock, which you must then shoot around the map until it lands on the temple." Stuff like that. And even though nobody realized it until the end, they were all connected - if you do all the easter eggs leading up to it, then the Moon egg culminates in the mad scientist character taking over the zombie horde. And then you blow up the Earth.

That's right, they decide to just go flying beyond all chance of imagining this stuff was happening on the fringes of history, it was all-along the story of an apocalypse enacted by a mad scientist and his rival engineering events against him. The End. This was the BIG moment that grabbed the attention and imagination of me and others as a kid. It took Zombies from "neat" to "COOL", and, for better and worse, secured this storyline and style as the "zombies breadwinner" for several games to come.

Side note: I don't recall exactly when they did this, but at some point Treyarch's writers realized that it's maybe a bad look to have one of the playable characters be "'German scientist who helped create the Nazi Zombies", on account of, y'know, the fact that that makes him a nazi. So at some point they did that thing where they "soft-retcon" in some audio clarifying that actually while he was always a psychopath, he was only ever in it For The Science (tm) and it was actually his rival Dr. Maxis who signed his research team on with the reich.

I'm not sure if there's a term for this sort of the thing - when writers don't really retcon in the sense of overwriting previously established facts, but use "reveals" to try and overwrite the meaning of those previously established facts. Yes, technically that's what all good reveals do, but it's also obvious in times like these that there used to be a clear understanding of the lore on both the authors' and audience's parts, which the author has since decided they don't like and want to redo. "Oops, that previous evidence/event didn't count because of contrived circumstances you knew nothing about and could not possibly have guessed."

If I sound like I'm going off on a tangent, I want to be clear - firstly, this sort of practice always frustrates me, because it makes it clear that the author is readily willing to "cheat" in the game that is the communication of a narrative, and secondly because that's secretly what this whole mega-ramble is actually about.

Black Ops 2: We Care About The Lore Now

So, Treyarch wanted to do more Zombies, and they liked the vibe they had so far, so they decide to stay in the storyline that exploded earth. The characters - now a farm girl, a nerd, a hobo, and a schizophrenic guy, all American, all came off more annoying than the "comedic" take Treyarch wanted. This group would be dubbed "Victis", and not only were these characters poorly received, but the story itself would feel aimless. How do you one-up a grand master scheme and the apocalypse? What are our survivors even doing? Treyarch has our old mad scientist and his rival acting as voices in the Victis gang's collective head to try and vie for control of the zombies, and this story would ultimately culminate in one of them (based on player choices involving arcane steps punctuated by some oddly sexual ones) winning the power struggle, and either way, some type of "the world ends again", either with the mad scientist turning the world into his plaything, or (the canon ending) the rival scientist enacting some weird arcane collapse that will let him be with his daughter. Either way, we don't revisit this world again.

I specify world because the characters will return, and even in the same game, actually.

But first - in the middle of the Victis plotline we take a brief visit to Alcatraz for an unexpectedly great zombies experience that's entirely disconnected from either of the plotlines so far. I bring this up only for completeness sake, and for a point that'll hopefully become clearer later.

Anyway, we now return to our regularly scheduled zombie programming - by which I mean, a whole new experience, Origins, featuring "modernized", more tasteful renditions of our original Ultimis team. We're introduced now to a strong-but-disciplined American soldier, a now safely WWI-era not-quite-mad German Scientist, a world-weary Russian who uses alcohol to tastefully take the edge off, and a Japanese samurai warrior who's struggling with the decaying traditional idea of "honor" in a World-War 1 setting.

This "new" (yet chronologically older) variant of the team would be dubbed "Primis".

And this time the plot has them freeing the spirit of a young girl, Samantha, daughter of Science Rival Guy Dr. Maxis who we'd just seen end the world (twice) from some weird arcane trap on the battlefield "of the Great War" so she can go to a mysterious place called "Agartha". Also, the ending cutscene shows her and "Eddie" (who appears to be a child version of our playable german scientist) to be playing with dolls and action figures of the zombies and the playable characters - implying that in fact our whole storyline thus far was "just a game", and the shift of control over the zombie hordes in the first game to Edward Richtofen was in fact just "Eddie" taking his turn playing as the zombies.

It's easy to forget for those of us who've kept up with the story since this, but I cannot overstate how confusing this entire situation was to resolve from a lore perspective. Options were:

1: As implied in the cutscene, acktually "it was all just a game". The lore that players had worked hard to uncover was all, within its own canon, a game being played by children. This was wildly unpopular, but also quite possibly the authors' intended interpretation because in a very real sense, it all WAS a game, and the lore mostly WAS made-up by players out of scraps of lore they'd found.

2: Our four protagonists had acktually all met for the first time in WWI, then again incidentally wound up together again after un-developing as characters due to Magic Rock Exposure (tm) in WWII. Somehow the little girl freed in Origins and her dad whose brain got put in a drone during that process both get put back into their bodies, I guess.

3: It's all a parallel universe with its own separate continuity; the little girl and Eddie believe they're just playing games with toys when in reality they've been shipped off to copyright-safe-Heaven and "games with toys" is how they cope with the trauma of their zombie-filled lives.

BLACK OPS 3: MORE

So, Treyarch picks option 3. Makes sense, it keeps us gamers feeling like our investment was in something worthwhile and not arbitrarily patched together, while also allowing them some more narrative liberty. Easy, right?

WRONG

Rather than just roll with "We're doing zombies again in a newer, cleaner universe", they have to tie everything up ALL together. Our new plotline is that ACTHSDHALY the zombie-rocks came from a bunch of eldritch tentacle-creatures called Apothicons from super-hell. We meet Dr. Monty, who's basically like if Willy Wonka was actually secretly God who's trying to get the kids safe and sound up in heaven and the now eldritch-based zombies sealed back away.

We follow Team Primis as they go back into our first universe to harvest the souls of Team Ultimis (so, their own original souls) which will somehow allow them to go to I-can't-believe-it's-not-Heaven too. They go there, shit accidentally goes wrong when eldritch-satan breaks out, but the gang beats him up with guns and Monty is able to re-establish his perfect world.

Except, uh, he tried to delete the Primis crew while he was it it, but don't worry, that random moment in Alcatraz earlier was act[coughing fit]ally super-duper important and drinking the blood of those prisoners let out heroes survive! BUT ACTASKFHALY THIS WAS MONTY'S PLAN ALL ALONG and he teleports them back in time to fight in-

oh right so "the great war" from origins wasn't in reference to WWI, it was

actually

the site of The Great War between humanity and the apothicons, and Monty time-travels the crew back then to be the heroes of legend that set up Origins to happen, creating a time loop. Characters are, this whole time, saying "the paradox must be resolved" without ever explaining what it is.

But yeah anyway the whole ride this game leads to a big "it was all a time loop" cycle deal, and also the tone has slowly shifted from BO1 comic-style to something that feels more like an "Avengers"-style quiptacular with MORE budget, MORE stakes, MORE lore that actually isn't a good thing because the more lore they pile on the more twisted and absurd the story has to get and also it occurs to me that "going avengers" actually is kinda the natural conclusion to "being like comic books".

BLACK OPS 4: BUT WAIT THERE'S FOUR

So at this point, Treyarch and Activision in general are spending more focus on trying to figure out a new angle to Zombies, but nothing takes off. Infinity Ward's "Zombies in Spaceland" was a whiff, Cod:WW2's "reboot" of Nazi Zombies didn't stick, and their new "Chaos" storyline featuring mixed-religious lore was also met with lukewarm-to-poor response (sidenote here: now that we're in a proper era where it's common practice to ask "What if Ra punched Odin in the face while Ares watches" we really should establish a term for it, like "Mixed-Religious Combat" following the form of "Mixed Martial Arts).

SO They felt some pressure to go back once more to the cash cow what is their absolute mess of an "original" zombies story, now termed the "Aether" arc. They don't have many maps left to develop this but that doesn't stop them from opening the story again, and this time the writers have fucking HAD IT with this story so they decide it's time to fucking END it.

Here's your finale: Victis crew (the all-american team nobody liked) are back, slightly better written this time, on the map that had gone the longest without a remake (notably, in keeping with modern media practice, every zombies map from from the Ultimis-Primis plotline had been remade at least once by now), and they make a macguffin.

Then Primis Nikolai (the russian guy) uses it to wish a new, zombie-free universe into existence and sends the kids away into it.

Also he poisons and kills all of Ultimis and Primis. Then has the kids shoot him. THE ADULTS ARE ALL DEAD NOW AND THEY GOT BANISHED TO SUPERHELL WITH THEIR MULTIVERSE THE END. Nikolai gives us some lore mumbo jumbo about how the arcano-babble and the eldritch-babble had done some techno-babble that "bound the team's destiny forever to the apothicon menace", so that the only way a universe could ever be free of zombies would be for him and his friends to all die.

And the thing is, he's right. Because if you've followed this far, you're probably seeing a pattern: People like these characters, even in their worst-written moments, and Activision isn't going to just let that go unmilked. As long as there is any possible way for these characters to return, they'll be brought back and the lore is going to be held and gunpoint and forced to cook up a reason for them to be there shooting zombies. So the only possible way to let this tortured, tangled mess of a plot finally reach an actual ending is to kill its protagonists - and not just kill them, but write them off so conclusively that there's no chance of resurrection, no more alternate universes containing them, NOTHING. THEY ARE GONE. And true to the Homestuck-ass law that was inspired by this exact effect, the only way death can stick from a narrative sense is if everyone's death is either a Just end or a Heroic sacrifice to nobly ensure a better life For the Kids.

Samantha and Eddie (at this point nobody asks why Eddie even exists or what timeline these kids are from) are finally safe. The end.

COD COLD WAR THE STORY KEEPS GOING

As if to prove my point, Cold War Zombies picks up with a new set of protagonists... and an easter egg featuring the return of Samantha, now slightly more grown up, I guess, and also with superpowers? And then she flies around a bit, before finally heroically sacrificing herself out of the story for good. Eddie - now a full adult Edward Richtofen once more - is a "big reveal" in a cutscene afterwards, confirming that, in fact, there will be no peace fucking ever until every last character from this beautiful, twisted plot is gone.

EPILOGUE

And I want to be clear, it is beautiful. I wouldn't have followed it this far or spent two hours learning just how much I have to type about it if I didn't love every second of it, especially the seconds spent hating on it. I could, and probably eventually will write another essay at some point on how fucking much I love jank-ass "broken" things like this.

But for now, I hope y'all see my points here. It's this weird case you see happen every now and then where people just fall in love with their characters, and won't ever let go. Certainly doesn't help that the authors of those characters can't figure out how to write anyone else decently, but this is just one of many franchises I've seen where the unwillingness to let go of a fan-favorite leaves the plot tied in knots as it constantly has to try and present a NEW BIGGEST THREAT EVER that becomes a BIG DRAMATIC CONCLUSIVE FINALE that then needs even bigger contrivances to bring the favorites back.

It's done a fucking number on Halo's story, which is impressive because a lot of halo's core fans never even really consider that it has one. It's hard for me to talk about Halo here without thinking to myself "STOP TALKING ABOUT JOHN"

Same deal with Marvel, same with Homestuck, same deal in a lot of cases that I'm sure you're aware of too.

So as my closing thought and my reward to you for reading this far, here's some homework! What the fuck do you call these problems? What do you call it when lore starts to go sour because it's spent too long being about the same thing? What do you call it when fan demand forces writers to rethink their endings repeatedly? What do you call it when writers "cheat" their way around prior writing, re-contextualizing everything so much that it's hard to actually believe anything they say anymore and we're just left to sigh and feel odd relief when they say "Somehow Palpatine has returned" without further explanation because at least that means ONLY the ending of the original trilogy has its weight retroactively worsened?