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"Writer Karl Kesel and artist Tom Grummett introduced a cocky, hotheaded teenage clone of Superman in The Adventures of Superman #501 [sic - technically it was in #500]. Outfitted with a 'hip' leather jacket, several extraneous belts, flip-up sunglasses, red gloves, an earring, and a fade haircut, the Boy of Steel (who initially resists the moniker Superboy) is the successful result of Cadmus Labs's attempt to create a genetic duplicate of the Man of Steel. The duplication process is not perfect, however, because Superboy possesses a different power set--'tactile telekinesis'--which can only duplicate Superman's powers of flight, strength, and invulnerability. Superboy represents Superman's courage and passion." (Glen Weldon, Superman: The Unauthorized Biography)

...and yeah, he does. Weldon's not wrong. But I would argue that there's more to it.

Kon represents the inner child, everything that is vulnerable about his predecessor. He has no parents and never did--for all practical purposes, he's an orphan. Everyone knows about his powers and is eager to exploit him for them, and his youth and extreme naivete make him an easy target. He's always taking care of other people, but no one's really taking care of him in any meaningful sense. He's desperate to be loved and that gets him hurt over and over. Emotionally, he's incredibly isolated, with no one to relate to him.

And intially he represents everything that Clark could have become without a good upbringing by loving, responsible parents. When Kon is introduced, the Kents are appalled by the conceited, smart-mouthed, self-absorbed boy they see on TV claiming to be their son's successor (though they will take to him immediately when they meet him in person), and the point is driven home: they didn't raise this boy, no one did, and he's a mess because of it. Selflessness and a sense of duty toward others are things that Kon has to learn for himself the hard way, instead of having them distilled in him and modeled for him by people who care about who he will grow up to be. He is without guidance, without boundaries much of the time, and this puts him in dangerous positions. He is unquestionably a hero and no doubt would be no matter how he raised--it's crucial to who he is--but the road there is so much more difficult and painful than it would have been with the privilege of having a solid support system to help him toward a secure, wise adulthood.

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Okay, maybe there's sort of some roundabout evidence? In Justice Society of America 1992 #6, the team have recently returned from their time stuck in limbo (...long story), and those who have families have reunited with them, and they're all going on a vacation together. Al Pratt's not in the greatest mood while everyone else is having a good time, and his friend Ted Grant asks, "Still bothers you to be with the couples, doesn't it?" (In this case, Jay and Joan.) And Al replies, "I remember all the fun we had with 'em...when Mary was alive. Never even said good-bye. We came back...and she'd been...gone for a year!"

Which strongly suggests at the very least a friendliness among the Garricks and the Pratts collectively. A specific friendship between Joan and Mary wouldn't be implausible.

I make it a point to deal in canon evidence and plausible analysis when I discuss comics, but sometimes I do have headcanons and here's one: I think it's likely that Joan Garrick and Mary Pratt were good friends. Their husbands were teammates, all the JSA people seem to know each other's families and get together socially, so they definitely would have met (and we know that Jay at the very least knew Mary, because he says after meeting Grant that he can see both parents in this boy, so surely Joan would have known her too). They were the only JSA wives who didn't have children, and that would be something to bond over. Joan studied...I think chemistry in college and was a professor for a while; the college classes Mary is seen taking suggest the possibility of some kind of science major too. They're both forthright and outspoken, which would create some lively interactions, but I think ultimately they would have appreciated each other's company. There's no actual evidence for it, but there's no evidence against it either.

Anyway, that's an angle I'm taking with the still in-progress fic, in which Grant has dinner with the Garricks and Drama Ensues, and I'm getting invested. Someone please put me in charge of JSA stuff; I have Ideas.

[isfjmel-phleg]

I make it a point to deal in canon evidence and plausible analysis when I discuss comics, but sometimes I do have headcanons and here's one: I think it's likely that Joan Garrick and Mary Pratt were good friends. Their husbands were teammates, all the JSA people seem to know each other's families and get together socially, so they definitely would have met (and we know that Jay at the very least knew Mary, because he says after meeting Grant that he can see both parents in this boy, so surely Joan would have known her too). They were the only JSA wives who didn't have children, and that would be something to bond over. Joan studied...I think chemistry in college and was a professor for a while; the college classes Mary is seen taking suggest the possibility of some kind of science major too. They're both forthright and outspoken, which would create some lively interactions, but I think ultimately they would have appreciated each other's company. There's no actual evidence for it, but there's no evidence against it either.

Anyway, that's an angle I'm taking with the still in-progress fic, in which Grant has dinner with the Garricks and Drama Ensues, and I'm getting invested. Someone please put me in charge of JSA stuff; I have Ideas.

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(Young Justice 1998 #5)

[with full awareness I am about to offer the most violent and least helpful solution to the problem at hand] perhaps it is time... for a woman's touch

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Just saw a post asking how tall people are and now I want to make it a poll. Apologies to people in the fringe height categories, you do not get specifics.

I had to consult a chart for this

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You know you're the emotional support daughter when your mom refers to herself in conversation with you as your "sister" and doesn’t realize she did that until you point it out 😂

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and then there's the scholar who is all indignant that "Mia [Dearden]’s story reads as a warning to any girls who might want to ‘grow up before [they] have to,’ encouraging them to remain young and innocent," comparing Mia's narrative to how Stephanie Brown's narrative treated her, and while there are indeed significant issues with how both of these stories are handled, they are not the same thing. Stephanie at age fifteen engages in risky sexual behavior consensually with a boy around her age; Mia by the same age is a victim of childhood sexual abuse and trafficking whose "overabundance of sexuality and precocity" (as the scholar describes it) is something that her circumstances have forced her to develop, not an expression of her own choices.

This isn't a story about Green Arrow hypocritically trying to repress Mia's sexuality because she's a girl; this is about Mia's having survived horrible things that were beyond her control that she could not consent to because she was a child, the tragedy of her having to live with the effects of this abuse, and how she finds empowerment in taking up her heroic mantle. And I am baffled that this scholar isn't picking up on the extremely significant fact that the character was abused, even while acknowledging Mia's "forced promiscuity" and quoting a line from her about what she did to survive on the streets since she was eleven (but not adding the further context that she was on the streets in the first place because she had run away from a sexually abusive father). That fact completely changes the issue at hand.

This could have been a discussion of CSA in the context of comics' portrayal of adolescence. But instead it's assumed that Mia freely chose what happened to her, because that better fits the point the scholar wishes to make.

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There are so few academic resources about comics, especially ones pertaining to the corner of it that I'm dealing with, and when I do find something, I have to deal with things like a scholar claiming that Marvel heroes are the ones grounded in real-world problems but DC's are sort of catching up (as of 2013) and then proceeding to list examples that suggest she hasn't read much besides Green Arrow-related material and even so she misspells Mia Dearden's surname.

Not enough real-world problems in the DC'verse? Clearly this scholar has not read, say, The Ray 1994, which is about a young man whose tremendous powers can't compensate for his lack of real-world experience due to a ridiculously sheltered upbringing. His de facto father dies and leaves him nothing, the best jobs he can manage to get with his limited education are minimum-wage fast food jobs that he initially struggles to keep, he lives in a squalid studio apartment with no refrigerator, and he lacks the maturity and budgeting skills to effectively utilize his income for household needs. The unlying thread of the whole series is his ongoing failure to get a refrigerator.

And that's just one example. I could be here all night detailing others. The 1990s era of DC, which is what I'm most familiar with, was actually often successful (depending on which book you read) in blending the fantastical with the mundane to make their heroes relatable.

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I love the old timey phrase "you forget yourself". bro that was so impolite like do you even know who you are rn

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As someone whose body type does best with waist definition, I find the absurd number of second-hand vendors on the internet selling dresses that don't include the belt that was supposed to go with it to be comedically frustrating. What do you mean so many of you don't have the belt anymore. Were you all that careless. Did you all see a belt on your new dress and were like KILL IT WITH FIRE.

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😬

So that professor who came up behind me and rubbed my shoulders that one time and turned up at Bible study back in March has joined the church I go to, and I've mostly managed to avoid him, but this morning at church he came up behind me as I was sitting alone in a pew and touched my shoulder, without saying anything at first. It caught me off guard and took me a moment to realize it was him. I stood up so he couldn't reach me, and then he nonverbally indicated that he wanted a hug. And not like a "side hug," a full-on hug. I felt cornered and didn't know how to decline (should have just extended my hand for a handshake instead or something but I didn't have the presence of mind to do that), so I sort of lightly touched his arms while leaning in slightly, keeping my body at as much of a distance as I could. He acted all pleased to see me and made small talk about how was I and where am I working now and how is my family and he saw that my sister got married and time goes by so quickly--and then my friend arrived and he left.

Anyway, I am not comfortable with this. We do not have the sort of relationship that justifies this level of physical contact, and we never have. There are other men at church whom I'm much friendlier with, but we don't touch beyond handshakes. The only men I do hug are family members, and I prefer to keep it that way.

I think I'm going to have to not sit alone in the pew before church anymore and instead wait until I can go with a friend into the auditorium. Ambush physical contact that throws one off seems to be this guy's method, so I will need to give him no opportunity to do so.

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I opened up the Grant fic file and reread it. And...it's not half bad. I don't hate it at all. I want to finish it! I think it could be really good if I keep giving it effort.

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Farewells: My Camp experience wasn't perfect (life interfered a lot), but it was pretty productive. I completed a draft of my chapter; it needs extensive editing, but now at least there's something to fix. I wish I could remember a favorite anything, but it's all blurring together!

Camp Tolkien: Final Day

Welcome back to Camp Tolkien!

Our two-week summer camp is a chance for you to work on the project of your choice in the company of other writers. No matter which stage of the process you’re in–brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revising–Camp Tolkien’s activities are here to help you make progress. Bring along your projects, and have fun!

At Camp Tolkien, Saturday is Free Day! Today, we bring back all the activities from the past week, and you can join in whichever one you wish. This is your opportunity to try an activity that you didn’t have a chance to try earlier in the week, try an activity from a day you missed, or to repeat a favorite activity. Try one or try them all–it’s your free day, so do what you like.

The activities will be listed under the cut. They will be listed in the same order they were provided during the week.

An optional additional activity for this last day of Camp is

Farewells: Tell us how your Camp experience went. Which activities did you most enjoy? How much progress did you make? What is your favorite thing that you created during this camp experience?

When you’re finished, reblog or reply to this post, telling us how it went, and/or sharing what you wrote for the day.

Have fun, go forth, and create!

Monday

Letter Writing: Share a letter written by a character from your project. If you want to make it a postcard, include a picture that relates to some element of your story.

Singalong: Listen to some music and use a lyric to inspire some element of your project.

Swimming: Set a timer for ten minutes and write. Come up for air, take at least a five minute break, then write another ten minutes.

Sandcastles: Describe a building in the setting of your project.

Tuesday

Shadow Puppets: Describe at least three characters in your project, using only 1-2 sentences for each.

Foraging: Find a piece of paper that is not writing paper–it could be a napkin, an envelope, a piece of newsprint, etc.–and use it to hand-write something related to your project.

Cookout: Write a short scene and make sure to describe it using all five senses.

Canoeing: Write for five minutes. Open a new document and try to write the same scene from memory. Compare the two versions and keep your favorite.

Wednesday

Truth or Dare: Talk about a secret from a character’s past OR tell us about something they’re terrified to do.

Knot-tying: Write down two things that happen in your story, then make a list of at least five intermediate steps that happen between those scenes.

Tree Climbing: Complete three ten-minute writing sprints, aiming for a higher wordcount each time.

Stargazing: Work on your project in the dark, using only candlelight or flashlight (or screen light) for illumination.

Thursday

Dodgeball: Write down five terrible ideas of things that you would never want to happen in your story. Then take one of those terrible ideas and figure out how the story could change to make that terrible idea make sense.

Charades: Describe your project via emojis or memes.

Water Balloon Toss: Write for ten minutes. Write for eight minutes and try to reach as close to the same word count as possible. Repeat this exercise three more times, decreasing the time by two minutes each time.

Tie-dying: Work on your project using at least three different font or pen colors. (Black and blue are not allowed).

Friday

Talent Show: Show us at least three characters from your project, and tell what their most impressive talent or trait is.

Field Trip: Work on your project in a location outside your place of residence--cafe, library, park, etc.

Marching Band: Listen to a favorite song. Start writing when the song starts and see how many words you can write before the song ends.

Tug-of-War: Write or summarize an important scene of your project from one character's point-of-view, then write or summarize the same scene from a different character's point-of-view.

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Talent Show:

Tamett: Is impressive at not being impressive. He's just some Generic Guy.

Josiah: Excellent pianist, violinist, and student. Will absolutely rub it in your face.

Odren: Talented at administration, PR, and intimidation of children (and probably adults too).

Field Trip: Some day, writing time and times that it is feasible to be away from home will coincide. The last couple weeks haven't been good for that.

Marching Band: I'm not adding words at this point, I need to edit, but I'm going to listen a favorite song while summarizing the scenes below.

Tug-of-War: Here's a summary of the final scene of the chapter, from Tamett's POV as it is written.

Tamett has violin practice and reluctantly returns to Josiah's study to get to it, even though he thinks it's even more pointless now than ever before now that he's probably fired. When he arrives, he finds Josiah practicing piano. Tamett remembers the letter that he was writing to his sister before he was interrupted and had to leave the room earlier--did Josiah see it? It had some pretty blunt things about him in it.

But no, Josiah seems more annoyed that Tamett isn't practicing and isn't doing it right. He demonstrates how to play the violin and then sarcastically quote Tamett's letter--he did read it, and he's furious and threatens to tell his father. Tamett has had it and gives Josiah a piece of his mind--what does he have to lose at this point? He says everything he's been holding back all these years, while Josiah plays the piano with increasing franticness to try to drown him out.

Suddenly Odren arrives, which is shocking because he doesn't visit this part of the palace much, if ever. He tells the boys to stop arguing since he has something to discuss with them and sends for afternoon hot-chocolate-and-cake. When it arrives, Tamett's serving is missing, which is disappointing. But Odren announces that Josiah isn't hungry and gives the second serving to Tamett.

The two of them eat and drink in front of a silently envious and exasperated Josiah, and Odren announces that he is sending Josiah to Hollingham. Josiah protests that he can't go to Corege because he doesn't know anyone there, and his father says that he'll know Tamett. Tamett is going along, but paying his way by working as Josiah's manservant. Both boys are horrified, and Josiah throws a minor fit about not wanting to go, but Odren is unmovable. After he leaves, Josiah threatens Tamett, whom he has figured out has "snitched" on him. Tamett regrets everything.

But from Josiah's POV?

Josiah returns to his sitting room after a horrible scolding from his father. His deception has been found out, he publicly embarrassed himself at the luncheon, and his father has called him just about every uncomplimentary thing possible. He's burning with shame and anger, and he's pretty sure that Tamett told his father everything. So when he sees a letter in Tamett's handwriting lying around, he reads it; he's beyond caring about common decency when it comes to Tamett. Turns out Tamett has written some harsh things about Josiah to his sister, and Josiah is even more embarrassed and angry. He never thought Tamett disliked him this much, and he feels like the whole world hates and looks down on him right now. He wishes he could talk to his mother about this--she would understand.

Instead, he decides to focus on something he knows that he can do right: music. He's playing the piano when Tamett arrives. Josiah calls him out on neglecting violin practice because this at least would put him back in the superior position. And he jumps at the opportunity to correct Tamett's practicing. Before he can stop himself, he reveals that he's read the letter and lashes out at Tamett. To his surprise, Tamett snaps back. He didn't think that was even possible, and the things that Tamett says come far too soon after that scolding from his father. Once he collects his thoughts enough to try to retort, his father shows up.

No one is doing things they normally do today, and it's getting to be a bit much for Josiah. He tries to resume normal activity by reporting Tamett's letter to his father, but his father doesn't seem bothered that a Noriberian is slandering his elder son. Instead, he announces that he has something to discuss. Josiah is nervous, but at least they're going to talk over hot-chocolate-and-cake. He is aghast when his father gives away his serving to Tamett and he has to sit there in silent hunger and resentment while his snitch of a companion devours what should have been Josiah's.

Things start to look up when it sounds like Josiah's going to be sent to school, but it's not the school that he's been dreaming of attending since childhood--he's being sent to Hollingham in Corege. Josiah panics, especially when his father adds that Tamett is coming with him as a servant. He tries to explain to his father that he doesn't want to go to Hollingham, which normally would be an effective argument, but his father won't budge, not even when Josiah plays the "Mother wanted me to go to school here" card.

So Josiah's life is completely ruined forever, and he makes sure that Tamett, the person responsible for his misery, knows that he can't get away with such a crime.

Camp Tolkien: Day 11

Welcome to another day at Camp Tolkien!

Our two-week summer camp is a chance for you to work on the project of your choice in the company of other writers. No matter which stage of the process you’re in–brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revising–Camp Tolkien’s activities are here to help you make progress. Bring along your projects, and have fun!

Today’s four activities are listed below. Choose whichever one you wish–choose more than one if you want to.

Talent Show: Show us at least three characters from your project, and tell what their most impressive talent or trait is.

Field Trip: Work on your project in a location outside your place of residence--cafe, library, park, etc.

Marching Band: Listen to a favorite song. Start writing when the song starts and see how many words you can write before the song ends.

Tug-of-War: Write or summarize an important scene of your project from one character's point-of-view, then write or summarize the same scene from a different character's point-of-view.

When you’re finished, reblog or reply to this post, telling us how it went, and/or sharing what you wrote for the day.

So glad to have you all at camp! Have fun, go forth, and create!

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For Thursday's Camp Tolkien, memes relating to the chapter I've been working on:

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> "i dont like a lot of fictional women because there are very few well-rounded women in the genres i like"

> goes to blog

> main interest is dc comics

well now i know thats not true.