#MARK WAID IS MY BEST FRIEND

[supergirltastic]

GOOD MORNING COMIC CANON ARTEMIS CROCK NATION

(me. I’m comic canon artemis crock nation.)

[chainsawcorazon]

WELLS: Eventually, Impulse gave way to Kid Flash and Kid Flash, in turn, morphed into an adult Flash. Do you think those changes necessarily served Bart Allen well? WAID: Nah. Listen, Geoff Johns and I made our peace about this. I love Geoff. Geoff's one of my best friends, and Geoff is an incredibly talented writer and is the only writer alive who loves these characters as much as I do. And I don't blame him for paving over the Impulse identity. The shoehorning of Impulse into Kid Flash was, as I understand it, not his idea. It was a wrongheaded edict passed down by an editor that never got the character and has made it his mission to purge DC of anything even remotely fun and lighthearted. But even as Kid Flash, he was still largely recognizable as Bart. And then he became the Flash, and a more boneheaded move you couldn't have made with that character. Geoff and I fought against it, we fought like you wouldn't believe. Steve Wacker, who was slated to be the original editor, Geoff, me...we all fought the good fight, knowing beyond any shadow of a doubt that squeezing Bart into that costume would go against absolutely everything about that character. And we lost. We lost every step of the way. Ultimately, someone else's ego outweighed my opinion about what Bart would and wouldn't do, but that's how it often goes with corporate-owned heroes and is the price you pay dealing in them. Ask Keith Giffen sometime how many lectures he's had to endure about what Lobo "would and wouldn't do." So, in their infinite wisdom, DC Editorial made Bart The Flash, and that relaunch was one of the greatest critical failures in all of DC publishing history. WELLS: Really? WAID: In terms of sales they had on the first issue and the sales they posted by the fifth or sixth issues, it was just a crashing, crashing disaster. It was one of the most disastrous, embarrassing launches in DC history. And we were all " I'm not trying to sound all "I told you so," because it broke our hearts because we loved that character " but we warned them. We told them, "Don't do that, it won't work." Sure enough, six issues in, they realized they had a mess of a series they couldn't make work, no matter what. At that point, Dan DiDio called me up, a courtesy call, and said, "So we're going to kill Bart. I just thought I should let you know." My honest feeling at that point was like, "Dude, you killed Bart years ago." [mutual laughter] "That's so not Bart in that suit. I don't care. Everything in comics is cyclical. Bart'll be back eventually at some point anyway so, sure, go ahead and put the bullet through his head. I don't care." I figured Bart would be better off dead than misunderstood and mishandled.

Thinking about one of my favorite Mark Waid interviews of all time. Bro really said, my son is better off dead than misunderstood and mishandled 😂😂😂

[foggysroom]

I created this blog with the intention of posting comics and live Foggy.

However, with the release of the series approaching, I will leave Elden's Foggy aside until I'm sure he won't have as dark a future as I fear he will.

I was thinking yesterday (while deleting my content on Twitter) how something that used to bring joy, unity and a spirit of belonging has today become a silly, unfair, and pointless war. People offending and harassing each other to show who is more important in Matt's life. Matt, a character from a comic book!

I've been blocked by people I admired and thought liked me for expressing my displeasure and honestly, I'm not going to change my mind.

Over the years, since 2018, between sadness and joy to bring this series back, I realized that Elden was the only one who didn't have enough support. Between some kind words of appreciation from Charlie, he was always alone.

Foggy/Elden gets hate posts all the time, his fans get anonymous asks all the time with words that are, well, not kind at all.

There is no one to defend him. No one cares.

And I'm not referring to his little fandom when I say that no one cares.

And there I was, losing my temper while expressing my displeasure, and then I was the only one hated. I understand what Deborah meant, I understand that she has a heart in Born Again, and I understand that she is satisfied with her scenes. I understand.

I understand completely. I just wish Foggy got the same treatment as her. They were Matt's family, after all.

And Daredevil fans seem so comfortable with Elden being left out of the events, the images, the comments... it's so weird and painful to see. It's like Foggy hasn't been Matt's best friend for years.

It's like Foggy didn't save Matt by bringing him his costume in The Defenders, it's like he didn't save Matt on the roof right after Matt got shot by the Punisher, It's like Foggy didn't call Claire when he discovered Matt bleeding on the floor of his apartment and stayed with him.

Foggy was upset, but he had a reason to be. Matt disappointed him a few times too, after all, no friendship is perfect. But he ended up accepting his friend's secret life. It was heartbreaking when Karen told him not to forgive Matt and Foggy refused to take her advice. And if we had a fourth season we would see scenes like Mark Waid's portrayed beautifully.

And here I am, talking about comic book characters as if they were flesh and blood.

Matt loves Foggy like a brother and Charlie and Elden seem like true friends in their scenes. They had a really beautiful chemistry together.

I fear Born Again will kill that.

I totally respect anyone who hates Foggy and Elden, I truly understand that. I've been respecting people hatting on them for years. I understand Karen and Punisher fans who don't care. There is a minority who don't want Foggy to die, however. I respect Deborah for reposting that unfortunate Marvel post and I hope she didn't make fun of Foggy's death. I can understand and respect everyone. But that doesn't stop me from being disappointed and leaving when I see that it doesn't make sense for me to stay.

I just wish Daredevil and fans would reflect a little, that there will always be a good Daredevil story without Foggy. But the best stories are the ones with Foggy in them.

[pluckyredhead]

so what did you not like about worlds finest teen titans? There were a lot of dropped plot threads and bits I expected Waid to develop more (Roy and Ollie conflict, Roy, Garth and Wally never resolved their sleepover argument, Karen's reaction at the con to nearly being unmasked, Wally's parents, ect) and also the queerbaiting with garth (and his eyes changing colour halfway through???) was annoying. I thought it was cute overall but maybe I'm not familiar enough with some of the characters?

I held on to this ask because I was going to reread the miniseries to answer you more accurately, and then I decided to not put myself through that, so...hopefully my memory is accurate lol.

(I should note before I get into it that none of my quibbles are with Emanuela Lupacchino's art. She's a treasure and we're thrilled that she's here.)

But yeah, you've put the nail on the head with a lot of it. It was just terribly paced, like Waid didn't know how many issues he had or something. Aside from all the dropped threads you mentioned, it felt like the main bad guys were...pretty much hastily introduced, or at least assembled, in #5? There didn't seem to be any kind of...well, point to this miniseries. There was no theme. There was nothing Waid was trying to say, as far as I could tell, except "Fuck Roy Harper." (Oh, we'll get to that.) It wasn't an origin story for the team. It wasn't about adolescence or coming of age or learning who you are, except maybe a little bit for Garth. It was just...there.

And I want to be clear here: Mark Waid is one of my favorite comic book writers of all time. When he hits, he hits. The regular World's Finest book and his Shazam are wonderful. I just think this wasn't the right match of writer/characters, because he didn't handle these very well. Taking them one by one:

Dick: DC is fully in their "Dick the unbearable Mary Sue" era and this book is no exception. If I never see another comic where a whole team of experienced superheroes with major league powers and training stands around like incompetent jackasses until a Bat comes along and tells them what to do, it'll be too soon. I'm here to read about an ensemble book where everyone is a three-dimensional character, not The World's Most Perfect Boy and his loser sidekicks. Not only is it unfair to everyone else in the cast, it's doing a disservice to Dick, who is a much more interesting character than this book (or Tom Taylor, ahem) gives him credit for.

(There's also something very weird and inconsistent Waid is doing across his books with Dick - WF, WFTT, and BvR - where sometimes he's throwing a tantrum because he doesn't get to be a circus star with everyone looking at him all the time, and sometimes he's screaming at Roy for filming them, and both feel utterly arbitrary to me as well as contradictory.)

Donna: Donna's characterization in this was just...bizarre. I was a little worried about how Waid would handle her, since he has a tendency to turn more quote unquote "wholesome" female characters into the Mom Friend (see: his Champions run, where he tries to get away with it by having Kamala announce that she's not going to be the Mom Friend because she's the only girl on the team...and then immediately becoming the Mom Friend), and Donna's already very much a Mom Friend, and I didn't know what Mom Friend Squared would look like. But instead he went for this...Manic Pixie Nightmare Girl approach? Where she's really into bungee jumping and monster trucks? I'm not offended by it, it's just so utterly random. This isn't who Donna is? It's never been who she is? Baffling.

I am offended (I mean, mildly, but still) by the fact that she and Garth are shoehorned together in this. He's the only boy on the team she's never been romantically linked to, even in dreams/hallucinations/whatever, so completing the set feels very much like Donna's only narrative worth is in being a love interest, which...gross.

Garth: Garth probably got the best treatment of the bunch, to be honest. He was in character as the shy little weirdo he was in the Silver Age and in pretty much every flashback we've ever seen. He's smart and perceptive and bad at saying what he wants and generous towards those who have hurt him, all of which is very Garth. I have no complaints about him except the weird queerbaiting, and I'm not blaming Waid for that because from what I understand, solicits are written by editorial working off of a pitch, potentially before the comic is even written, so who knows what happened there? It might have been a stupid joke that didn't land, it might have been a story that was pitched and then a higher up vetoed it, it might have been a story Waid was going to write and then changed his mind. I'm not going to say it's his fault when I have no idea if that's true. Otherwise, I think he handled Garth well.

Wally: Wally was another one where I was just like ??? the whole time. He didn't feel like Wally, he felt like Bart. But, like, fanon's innocent child version of Bart and not the actual canon character, who has a lot more backbone. Why is he hero worshipping Dick like that? Why is he so docile? What was up with that weird line where Dick's like "you're the youngest?" Yes, historically Dick had already dropped out of college while Wally was still in high school, but otherwise they've always been portrayed as the same age. And if it's a reference to debut year, Donna's the youngest. It's such a random throwaway line dumped in at the very end for...why? Confusing me personally?

The worst, though, was whatever the hell was going on with Wally's parents. Wally's parents are not an idyllic suburban couple! They are not the Kents! Rudy West is only not classified as a supervillain because he doesn't have a costume! Even if he hadn't tried to kill Mary, sold the Earth out to alien robots, faked his own death, or run a deadly labor camp for children at this point in the timeline, he definitely hit Wally and, uh, poisoned Wally's Little League coach. I don't think Mary is as bad as some of fandom does, but she's certainly a difficult person. Wally was desperately unhappy at home as a child, which is why he latched on so hard to Barry and Iris. And Waid knows this, because he wrote a lot of that canon. If it's a retcon, it's such a strange, pointless one that makes all of them a lot less interesting. Just baffling.

Karen: I think it was a very smart choice to add Karen to the founding roster and make the team slightly more gender-balanced and not all-white. It's kind of a wasted choice, though, when she's so aggressively sidelined. All she does in this book is hang around with Mal and the support staff. She isn't looped into any of the major emotional conflicts - Garth and Donna, Dick and Roy, Roy and Wally and Garth. She's not treated as a headliner in the same way the others are, and that really sucks.

Roy: Hoo boy.

When Waid was announced as the writer of Batman vs. Robin, I was worried, because I had a feeling he didn't like Damian. I couldn't put my finger on why, it was just a feeling I had. And boy howdy, was I proved right! Damian is treated like shit in that book.

I had the same feeling with this book and Roy, and...let's just say I'm two for two, okay?

Here's the thing. I'm okay with Roy being written as kind of shitty, especially during his period of his life. Teen Titans: Year One writes him as an utter fuckboy, and I love that comic. The Mal and Karen issue of The Other History of the DC Universe retells the Bronze Age Titans era from their perspective, and it pulls absolutely no punches regarding Roy being, well, kind of an asshole...and it's right to do so, because it's drawing very directly from those 1970s comics, and he was often awful in those.

But Waid writes him as a generic 80s movie villain. He's a human popped collar. He's a stereotype of a bully. My problem isn't that I need him to never do anything wrong, it's that nothing in this book is specific to Roy, his history, or his established personality.

For instance, all of his bragging about how much money he has? He comes off like a kid who was born into wealth and has never known anything else, but that isn't true. He was at best middle class before Ollie, probably more likely working class given the economic situation on most reservations - but there's no indication that he's responding specifically to that shift in circumstances. He's just, like, Draco Malfoy with arrows. Also, Dick has a nearly identical history but none of the same issues. He even says "Roy and I have the same background but he sucks." Why is one of them a perfect angel untouched by filthy lucre, and the other is Bradley Uppercrust III?

And then there's the subplot with Ollie neglecting Roy, which fizzled out to a real wet fart of a resolution. But honestly, at no point did I know where Waid was going with that, because...well, if you know Roy's history, you know Ollie neglecting him is what leads directly to Roy getting into drugs. And like...first of all, the timeline here is off, because historically Ollie didn't ditch Roy until after he lost his money, and he still has it here. (How interesting would it have been to have Roy pretending he was still rich in addition to pretending Ollie was around?) But also, this comic ends on an "and now everything is fine!" note, but it isn't! It really, really isn't. So Ollie showing up at the end and being like "I'm here for you, buddy" doesn't ring true, because he is demonstrably not in this very comic, and we also know he won't be in the future. And Roy getting what he wants doesn't feel like a satisfying resolution either because we don't actually get to see changed behavior from him, and again, we know this won't last. (Again, TT:YO handles this dynamic very well, where we see that Ollie is an affectionate but negligent guardian who Roy is learning some very bad habits from.)

And to top it off, constantly contrasting Terrible Roy to Virtuous Dick and simultaneously pretending that Ollie was at this point a responsible guardian has the (I hope unintentional) effect of implying that Roy will eventually become an addict because he's just a bad and weak person, instead of a struggling teen who needed support and didn't get it. I would have actually preferred a story that hinted at the beginning of Roy's addiction and how he hides it from the Titans, because we've never had that story told in comics, but I don't think Waid's the one to write it. Instead we get a conflict that's out of character for Roy, a resolution that doesn't feel at all earned, and the looming threat of Roy's immediate future which Waid refuses to address.

In conclusion, this book was a mess, and you should all read Teen Titans: Year One instead.

[dccomicsbracket]

The Flash (1987)

A perfect run, plain and simple. It established so much of the Flash lore that we know and love, and it introduced some of the most iconic Flashfamily members! Most importantly, it cemented Wally West as *my* Flash, and has so many of my favorite Flash stories of all time, like Terminal Velocity! It’s just…perfect. No one writes Wally like Mark Waid.

Blue Beetle (2006)

Just a good introduction to a character with a satisfying conclusion. I love you, Jaime, a guy who's just trying to do his best for his loved ones and his local community. I love you Khaji Da, scrungly lil dude speaking in glyphs. I love you, Brenda, and your complicated relationship with your aunt who adores you, but is also a crime lord. I love you Paco, a genuinely good friend. I love Jaime's family and the way they all adjust to Jaime being a superhero. I love the effort made to portray Jaime as a person with community and connections. i looove jaime sososo much he's such a fun protagonist and the developement of his character + his relationship w khaji da is sooo interesting and well written. i love seeing him bond with his little alien bug parasite !! all of the side characters are also so great like brenda and paco are so fun and la dama is suuuch an interesting character. jaime's family is also so lovely they clearly care abt jaime so much and its nice to see a kid superhero with parents who respect and also deeply care abt their kid. the art is also very fun overall its just a really stellar run Quite honestly one of the best written comic runs I've ever read, DC or otherwise. It flips so many standard comic book tropes on their heads and does it well. The main character is the epitome of just some guy and he is my favorite of all time. AMAZING characters. Fresh perspectives on comics tropes that are so overused it's hard to imagine comics without them. Everyone is worthy of respect and treated with dignity, even the villains. Khaji Da's character arc is amazing. And the adults make me laugh so much. Guy and Peacemaker as mentors who IMMEDIATELY recognize this kid is FAR more emotionally mature then they are, so they're not going to bother with that side of mentoring!

[danny-chase]

Me: i hate dc, dc my worst enemy, dc my belothed

Dc: world's finest spinoff written by Mark Waid featuring the fab five AND adding Karen Beecher

Me:

Me: i love dc, my best friend dc, dc my beloved

[sineala]

Hi!! I used to be big into superhusbands till about the whole international iron man by bendis (i abandoned there..Tony was too different)... I was wondering, do you recommend current marvel comics? Are they still ridiculously interrupted by crossing over and events?

I am actually really, really enjoying current Marvel comics! I also think now is a pretty good time to hop on board.

If you want specific recs, I have lots of them.

Current comics:

We just got a brand-new Avengers run -- issue #2 just came out this week -- and although Steve isn't on the team (Sam is), Tony is there, and Carol is the team chair. Many of us, myself included, have been really looking forward to this run, because it's being written by Jed MacKay, who is a relatively new writer to Marvel who in my opinion writes comics with very well-characterized characters and a lot of love for the source material. (He is also currently writing what has now become my favorite Doctor Strange run.)

MacKay especially writes a very good Tony; he did an Iron Man annual and an Avengers annual back in 2021 (part of the "Infinite Destinies" series of annuals. The Iron Man one had some very good Tony characterization, and the Avengers annual instantly became everyone's favorite because about half of it is Steve and Tony hanging out at home together, and the other half is Steve and Tony punching robots.

So there's not really a whole lot to say about the new Avengers run yet, but I am excited for it.

(Jason Aaron recently ended a five-year Avengers run. I would recommend skipping it, except for the issue where Steve, Tony, and Thor all go skinny-dipping together in a hot tub. It is the highlight of the run.)

We are seven issues into a new Iron Man run, being written by Gerry Duggan (whom you may remember from 1872), and I swear this is the best Iron Man ongoing comic that has come out since I have been in this fandom. Every issue is actually good, and he's absolutely nailing the Tony characterization, and he's clearly done all the reading. And also Tony is getting whumped hard. I really love it. Every time we get a new issue I am excited to read it because I know it's gonna be good.

(You have missed a couple of Iron Man runs. The Dan Slott run was not all that great, but it had some very sweet canon Tony/Jan and also very pretty art by Valerio Schiti. Then we got Christopher Cantwell's Iron Man run, which was the worst Iron Man run I have ever read in my entire life and featured Tony being a privileged and out-of-touch billionaire asshole who then got addicted to morphine, acquired the Power Cosmic, murdered most of his friends (and, I mean, brought them back, at least), and then decided that he should maybe go to rehab so that he could learn humility which apparently he did not have? My least favorite moment was the bit where Patsy Walker tells him he has no idea what it's like to be suicidal and Tony -- a person who has had at least two on-panel suicide attempts -- agrees that, no, he has no idea what that's like. Anyway. You should skip that.)

I have been kind of meh about the current Cap run (other than the fact that it appears to have given us canon Steve/Emma femdom) because a whole lot of it is basically "CATWS but what if 616" and also they killed off one of my minor-character faves and I am very bitter. There is one more issue left in this run, so you might as well just wait a couple more months and start with the next run, which will be written by J. Michael Straczynski. I know a lot of people have strong feelings about JMS' comics work but I have been a Babylon 5 fan since it started airing and I am excited that JMS, the guy who gave us the "no, you move" speech, is going to be writing Steve. (JMS also wrote Bullet Points, if you liked the Steve in that one.)

(Cap runs you have missed include Ta-Nehisi Coates -- it was fine but for the most part Steve was wildly OOC -- as well as a very short run by Mark Waid whose first arc you should check out because it was absolutely amazing and had great Samnee art. I think you've also missed Nick Spencer's run, which. Uh. I don't even know where to begin with discussing that.)

Recent events:

Comics are still going to be comics, so, yeah, there are always events. Some of them are pretty good, though. If you haven't been here for a few years, you've probably missed AXE Judgment Day, Heroes Reborn, Empyre, and War of the Realms. Possibly also Secret Empire, Civil War II, and Standoff.

Of all of these, I would have to say that AXE Judgment Day (written by Kieron Gillen) was my favorite; it featured the Avengers, X-Men, and Eternals all coming together to save the world from a Celestial that was trying to judge all of humanity and then destroy the planet. You know, the usual. I thought it was pretty well done and had a lot for Steve and Tony to do. They got to be on the same side, for once. Steve got a whole bunch of speeches and everyone got a massive amount of angst; there was actually an entire issue devoted to the Celestial's judgment of Tony. So yeah, it didn't have a whole lot of Steve & Tony together but they both definitely had starring roles for the event.

Heroes Reborn (yes, it would kill Marvel to think up a new name) was an event where Phil Coulson sold his soul to the devil to make the Squadron Supreme have always been the best superhero team on Earth. Coulson has been wedged into the comics from the MCU but Jason Aaron clearly committed hard to making him the most evil person possible.

Empyre -- by Slott and Ewing, art by Schiti -- was probably my second-favorite recent event. It once again featured heroes fighting villains, as is right and proper. Steve and Tony weren't the stars of the event or anything but they did, you know, get to help out a bit. It was a bunch of Kree-Skrull stuff and everyone fought some tree people whose names I am blanking on and it also ended in Billy and Teddy's Big Gay Jewish Space Wedding, so obviously you have to appreciate that.

I remember very little about War of the Realms. It was one of those Asgard things.

You probably missed Secret Empire? And possibly the lead-ins to it, Avengers Standoff and Civil War II. This was infamously the event where Steve was replaced by an evil Hydra version of himself who decided to make America into his own personal fascist state. (Standoff was the event where he was secretly replaced although we did not know this at the time; he spent all of Civil War II -- a Carol vs. Tony event, this time with Tony ending up in a coma at the end -- gaslighting all the heroes pretty hard.) Public reaction to Secret Empire was, as you can imagine, very very bad (they decided to promote this as "this is the real Steve and he has been evil forever" rather than, like, "hey we're doing a villain AU for the next six months") and they ended up concluding the whole thing much faster than they had originally planned to, presumably because the sales tanked hard. They basically did a very, very bad job with this one.

Secret Empire has mostly provided a lot of source material for fandom to pick apart and improve upon -- especially the people who like villain AUs -- and its major highlight is a lead-in one-shot, Civil War II: The Oath, which is a villain remix of The Confession in which Hydra Steve addresses Tony's comatose body and, among other things, tells him that the real Steve loved him, and that he always loved him, even when they fought. So, you know. We all enjoyed that page.

Other fun things you might have missed:

There have been a bunch of fun relatively-recent miniseries!

The thing you will probably be most interested is Captain America/Iron Man, which is a five-issue miniseries by Derek Landy of Steve and Tony teaming up to take down a villain (who is, of course, one of Tony's exes). It has some lovely character moments. The collected edition of this is called "The Armor and the Shield."

Jed MacKay -- yes, the guy writing Avengers -- also previously wrote a run of Black Cat that had a lot of Tony cameos, and then decided to write an Iron Cat miniseries in which Felicia & Tony team up to defeat both of their ex-girlfriends who have decided to try to murder them because apparently, yes, they both have terrible luck with relationships. (In Tony's case, this is Sunset Bain.)

We're also currently getting an Ayodele & Akande miniseries, I Am Iron Man, which is set at various points in Tony's history and I have to admit that I have literally no idea what's going on here but at least it's clear that they really like Tony, and it's sweet.

In what I can only assume was an attempt at some kind of MCU synergy, we just finished getting a second Secret Invasion miniseries (written by Ryan North of Squirrel Girl fame) which was an extremely clever series in which basically nothing was as it seemed, and also Tony was one of the major characters. I really, really liked this one.

If you like weird AUs, we also recently got a (Tom Taylor, I think?) miniseries called Dark Ages, in an alternate future where electricity has stopped working. It did have Steve and Tony.

It is not specifically Steve & Tony related but we just got a Wasp miniseries by Al Ewing, which is Jan's first solo book ever. Yes, ever.

And it has nothing to do with Steve and Tony at all, but I feel like people who don't ordinarily read Guardians of the Galaxy might really enjoy Ewing's run on that, because it is incredibly queer. Phyla-Vell and Moondragon are main characters, Billy and Teddy come guest-star for a lot of it, Avril Kincaid (the new Quasar, who is also gay) is there for a bit, and also the overarching relationship plot is "Peter, Gamora, and Rich decide they all love each other and are all going to be in a relationship." This is extremely heavily implied. There are multiple love confessions and the run ends with them embracing. So yeah, Pete/Rich is canon now. It's great.

That's all I can think of for right now.

[cairoscene]

went like a not insignificant distance into your blog because I can feel the batfamily consuming me and eating my heart and so on. haven’t ever read or watched or played batman however. as I trust your opinions Where do you suggest I start

omg welcome. i have recently been afflicted with something similar so i do have recs!! in terms of canon — which i will say i have middling opinions about, and i'll admit that i haven't really read any comics older than the 90s — i'll recommend the comics that really got me In Trouble: Batman: The Knight (2021). 10 issues by Chip Zdarsky and Carmine Di Giandomenico. this remains my batman holy grail. it's about bruce's journey to becoming batman and focuses on pivotal experiences in his education. it also features my favorite hot sexy murderous ex husband, minhkhoa khan. also, and most importantly, has some of the best written bruce and alfred interactions that i've read.

Nightwing (2016) #78—. by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo. idk this was one of the first ones i read and i just really enjoy the punchy art and the action and the dialogue. from my understanding from #78 onward, the issues are trying to maybe breathe more life and color into nightwing's stories, and for me it works. it's just super fun and cute and i love dick grayson.

Dark Knights of Steel (2021). another Tom Taylor, this time with Yasmin Putri. idk if you told me a year ago that i would be into reading a DC fantasy AU where superman is a prince and batman is his loyal guard i would have laughed in your face. but it's really very fun and the art is excellent. i have quibbles about the worldbuilding, but the robins make it worth it. the robins feature and they are delightful. excellent brainworm material overall. it's still ongoing and i'm not sure how many issues are planned.

Batman/Superman: World's Finest (2022). this one's by Mark Waid and !!! Dan Mora (whose art i cannot stress enough makes me cry) and it's set to be 10 issues, there's one more coming in december. it's got great sort of vintagey vibes and is just really really fun, featuring dick grayson robin who i would run into a burning building for.

for batman proper i'll say i've been kind of cherrypicking issues to read, but i read a good long run of Batman (2016) starting with #102 because, you guessed it, it's the introduction of minhkhoa khan, aka the ghost-maker. i also enjoyed the Fear State saga (#112-117), but most recently i've been very into the recent issues by Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jimenez starting with #125, which sets up a conflict between batman and failsafe—an AI bruce himself created in case he ever needed to be taken down. so far the failsafe saga has given me:

bruce badly beaten and bleeding <3

the whole family banding together to try to stop failsafe

batman zur-en-arrh, which is like, if batman fell into a bucket of colorful paint

so, so many tim drake feelings

just to name a few.

PHEW so for non-comic media, i recommend:

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures. a webcomic from Webtoon by CRC Payne and Starbite. new episodes every week and they're FREE and they focus on slice-of-life family stuff and some character-centric episodes, which is all i've ever wanted really. this was the first batman thing i read, which kicked me off into looking into canon more, resulting in this hilarious set of messages to my friend spanning probably no more than a few hours:

for movies, i don't tend to vibe with the characterization of bruce (and damian. and dick. and talia..) but i enjoyed Batman: Bad Blood (2016) and Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010). also Please Watch The Lego Batman Movie. seriously it's really good and fun

for video games, i've only played Batman: Arkham Knight (2015) out of the legendary series of games by Rocksteady. but man is it A Game (admiring). i also do have a lot of fun playing Gotham Knights (2022) because it's focused on the kids in the batfamily, but i will admit that it sure is A Game (derogatory).

jesus this is getting long. in terms of fic, i would probably have to make a separate post for all of the fic that's lit my brain on fire but you can check out my fic rec tag here on tumbo and my public bookmarks on AO3 for some of my favorites. i also highly endorse all of the fics in @vinelark 's batfam fic rec thread on twitter.

thanks for this opportunity to gush incoherently and i hope this helps <3

[popculturebuffet]

Valentine's Superhero Wedding Review Poll III

Hello all you happy people. For the past two years to celebrate the lovelist day of the year with my love of men, women and that beautifulu techiclor rainbow inbetween in costume who punch what good by letting my fine patrons pick out 3 superhero weddings, myself pick one, and you fine folks pick one of these for me to review. What says love more than some asshole in a costume crashing your wedding no?

So for your voting pleasure, here are this years nominees and the poll to pick your faviorite is below. Voting will close in a week. If it's a tie it's sudden death baby and if that ties.. well i'll just hav eto do both won't I. So vote whenever, vote soon, and vote with your heart, here are your nominees!

Lex Luthor and Adora of Planet Lexor (Action Comics 318-319)

Lex's pre crisis marriage has him doing the usual lex luthor things: escape prison, go to a planet he once fooled into thinking he's a great hero and Superman a villian.. then invite superman after the wedding to fake his own death and blame Supes for it.

Emma Frost and Tony Stark (Invincible Iron Man #10) Ones a life long playboy whose lasting relationships end in tears, betryal or the next set of writers wanting him to screw around again. The other's a life long career woman whose fine to flirt but mostly spends her time saving humanity and whose longest relationship was with a man she stole from his wife via very sketchy therapy practices. Naturally marriage is less out of love and more as a smokescreen to screw over a massive anti mutant biggot who used tony's tech to create a waking nightmare for mutant kind, but damn if it won't be fun anyway.

Luke Cage and Jessica Jones (New Avengers Annual #1) A relationship began in casual hookups and deep seated trauma, became one of marvel's most lasting and wholesome marriage and Hero for Hire Luke Cage and PI for hire Jessica Jones became the couple with the least time for your nonsense but the cutest baby. Naturally for their courtship their wedding involves a proposal luke announces to hold her to saying yes, a fight with an old foe turned into a scary monster/ super creep, and takes place just before the super hero community cracked in half.

Wally West and Linda Park (The Flash 132 and 159)

He was a fuck boy, she was a girl who didn't take his shit. Could they make it any more obvious. As wally west grew from irresponsible young ass to true hero worthy of the mantle flash he found his rock in reporter Linda Park, someone on his level willing to both call him out when he stupid, and support him when he's beating himself up too hard. Naturally given their marriage would be in trouble for the 2010's thanks to Dan DiDio's personal mission to make Wally West Fans suffer, their wedding ends in a magician making Linda disappear from everyone's memories, with the two finallyg etting married after antics with angsty future selves, Linda being Impulse's imaginary friend, and a picnic wedding to give us a happy end to Mark Waid's long and storied run and a happy start to one of the best marriages in comics

[kilowogcore]

Back to the Silver Age: Wally West's Origins

With all the excitement goin' on in The Flash ongoin' series, I figgured I'd go back an' read The Flash #110 from January, 1960, which wuz the first appearance of Wally West, my favorite Flash!

Unlike Barry Allen, who's a cop an' kinda self-obsessed, Wally wuz always about helpin' others an' connections with family an' friends.

We first get introduced ta' him as the head of a local Flash fan club. Back in' the olden days before the internet kids had ta' get together in a physical location ta' do things like play Dungeons an' Dragons.

Before even Dungeons an' Dragons, though, they got together an' formed fan clubs fer celebrities! Nowadays a lotta our knowledge a' fandom an' the activities of these celebrities come from the efforts of these fan clubs, not ta' mention they provided lotsa young Boomers ta' scream their heads off fer people like Elvis Presley in a way that puts the most ardent Belieber or Swiftie ta' shame!

Seriously, go look at video a' live concerts from the 60s, an' remember that next time any Boomer complains 'bout "kids these days." They were way, way weirder an' less socially balanced than us.

Anyway, Wally's a Flash fan, so Barry secretly becomes the Flash ta' shake his hand, a nice thing ta' do fer the kid!

Then, as a treat, Flash shows Wally the exact set-up a' chemicals that gave him his powers! Y'know, as ya' do.

An' then he puts Wally right where he wuz standin' when the accident happens! Which seems, um, irresponsible? Like where are ya' goin' with this Barry, what if--

Oh, a freak lightning bolt out of a clear blue sky just hit Wally. Huh. I feel like this wuz predictable an' coulda been avoided by, y'know, not posing a child near dangerous chemicals.

Anyway, Wally's Kid Flash now. Barry gets him a little costume (a duplicate of Barry's, he wouldn't get the iconic yellow costume 'til later), an' like any responsible adult of 1960 tells Wally ta' stay put an' not use his phenomenal new powers until he gets back from work. Then Barry wanders off ta' go, I dunno, it's 1960, I assume as a cop in the midwest he's pointing hoses at civil rights leaders or something.

I know, I know, he's not a beat cop, he's in the forensics lab. So he'd only be supportin' the cops who hold the hoses, but c'mon, comedic license!

Anyway, Wally is of course not goin' ta' stay put, an' since he's a true hero he immediately goes off ta' help people! A disgruntled former employee let a bunch of animals out of their cages at the zoo. This bein' a 1960s zoo that wuz probably the best thing fer those animals, but ya' can't have half-starved lions an' bears roamin' the street, so Kid Flash deals with the cleanup real quick.

Barry, lookin' on, reflects how wonderful it is that he's not alone, an' that he now has someone else with his powers. Which, again, adds the whole unnecessarily detailed re-creation of his accident a rather sinister bent. Did Barry do all this deliberately?

(Spoiler, it would later come out that Barry caused the lightnin' bolt that gave him his powers, an' in Mark Waid's run it's speculated that Barry's subconscious desire caused the lightnin' bolt that gave Wally powers. So yes, Barry did all this, though perhaps not consciously.)

Honestly, fer such an important story, it's kinda by the numbers. There ain't much character development, stuff just kinda happens. But it wuz the first sidekick creation of a major hero in the Silver Age, an' it wuz chock full of the comic book super-science that DC editor Julius Schwartz loved so much. An' important piece a' comics history!

An' Wally is still my favorite Flash. Even if he's been sinisterly isolated an' maybe possessed by Reverse Flash? I dunno, I look forward ta' Simon Spurrier's next issue!

[radioactive-earthshine]

Hi!!! :) Hey, I have a Bart-Related question and I would like to know your opinion. I was given a list by somebody in a server to read Bart related comics. But the list says Flash: the fastest man alive is not a good serie, but none of my friends have read it and I want something like a honest review from somebody who loves Bart and I think about you! If this okays to ask :')

Have a good day! It's okay if you can't answer /pos

Hello!

First off I always suggest to people if they are a fan of Bart to read his solo series (Impulse) in particular as it really is one of the best runs DC ever did and I say that confidently. So if Bart's solo series is on that list, then YES I would read that above all others.

As for Fastest Man Alive AKA Bart's Flash run....

Here's where things get complicated... Ultimately it is a series (like Teen Titans v3) that did not treat Bart well and most fans of Bart will say confidently that the entire run was to his detriment (and Thad's) and did not serve anything other than to be fuel for angst.

The entire run feels better as an Elseworlds story than as something that happened in main continuity, but it did in fact happen in the main continuity which makes it all the more difficult to read. I feel if this series was released as an Elseworlds story the fan reception to that run might be a little more positive but even then after reading it you're just left angry and wondering why there was a need to publish this story.

I don't personally think FMA is a good series. I don't personally recommend the story to anyone. However, I make it a point to never say to not read a comic as I constantly implore everyone to read read read comics even the bad ones if it means actually reading.

IF you want to be extremely well rounded in Bart's comics or Flash comics then it would be to your benefit to read it just to have the knowledge under your belt. If you read through Teen Titans V3 and are enjoying that series genuinely then picking up FMA and reading it might not be as painful as it is to others as it follows the same amount of grim-dark angst as Teen Titans.

If you don't have much attachment to Bart you will probably not struggle with FMA but it sounds like you right now are at least a fan of his and want to get to know him a little better. Reading FMA is not going to let you get to know him better.

I would urge you instead to start with his beginnings with Mark Waid's comics all through his original solo series and then through Young Justice then see how you take to Teen Titans. If Teen Titans does not turn you off then pick up FMA (unless you just want to be well rounded).

Above all, read comics but don't torture yourself. Happy reading and thank you for the sweet message.

[onyxisnotuniqueenough]

i say born again first because you already have a basic understanding of daredevil as a character and the rest of the cast. you dont need to read the very first dd issues because you already know who matt is. born again will get you acquainted with comic!matt's relationship with himself, his friends, and being daredevil.

tbh. for someone who's never seen the show i would probably start them with some classic avengers comics to get them acquainted with the world of marvel, then some classic dd, but you dont need to do that because you already know daredevil and who he is in broad strokes! so yeah. born again then mark waid ^.^ remember comic piracy is always moral. readcomiconline.li is your best friend

Yup!!

it's right there on the homepage of my phone ofc ofc

i'm currently on #56 of The Amazing Spider-man by JMS and i'm SO glad i have this website finally

( @briefcasejuice can't thank you enough)

cause I was on comicextra before and it sucked.

and yeah, it makes sense because I've seen the show, but at first i thought i'd need a "formal" introduction to comic matt since they're so different. I mean, from what I heard, the catholic aspect of his character comes from one of the worst runs of Daredevil, no? not sure. it's always hard to keep up with rants and commentaries when you haven't read what they're talking about.

and also, I was a little nervous that having seen the show first would warp how i'd see the comics, that's why it's taken me so long

it's always a little jarring to see fanart of him as a redhead, for example, so I'm trying to get used to it and separate the versions in my mind

I don't really have that for Spidey since I've seen so many iterations and spider-people (the 3 spider-men, into the spider-verse, etc) that I can comprehend in my mind that they're vastly different

does that make sense? it feels a little dumb to explain it like this

-- anyway, thank you again, and you can dm me if you want!

i'd be happy to talk more :)

[tailsrevane]

[comic review] superman: birthright (2003-04)

writer: mark waid artists: leinil francis yu & gerry alanguilan

“you can’t show up nowadays and be a super-friend. we are a skeptical lot. government… advertising… god help me, the media… these things manipulate us 24/7, and worse, we know it. we claim to fight it, but most of us don’t have the energy to struggle every moment of every day. wear us down enough, and the lesson we eventually take to heart is that it’s easier and safer to be cynical than it is to trust someone.”

this is without a doubt the best version of superman’s origin story i’ve ever seen in any medium. half of the first issue is about kal-el’s parents on krypton, and it’s one of the better retellings of that part of his origin that i’ve ever seen, and the segue from krypton to earth is handled with what’s essentially a title sequence? there are like three pages of epic panels of the ship in flight that are intercut with text saying “DC COMICS PROUDLY PRESENTS … THE STORY OF KRYPTON’S LAST SON … SUPERMAN: … BIRTHRIGHT.” i know this is a very small detail, but it’s hella cinematic, and i gotta be honest i couldn’t read those pages without hearing john williams’ epic superman theme swelling up in my head, and i am so weak for that kind of shit. i’m so glad they gave this part that a lot of people might consider a “non-story” part of the story time to breathe like that.

the rest of the first issue and most of the second issue is given over to clark being a roving freelance reporter, and i freaking love that! he is genuinely devoted to meeting people from all over the world and telling their stories, and seeing him with a genuine passion for journalism that predates his association with the daily planet is just such an awesome change of pace! it’s not just a cover story that lines up really well with his work as superman, it’s a genuine passion of his. i like this so much better than the sort of perfunctory way this aspect of clark’s life is usually handled!

clark runs into a rocky spot with his relationship with his adopted father jonathan in the next issue, but his relationship with martha remains rock-solid throughout, and she gets way more to do here than she practically ever does in other versions of the story!! and in doing his part to overcome the rift that has grown between him and clark, jonathan is explicitly depicted as breaking a cycle of abuse. martha explains, “matthew kent was a spiteful, needy man who worked hard to make jonathan feel stupid and insecure.” i’ve… never had a way to put it that succinctly before, but that is exactly what my relationship with my father was like, so that resonated pretty profoundly with me.

with his parents back firmly on his side, clark makes his fateful journey to metropolis in issue 4, and this is where i’m going to stop with the recap but suffice it to say clark goes on to come into his own and very believably grow into the role of superman. of the ones i’ve read, this is probably my favorite superman graphic novel ever.

s-rank

[pluckyredhead]

as someone looking to get into the Supergirl comics, what titles/runs would you recommend? I started reading Tom King's Woman of Tomorrow and didn't think it was that bad (though I never finished it) but seeing people's anger about it makes me think that my enjoyment might be because I'm not familiar with her character before this and thus don't get why it's a bad take on her like what I've seen.

Well, first I should disclaimer that my very loud opinions on Woman of Tomorrow are opinions, lol. I firmly believe that I'm right but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it! You're allowed!

But here are my recs for comics to get into Supergirl that feel...more in keeping with the spirit of the character, imo.

In Continuity:

Supergirl (2005) #34-59: After dying in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Kara came back to the post-Crisis DCU in 2004. For the next four years, she was treated very badly by DCU, who positioned her as a jailbait sexpot "bad girl" who was maybe evil but also totally wanted to date you, 45-year-old cis guy in the audience! Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle's run changed all that, letting Kara be three dimensional and human (well, Kryptonian, but you know what I mean) and not miserable softcore porn 24/7. (They put bike shorts under her skirt and it was wildly controversial.) She gets to smile and be friends with women! It was a breath of fresh fucking air, I tell you what.

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes: During those years DC was treating Kara like shit, we could at least escape to the future, where Mark Waid and Barry Kitson let her be her best self. This is an ensemble book so it's not totally focused on her, but the whole ensemble is pretty great.

Supergirl (2011): Honestly, I thought the New 52 run was pretty solid. Or maybe it's just less bad than every other New 52 comic I've ever read? Either way, it's an easy jumping-on point. And there are actually female writers and artists involved!!! AMAZING! (In the interest of full disclosure, the 2005 series had a couple of female creators towards the very end - Kelly Sue DeConnick and Amy Reeder each got a couple of issues - but they sadly didn't have a lot of time to do much with the character.)

Supergirl (2016): Cute! Cheery! Too good for this world! This takes a lot of inspiration from the TV show, which was on the air at the time.

Kids Comics/AUs/Elseworlds:

Adventures of Supergirl: This is a tie-in comic to the TV show, but you don't need to be super familiar with the show to read it. And Sterling Gates is back!

Supergirl: Being Super: This is a standalone graphic novel in which Kara, who doesn't know about Clark or that she's an alien, discovers her powers after her friend dies in a tragic accident. It's definitely on the angsty side but in a way that feels relatable and compassionate to me, rather than gratuitous. And it's by Mariko Tamaki and Joelle Jones, so it's fucking stunning, of course.

Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade: This is for kids but it is SO STINKIN' CUTE. Highly recommended.

Superman Family Adventures: Also for kids and I cry happy tears at how precious it is every day.

Not Actually Kara:

Supergirl (1996): So after Kara died in 1985 and before she came back in 2004, there was a completely different Supergirl named Linda Danvers. She wasn't from Krypton, she was a mortal girl merged with a protoplasmic being from an alternate dimension who was also an angel. YES, IT'S BONKERS, AND IT'S GREAT. This series is 80 issues long and it's the best Supergirl comic ever published. I know it's not Kara, but if you only read one Supergirl comic, make it this one.

[ufonaut]

Jack Ryder in Batman/Superman: World’s Finest (2022) #7

[swordofazrael1992]

Hi what are your favorite green lantern comics? Or even dc in general. I'm kind of new to comic books and I'm looking for recommendations

ooh you're in luck because i have SEVERAL recommendations

my first recommendations for people looking to get into new characters, families, or dc in general is usually going to be the 80th anniversary specials. all of them are about 100 pages each, featuring multiple new storylines for each character. in addition, each story will usually correlate to a specific era for those characters, often inviting back writers and artists who were prominent or influential to the character during those times. my favorite specials are the green lantern and green arrow specials, although there are also some for robin, aquaman, catwoman, wonder woman, and... unfortunately the joker (derogatory)

i really really like these specials because they give you the opportunity to find out what parts/eras /characters you like and read from there. for example, the green lantern special covers alan scott, hal jordan, guy gardner & kilowog, john stewart, sinestro, the four corpsmen (hal, john, guy, kyle), the hard traveling heroes, jessica cruz, kyle rayner, and simon baz. it's a really good way to get into comics, because honestly? the best way to start reading comics is to find a character you like, find the comics they appear in, and read.

some specific series recommendations for the gl's are...

green lantern 1990 (my personal favorite)

green lantern: rebirth (2004) and green lantern (2005) (nowhere close to my favorites, but important to understanding modern gl worldbuilding)

convergence: green lantern/parallax (a two issue mini, basically a little bit of a redo on events in the 1990 series in line with the rest of the convergence story)

green lantern/flash: faster friends (two issue mini focusing on the meaning of legacy heroes and one of my favorite dynamics: wally and kyle)

flash & green lantern: the brave and the bold (six issue mini focusing on the friendship between barry allen and hal jordan)

hal jordan & the green lantern corps (i have my problems with this run, but it is overall an entertaining read)

far sector (i haven't gotten around to reading this yet, but i have heard very good things)

next, here are some general recommendations for the overall dcu

batman: the long halloween

robin 1993, batman & robin 2011, robin: son of batman, and robin 2021

batgirl 2000, batgirl 2009

batman & the signal

batwoman: elegy

birds of prey 1998

flash 1987 (specifically mark waid's run, which becomes continues at about issue #61, but he and messner-loeb alternated a lot before that)

impulse 1995

the flash 2016 (i haven't been able to make it all the way through this, but it has some storylines that i enjoy). at issue #768, wally wests 2nd flash run begins, and i am LOVING it so far. definitely recommend it

green arrow: year one (seven issue mini, covers oliver queen's time on the island)

green lantern and green arrow: hard traveling heroes (covers green lantern 1960 #76-87)

green arrow: the longbow hunters (another mini, this one three issues)

green arrow 1998 (if you want to read for ollie, read the first 100ish issues, if you want to read for connor, read the issues after that)

green arrow 2001 (however... i would recommend taking the winnick part of this run with a grain of salt if you do read it. it is. not the best characterization)

green arrow 2016 (i had to consciously forget that this was technically new52 ollie in order to get through it, but i did enjoy it. worth reading for emiko and dinahollie, at least)

i also enjoy team books with younger heroes, such as young justice 1998 and teen titans/titans runs

naomi 2019, and naomi: season two

these recommendations are very biased towards batfam, flash, and ga, because that is what i read the most, so if anybody who is a fan of different characters has recommendations feel free to add on!! i have also compiled an entire seperate, far more comprehensive rec list on the batfamily before, if anyone is interested in that