#also this kinda answers an ask i got about supes in this au!

[terracyte]

civilian bruce got yeeted off one of the balconies of his own company and the really nice metropolis guy caught him before his kids could get there <3

bruce and clark are friends but he doesnt know clark is superman yet- the kids fucking know clark is trying his hardest to earn their dad's affection and nOT ON THEIR WATCH- THAT COUNTRY BOY'S GOTTA WORK FOR IT

[chyrstis]

WIP Saturday (so much for Friday)

Tagged by @shallow-gravy @raisinghellinotherworlds and @fadedjacket! You’re all way too kind (and also patient! <3), and here I am trying not to squeeze this in too late (never mind the fact that it’s Saturday and not even Wednesday)

Tagging: @writerofblocks @sharky-broshaw @amistrio @geronimo-11 @guileandgall @painterofhorizons @redroci @ma-sulevin @narcis-the-monk @teamhawkeye @finefeatheredgamer @fluttyseed @sneaky-apostate @hawkfurze @scarlettkat86 @strafethesesinners @risenlucifer @ofravensandgenesis @marymay-fairgrave @cclkestis and anyone else that’s interested! This is totally a free tag, and I’d love to see what you’re all working on.

Random aside, but I’d definitely post the new WIP I ended up writing earlier today courtesy of @writerofblocks providing some excellent inspiration, but...I think I’m going to hold onto that for later, b/c that might be a little too much spice to slip in here.

First off, a small moment from the Trap fic, which I’m still hoping to finalize most of the outline for soon! Just a friendly car chase, no big deal:

---

“Go, go, go!”

Her foot hit the gas, and they flew out after it, not wanting to give it a decent chance for a lead. The more time between them, the less of a shot they had to corral it.

It just sucked that of all of the vehicles they had to offer, the van ended up being their pick, because the space it had didn’t do shit to help its max speed.

Coming right up behind the tanker, Hana dug for the radio by her side and put a call through. “H to Shurky, we’re coming up on you two, so you’d better be ready to work your magic!”

“Ten-four on that, pretty lady! Oh, wait. Fuck! Wait, let me just-”

Some arguing filtered through, nothing she could suss out while barreling down the road mid-car chase, until Sharky’s voice came back over the line.

“Yeah, we got you covered, Dep! Got a whole lotta shit just ready to throw and-yo, I see you there!”

Gunfire echoed briefly before cutting off, all while a cold sweat settled on her brow.

Jesus. They weren’t supposed to hit trouble this soon. Did they know?

A bullet clipped the windshield, spidering the glass as she moved back, and she swore under her breath.

---

Next, how about a little more No-Cult AU? Part 2-ish of the paint saga, which I’d love to finish within the next week or so. *crosses fingers*:

---

Sharky switched to the earlier photos. Tilted his phone and studied them, and still couldn’t tell jack-shit.

Another image came through in the middle of this, this time of John’s hand holding up what looked to be two separate paint color cards. Both were the kind of red he seriously had no hope of telling apart, and as Sharky focused in on them, he caught two different names.

“…Heart what?” he muttered, reading no joke, Heartthrob as one of the colors.

the fuck man?

Not happy with either?

im over here digging holes covered in dirt n shit and ure asking me to tell u whats better Candy apple or fkin cherry

cant even tell if ones lighter n the other

Digging?

Taking a picture of where he was, Sharky sent it along, and John didn’t wait long to respond.

Ah, you’re busy. This is a bad time.

its ok Sharky replied, typing fast, just weird to ask

the hells the red for anyway? thought blue was your thng

The boathouse, remember? It was red.

It was?

Thinking back to that night, color didn’t even click for him. Shit, he’d barely had his own feet under him as he slipped into the place, and nearly pitched over the edge of the boat into the river. But after avoiding hitting his head, and losing his balance he’d fired it up and booked it.

Didn’t even stop to question anything, not even the keys left on the workbench nearby. Seriously, how did he end up being the first person to try this shit at all?

Raccoons, or hell, even a wolverine could’ve run off with them, and he didn’t know what was funnier, the idea of a wolverine trying to handle a boat, or John trying to work any of that lawyer mojo against something ready to claw his face off.

But thinking back to the boathouse, red kinda made sense. Well, judging from what he’d seen under the burnt and charred pieces he’d broken down and thrown to the side while taking it apart.

---

And finally, maybe some Sharky/Hana/John? John drops by their place earlier than anticipated on their calendar, which throws off their groove a bit, but he’s got a few reasons for it.

---

“Dude, it’s just past four. You check the clock at all ‘fore heading over?”

He hadn’t, admittedly. Just left his room as soon as possible without looking back, and frowned when Boshaw aimed a knowing smirk right at him. “Should I have?”

He shook his head as he plopped down onto a nearby chair. “Nah, it’s cool, man. Cool to see you, and cool to-“ he yawned, the rest of his answer swallowed up by it. “Cool to have you by and shit.”

Groping for his shoes, he pulled at the laces, loosening them enough to put them on, and rubbed at his eyes before lacing them up. Not saying anything else, he’d switched to humming something off-key, and try as he might, John couldn’t recognize a single note of it.

“Can’t really stick around long, ‘cause the first round of shifts are starting, but if you wanted to talk to H, she’ll be up in a bit. She can’t do early. Shit, I can’t do early, but you do what you gotta do, I guess.”

“It’s a small price to pay to keep things as they are.”

“Yeah, I guess. But you’re looking like you just sprang up, ready to fucking go”, Charlemagne groused. John raised an eyebrow at him, watching as he shook his head at him. “You even sleep?”

No. John said nothing, but just as he was considering it, Boshaw snorted.

“Nah, probably don’t much. Well, I’m out. Whoever’s supe this week’ll ride me if I’m late, so just lock up behind me.”

He jogged over to the bed, and dipped down towards the pile of blankets. There wasn’t much of Hana that either of them could see above what she’d wrapped around her, but once Charlemagne found her, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head, tenderly brushing her hair back as he did.

Glancing away, John waited until he was back in front of him to make eye contact again.

[kravkalackin]

I recently read Heartstrings, and what would have happened if Angus had told Lucretia or Taako that he had found out that his parents were undead Red Robes?

if he told lucretia it would probably end up being something like 

lucretia, writing with one hand and reaching towards the baby voidfish with another: oh gosh… angus, that’s so unfortunate… i’m so sorry you had to.. find out this way… that your parents are evil 

angus: madame director what are you doing 

lucretia, visibly in a panic: i promise we’ll help you get through this, don’t- don’t question it you won’t remember this in a minute 

angus: hey wait what

as for taako i uuuh, i ended up writing a snippet that got away from me so most of this is under the cut

(in this the voidfish could block ‘angus’s dad is barry bluejeans and his mom is lup’ and ‘lup and barry are redrobes’ but it did not block ‘angus’s parents are red robes’) 

Angus had been trying to handle this all himself. He’d made a promise after all, and now more than ever he was convinced that something was wrong. That his decision to trust the Red Robe had been the right one. 

But this was so much. He wanted to trust the Red Robe, but he also wanted to trust the director and the bureau. They’d been nothing but kind to him, and he wanted to believe that they were doing a good thing destroying the relics. No matter what, getting things that dangerous out of the world had to be a good thing, right? 

The Red Robe, his- his dad had said that they’d been there for a reason though. That they were protecting from something. Something Angus couldn’t comprehend because of voidfish static. Something was really, really wrong and he didn’t know what to do. 

He needed some help. 

“Taako? Are you in here??” he asked, cracking open the door to Taako’s room. He probably shouldn’t have just come into their dorm without knocking, but it seemed like Magnus and Merle were out and Angus wanted to draw as little attention to himself as possible. Taako looked like he’d been in the middle of a nap, glancing up from underneath blankets with confusion and annoyance.

“Physically, sure,” he grumbled, not sounding happy. Which was fair, and Angus was suddenly wondering if maybe he could put this off for a little while longer. 

“I’m sorry sir, I can come back later,” he said, already starting to back out of the room. Before he could shut the door though there was a mage hand ineffectively swatting at him and Taako started to sit up in bed. 

“No, no fuck it, I was waking up anyway. What’s going on did we have magic scheduled today? I thought I told you to quit it with the sir thing,” Taako said. Okay, this was just going to happen now. Taking a deep breath, Angus heading into the room, making sure to shut the door tightly behind him before climbing up on the bed. 

“No, it’s not magic day. I, uh,” he stumbled, trying to figure out how to word this. Usually he was pretty good with his words, but talking about this stuff was already navigating a sea of static in his mind, and he was trying to do it in a way that wouldn’t make Taako just never trust him again. 

“What the fuck did you do?” Taako asked, already sounding exasperated. “God, I just woke up be careful about what you’re about to fucking drop here.”

“You’re gonna be mad,”  Angus said, because it was true. 

“Cool, cool, excellent. Alright let’s just rip this fucking bandaid off then no need to drag this out,” Taako said, and maybe that was the best option. It was certainly be the easiest and that way there would be no take backs. Taking a deep breath, Angus let it all rush out, speaking fast enough that maybe Taako wouldn’t understand him. 

“I talked to the red robe.” 

“You’re grounded,” Taako shot back instantly. 

“I’m really sorry Taako! I didn’t mean to the first time I swear I’d just been trying to find out something about your umbrella and he was there and he didn’t try to hurt me at all and was actually kinda nice and I needed answers so I went back and-”

“Wait, you talked to this fool multiple times? Great! Fucking- excellent! Double grounded!” Taako shouted, sounding kind of distressed. Angus couldn’t even blame him for that, this was probably pretty distressing. 

“You can’t ground me Taako, you’re not my dad,” he said, partially because it was true and partially because he needed some way to bridge that topic.

“I can do whatever I want since apparently I’m the only idiot paying even half a shit to the literally fucking child running around the moon! Not even doing a good job of it either! Since apparently I didn’t realize you’d gone to talk to fucking Satan!” he shouted, and Angus winced, quickly glancing around them. The reclaimers dorm was the best place to do this, it was as secluded as they could get in the base, but he was still paranoid. 

“Taako, please it’s- I know this is bad, but listening ears,” he tried. Taako still looked pissed, grabbing a pillow and practically clawing at it in his lap, but he didn’t shout again. 

“You know I’m pretty sure the director expects me to be making sure you don’t get yourself got, for some fucking reason that’s beyond me,” he grumbled, and Angus was pretty sure he was right. It was probably because she could tell that Taako was the adult here he trusted the most. 

“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think I was ever in any actual danger around the Red Robe,” Angus said, and he could see the way Taako was looking at him with suspicion now. Considering what he was talking about Angus could blame him. That was probably what he was scared of the most, past getting in trouble or anything like that. 

He didn’t want to lose Taako’s trust here. He didn’t want the bureau thinking he was evil and locking him up the same way they had that Pringles guy. He never met him, but the reclaimers mentioned him enough that Angus had managed to piece it together. 

“Yeah, you’re gonna have to do some convincing on that. I mean, the dude hasn’t tried to kill us yet I guess, but like, he’s evil! He’s fucking evil Ango, the relics are bad shit. I don’t give a shit about much but I can tell that those things aren’t great,” he said, and Angus knew he had a point. 

“He said the relics had a purpose. That they were out there like, warding off something else. Something even worse than them,” he said, and he shouldn’t be giving this much away. He trusted Taako though, and he knew the elf was so much smarter than he let on. “And um, even if he was evil, I still don’t think he’d hurt me, um, specifically,” he added. 

“Pumpkin, you’re a cute kid but you’re not that fucking cute, I don’t think you could charm your way outta that one,” Taako said, but Angus shook his head. 

“No, it’s um, so you know how you can’t ground me, cause you’re not my dad?” he asked, and Taako rolled his eyes. 

“I can and I have but I’ll say yes cause it sounds like you’re trying to go somewhere with this,” he said. 

“The red robe could ground me, if he wanted to,” Angus said, getting quieter and quieter with each word. Taako was just staring at him, and Angus could see the gears turning in his head and the equations bounding around in his brain. 

“Ango?” 

“Yeah Taako?” 

“I’m gonna punch your dad in the fucking face.” 

thus begins an AU of an AU where angus convinces taako the red robes aren’t evil and they end up being kinda double agents for barry and work together through wonderland. taako is still Supes Suspicious but he’s not letting His Boy do this alone

[blastthechaos]

Wild Hero/Chaos Demon

Based on @squigglydigg speedway supes AU, sorta my own take on it.

I feel i could have done a better job at it but i don’t know what happened when i was writing halfway through.

Hope you guys enjoy.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM!!!

Titanic clashes occurred in Eggman’s fortress, a blue and red light clashed over and over, creating Sonic Booms and shockwaves constantly.

The blue light was a blue hedgehog with emerald green eyes, whose clothes were in tatters and he had quite a few bruises in his body.

The red light was a black and white jackal with a mask and a glowing ruby on his chest, his only eye visible has a glowing red sclera and a golden eye, his clothes were also damaged and had quite a good amount of bruises in his body, he was only marginally better than the blue hedgehog he is fighting.

Both clashed once again, this time trying to outmuscle each other, neither of them giving an inch.

Then the hedgehog started pushing the jackal back.

The masked jackal grunted.

“I see you improved even more from our last bout” The jackal voice was seemingly altered.

The hedgehog smirked.

“I told you once and i told you again, i get stronger every second!” The hedgehog voice was jovial yet somewhat deep, probably of someone who’s starting to enter into adulthood.

The hedgehog slowly started to gain ground on the jackal until it became obvious, then he blasted away with a boost, slamming the jackal through a building all the while kicking and punching him without losing momentum.

After being slammed through enough things, Infinite got sick of it and unleashed a blast of energy that knocked the hedgehog back.

“Enough! I played with you for too long! I will blast you apart until you’re nothing but dust!!!”

He unleashed a shockwave that lifted Sonic through the air and then created dimensional cubes and bombarded Sonic with them, creating huge explosions and burying the hedgehog under ton of rubble, that’s assuming he is even alive at this point.

Infinite dusted himself off, he was hurt but he surely had enough power to crush the resistance and finish of that infuriating black hedgehog.

Yet as he started to drift away, he sensed something from the rubble that is Sonic’s tomb.

Green lightning and a golden light.

“What is going on?” Asked the jackal.

And then an explosion of golden light erupted from the rubble.

Once everything was cleared there it stood, a golden hedgehog with ruby red spiral for eyes.

He looked at his surroundings for a tad, before immediately appearing right besides Infinite.

“Nice shot infi, that really hurt, just not enough to kill me” His voice was a demonic version of what the hedgehog’s voice was before.

“Wh-wha?!”

“But sadly for you, you triggered my, how do i call it...ability? Self defence mechanism? Emergency transformation? Eh it’s a lot of things”

“What happened to you?”

“Well you see, when i’m under a lot of stress or angry, which tends to happen a lot in my life, i become this...you may call me Super Sonic, i’m surprise Eggy hasn’t told you about me”

Infinite relaxed a bit.

“Ah yes, i heard of you, but given that you didn’t appear the first time i beat Sonic i just assume these were just fairytales, you’re still not match for me anyways” Bluffed the jackal, though inside he was getting more nervous.

Super Sonic smirked maliciously.

“Oh really? Let’s put that to the test, will ya champ?” He mocked.

“Hmpf, you’ll see the result will be the same”

The super hedgehog immediately knocked the jackal away with his fist and proceeded to go after him.

Amy and the others arrived to the battlefield to help Sonic after the rest of the resistance managed to keep the clone army under control, Infinite was really strong and they didn’t think Sonic could handle him alone despite how strong he had gotten...unless…

They were answered by someone being knocked into the ground and creating a crater, before they were able to investigate a golden hedgehog appeared in front of them.

Yup.

“Sup guys, sorry to bust your bubble but i already had this under control, looks you missed beating the bad guy once again.

Amy rolled her eyes. “Hey, that clone army it’s kinda hard to deal with, not everyone is a supercharged chaos demon that can deal with that on the blink of an eye”

“And that’s why i’m numero uno around here”

“Nice to see your ego is still as wild as ever, faker” Commented Shadow.

“And you’re a humble as fuck Shadow, at least i don’t call myself the ultimate lifeform”

“I was made to be one”

“And yet i kicked your butt in my blue form and this one, what does that make me?”

“Just kick the masked jackass butt and then we can go home to eat some chili dogs” Said Amy

“You don’t want a swing at him”

“Nah, me and the others are just gonna watch and maybe take some memories of this

“Slackers”

“Hey! We just fought a clone army, besides this doesn’t look that hard to you”

“Fair point”

The Super Sonic spotted Infinite trying to get up

“Good you’re up, i still want to have fun with ya”

As they heard Infinite’s screams of pain and Super Sonic laughter, everyone sit to observe the scene.

“He’s kinda crazy when he’s super isn’t he?” Commented Knuckles.

“Yeah, but at least he is on our side” Said Amy.

[amorremanet]

top 5 movies? and why? no no TOP FIVE BOOKS

oh gosh, both of these are hard and my answers for them are probably so boring (they also come with the, “this is just how I feel right now because ugh, I am the worst at picking any all-time faves for broad categories”) — but!!

top “five” movies:

The Prince of Egypt — has some of the most beautiful art that I’ve ever seen, anywhere, and music that sticks with you, and it really shows the human drama and human stakes of such a classic story in ways that a lot of adaptations of Biblical mythology are afraid to do

Deadpool — because I’m garbage, the characters are great, the script is pretty good, and the movie makes me laugh. It’s not really a deconstruction (in the way that some people make it out to be, by way of justifying why they like it), and it’s not super-intellectual, and in a lot of ways, it’s like a giant #SorryNotSorry that makes fun of superhero movie tropes while continuing to use them (and there are some subtle ways it plays with some of said tropes and twists them around, but it largely doesn’t) — but it’s fun

But I’m A Cheerleader — is far from perfect, and I maintain that it’s actually much more depressing than the ending leads us to believe (I mean, Meghan/Graham and Dolph/Clayton get together and escape from True Directions and homophobic parents, and Meghan’s Mom and Dad at least try to do better by their daughter, but things don’t work out that well for anybody else), but it’ll always have a special place in my heart because it was one of the only lesbian movies that I had access to as a little gay baby

Female Trouble — I wouldn’t say that it’s the best thing that John Waters has ever done, just the one that I personally like the best, and I’ll admit that it’s probably an acquired taste…… but I love how it takes on celebrity culture in the story Dawn Davenport, and it gave us great lines like, “The world of heterosexual is a sick and boring life” and, “I wouldn’t suck your lousy dick if I was suffocating and there was oxygen in your balls!” It also has a special place in my heart as one of my favorite, “gay AND weird” movies

—which probably makes sense, given that it was written and directed by the trash king of being gay and weird

……like, seriously. My (best friend who I call my) brother once asked me, “So is John Waters gay or is he just really weird?” and the only thing I could think of to say to that was, “Yes, both.”

the “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy — which is totally cheating, to put three in here, but I couldn’t pick between them. I do think that Hot Fuzz and The World’s End are more fully actualized than Shaun of the Dead, but I love all of them, and the reason is pretty much just, “Because they’re good mixes of being hilarious and making me FEEL things” (……less so in The World’s End, for several reasons; it’s a lot heavier on the feels, to the point that you sometimes feel bad for laughing at the jokes, but still)

and books:

Good Omens (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman) — This book was my introduction to both PTerry and GNeil, after I found a cheap copy in an airport bookstore when I was about twelve and immediately fell in love. It’s funny, the characters are vibrant and engaging, and it played right into my love of screwing around with Biblical mythology.

I’m periodically tempted to list different books for both of those men (with PTerry’s probably being one of the Granny Weatherwax books, or Faust Eric, and GNeil’s being either American Gods or one of his Sandman books — because yeah, he’s done other good stuff, but I’m more sentimentally attached to AG and Sandman. Also, Preludes and Nocturnes has some of the only non-movie or TV horror that has genuinely terrified me, so)

—buuuut then I never do, because Good Omens was my first book from either of them, and remains my sentimental fave, even though I admit that they’ve both written other books that are, “better” or, “stronger,” or whatever

Dry (Augusten Burroughs) — There’s a lot of fair criticism to be made of Augusten Burroughs, and he’s been one of the writers at the center of the debates about truthfulness or lack thereof in popular memoirs (like, how much an author is allowed to condense things before it stops counting as a, “real story,” and how an author remembers things happening vs. how other people remember them), but Dry nevertheless means a lot to me.

Like, I enjoyed Running with Scissors and his novel, Sellevision (which were the other Big Deals in his collected works, at the time I originally read Dry), but Dry fucked me up a LOT when I first read it. It has continued to fuck me up ever since.

There are passages in this book that I can’t even be jealous of, as another writer, because they’re so good that they skip right the fuck past, “I’m angry and jealous that I didn’t write this myself” and into, “Holy shit, THIS is why I write, the ability to do THIS KIND OF THING EXACTLY with words, I need to go write something right now”

Also, it means a lot to me for sentimental, “I read this book for the first time when I was in high school, and it made me feel less lonely and sad and scared” reasons

Dynamic Characters (Nancy Kress) — This is by no means the be-all and end-all of, “how to writer better” books, but it’s a personal favorite of mine, for two reasons: 1. there are some things that Kress doesn’t cover about creating characters and doing better by them in your writing, but she’s still pretty comprehensive and offers some solid illustrative examples, multiple perspectives on this part of writing (not as many as she could, but to be fair, she only has so many pages to work with), and a good mix of “tough love” advice and gentler, more reassuring advice;

and 2. …it was the first, “how to writer better” book that I ever got my hands on. I picked it out specifically because I’d posted a completely ridiculous crack fic that was a crossover between Harry Potter and Sailor Moon, with a first-person protagonist narrator who was a hot nonsense self-insert power fantasy Mary Sue with no flaws and no nuance because, hey, I was 11.

And someone actually commented to go, “Hey, look, you have talent, but you could do better and one place to start is maybe with learning to build better realized characters” — so I picked out the Nancy Kress book and it seems like a really silly thing to call a turning point? But it was big a turning point for me

Death, Disability, and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond (José Alaniz) — okay, time for me to be a loser and cite an academic book. I’m also probably a cheating loser, since I just read this book for the first time recently…… but with that said? I’ve read a LOT of critical treatments of the superhero genre, some pretty good, others pretty bad (for example, I remain Perpetually Tired of Slavoj Žižek’s heavy metal Communist, Bane in Leather Pants bullshit reading of The Dark Knight Returns), and most of it somewhere in the middle

—but there’s this trend among people who write critically about superhero junk, whether they’re academics of not, wherein we act like we have to act like superhero comics are The Most Progressive Ever and oversell their sociopolitical impact in order to make them look like ~*True Art*~ That Must Be Taken Seriously (—and like, I’m not saying that they have NO impact on people at all, because that’s objectively false. But you also can’t try to claim that Superman, Wonder Woman, and Captain America comics are why the Allies won World War II)

(this is a pointless aside to note that I deliberately left the Goddamn Batman off that list, because while Supes, Diana, and Steve were all off punching Nazis, Golden Age Bruce and white boy!Dick were running around on the home-front, rounding up Japanese Americans and putting them in internment camps. So… y’know. There’s that.)

……or we have to take legitimate criticisms of problems in the superhero genre, both historical and current, and use them to go, “Therefore, the entire genre is pointless garbage that has no redeeming qualities at all and could never ever EVER be used to tell any stories that are worth telling, and frankly, you are all terrible, horrible people for enjoying it, how very dare you enjoy that X-Men movie or that Red Hood And The Outlaws comic, you’re basically a fascist now”

—which is hilarious, to me, because the people who write that sort of criticism almost always cite Fredric Wertham’s book, The Seduction of the Innocent (aka: the book that led to so much moral outrage over the allegedly very gay and fascistic, child-corrupting content of comicbooks that the Comics Code Authority was created), and they always go, “Well, obviously Wertham was OTT and totally full of shit, buuuut…… *argument that would not have been out of place in his book*”

So, one of the big reasons I loved Professor Alaniz’s book is that is does neither of these things. It offers some incisive, and occasionally kinda damning, critique of the superhero genre and its handling of disability and mortality, but he does so from a place of love and enjoyment, and never pretends to hate the genre, nor argues for throwing the whole thing out because it has problems.

Like, his underlying mindset is very much, “Yes, the superhero genre has a LOT of problems, but people could, in theory, fix them and try to get closer to realizing the full potential of what these characters and stories can do” — while never skimping on a detailed analysis of the trends and case studies that he presents.

Sometimes, I think he’s kinda reaching (and I, personally, never want to hear anything about Doctor Doom’s Oedipus complex ever again so long as I live, though it was validating to hear that my theatre kids AU version of him — who is a ridiculous mess, obsessed with taking selfies, and perpetually acting like he totally gets everything while missing some crucial detail, which is how he ends up thinking that Loki is dating Tony Stank [a suggestion that makes both of them want to puke] — is actually a valid interpretation of his character, based on some parts of canon)

Overall, though, my biggest problem with Professor Alaniz’s book is that he can be kind of a hipster and it can get a little bit annoying. Not enough to ruin the whole book, but enough that it does stand out.

Like, his chapter on Daredevil specifically analyzes an infamous Silver Age story that basically everyone hated — the one where Matt Murdock tells Karen and Foggy that he isn’t the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, but he has some heretofore unknown identical twin brother named Mike, who is not blind but *IS* actually that aforementioned costumed hero, and carries on a charade of pretending to be his nonexistent twin brother — and okay, we get some pretty neat discussion of how passing can work or might not with disabled people

…but you can still walk away feeling like his biggest reason for analyzing that story arc was less about its value to any part of his discussion, and more about going, “Other Daredevil stories are too mainstream, I care most about this one that was so infamously ridiculous that people have said even soap operas wouldn’t have done this plot”

Likewise, I’m not saying that there aren’t very fair criticisms to be made of the X-Men and how their stories handle disability in particular… but at some points in his chapter on the Silver Age Doom Patrol comics, Professor Alaniz seems to be less, “using the pre-Claremont Silver Age X-Men stories as an illustrative foil to the Doom Patrol, especially with regard to how Charles’s paraplegia is treated vs. how The Chief’s paraplegia is treated” and more, “using this discussion as a free excuse to bash on the X-Men for being popular”

To his credit, Professor Alaniz does kinda discuss some of the ways that the X-Men’s popularity might have been affected by the fact that things like their ableist handling of Charles make them feel, “safer” and, “less sociopolitically threatening” than he makes the Doom Patrol out to be (with a pretty convincing argument, actually)

He just doesn’t do it enough for me to feel like his “criticism” of the X-Men isn’t at least partially grounded in going, “Well, it’s popular, therefore it sucks” (—as opposed to my approach to them, which is, “It’s popular, and has a mixed bag of things that it does well vs. things it does that suck, but it does not suck BECAUSE it is popular”)

Anyway, good book, and it’s written in a refreshingly accessible way (it’s still an academic book and harder to get into than, say, Good Omens, but Professor Alaniz doesn’t make a lot of the more common mistakes that leave a lot of academic writing effectively incomprehensible)

and last but not least…… Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire (we all know who wrote this, okay, come on) — because I’d be lying if I didn’t include at least one HP book on this list, considering how important those books and that fandom have been to the course of my life and to my development as a writer, and it was either gonna be this one or POA, but this one won over the other because I’m garbage