#and other dc media have just completely bastardized him entirely

[prognostik-a2]

thinking about him ( anarky )

[thevindicativevordan]

What are your thoughts on Batman?

Damn someone asked me about DC's most popular character (I was seriously wondering if I should even bother to make a post about him).

Obviously I have opinions, I don't think there's a single Superman fan out there who is wholly indifferent to this guy, you either love him or hate him. Or if you're a special snowflake like me, you do both at the same time. There's not really anything I can say that people don't know already about Batman, so I'll just offer my perspective.

Look I love Batman, I think he's cool as hell just like the rest of the world. I own a ton of his greatest comics hits in Omnibus and Absolute form. I own a lot of great Batman animated movies like Under the Red Hood and The Long Halloween. The Arkham games were something I spent a ton of time playing (all the while wishing there was a Superman equivalent admittedly) and enjoying. The Nolan Batman movies were some of the first superhero movies I ever saw, and I adored The Dark Knight completely. Animated cartoons like The Batman and Batman: The Brave and the Bold were my jam growing up, and the DCAU Batman played by Conroy absolutely lived up to the hype of being one of the GOAT Batmen when I finally sat down and watched the DCAU. There's a lot of great Batman content coming up that I'm excited for like Reeves The Batman movie and the Batman: The Caped Crusader cartoon.

If we define "GOAT" as being the most successful character than Batman is DC's GOAT character. No one has matched his level of success across multiple media like he has, he's achieved success in every form of medium: Film, video games, TV, radio, animation, novels and of course comics. The closest one is Spider-Man, and even then he still lags behind Bats in a few areas. Batman is pretty much singlehandedly keeping DC afloat considering how they badly mismanaged their other IPs over the years, and for that he deserves appreciation and respect if nothing else.

But he's not my favorite character, and that so much of his success comes at Superman's expense makes me bitter as fuck. So many of his stories involve him sealing his status as top dog by bathing in Clark's blood and I'm just so fucking sick of it. I'm sick of seeing his dumbass parents get their brains blown out in an alley, sick of seeing him cry and use that as an excuse to be a sociopath, sick of him doing heinous stuff and get off with no punishment, sick of Clark having to be the "brawn" to his "brains", sick of people wanting Wonder Woman to just be his girlfriend, sick of Nightwing constantly getting fucked over because he's still Batman's sidekick, sick of his fanboys shilling him to hell and back as the most badass dude to ever walk the Earth who can out preptime Cthulhu but also he's just a regular guy like you and me ;) teehee.

It's so disheartening looking over at how Marvel has made people fans of their entire universe while DC clings to Batman for dear life. People give more of a shit about the two Batmen in the Flash movie than they do about the Flash (not that I blame them but still). Totally understand why, throughout the clusterfuck that DC has been for decades, Batman's been an oasis of stability. The Batman writers have been constantly building up Batman and Gotham into the most fleshed out franchise ever, so that it can support stories ranging from crime noir, to horror, to cyberpunk, to family adventures, to blockbuster action adventures, to globe trotting escapades, and so much more. It's been pretty much an unbroken chain of, at the very least solid, storytelling since O'Neil started returning him to his roots, and Frank Miller took campy Batman to Crime Alley and beat him to death.

None of the other franchises can compete with that, either mired in constant reboots or multiple mantle holders fighting for the top spot. Add on the best Rogues Gallery in comics, the inherent coolness of being a ninja dressed like a demon armed with all the coolest toys and deadliest training, who operates out of his personal cave under his mansion with his butler attending to him, and I get it, I get why he's so popular. Must reiterate that I'm rather fond of the bastard myself.

Just wish his success didn't come at others expense so often is all.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #474

Top Ten Characters Who Came Back from the Dead

I am stunned – stunned! – that I’ve not done this one before. I mean, come on! It’s right there.

So there’s obviously a thematic resonance going on here. This weekend – the weekend you’re meant to be reading this – is famous where I come from because of a story where someone came back from the dead. Unlike other holidays – Christmas, Halloween, the release of a Star War – I’ve actually been a little slow off the mark in making lists that celebrate Easter. I’ve done eggs and bunnies, but incredibly I’ve never done resurrections, which really is the day’s whole deal. I mean, if you get down to brass tacks, it’s kinda the big selling point of the entire religion really. I hesitate to say “USP” because, well, it’s been done elsewhere, but it’s still supposed to be one of the big Christian takeaways (there’s definitely a chain of Christian takeaways in the States, isn’t there?).

Anyway, resurrection. It’s actually more common than you might think. Certainly in terms of comics there are probably more characters who’ve “died and come back” than have never “died” at all. But! And this is where I get pernickety. Most characters who “die” don’t actually die. Take Batman for instance: he’s shot in the face by Darkseid, and then Superman ups and finds his charred corpse, but – shocker! – he’s not actually dead, he was just sent back in time, where he Quantum Leaps his way back to the present day, accumulating enough Omega Energy with each leap that by the time he reaches the present day he’s blow a hole in reality. Or something, I’ve not read that story for quite a few years. Anyway: he wasn’t dead. Neither was Sherlock Holmes, or for that matter Dirty Den. Generally speaking, if someone dies in a story and then reappears, they’re not dead. Not really.

So this list here is supposed to be people who actually died. Now, even here, it’s debatable; I mean, is E.T. dead, or does his body just go into some kind of hibernation? If Optimus Prime’s brainwaves survive, does he ever really die? Is a clone someone coming back to life or not? It’s all a bit wishy-washy really, which kind of makes sense when you’re talking about resurrection. And let’s not get onto the chief resurrector, the Doctor; do they die every time they regenerate? Or is the regeneration itself a way of staving off death? When David Tennant turned into Matt Smith, did the Tennant-Doctor die? “I don’t want to go,” and all that; there’s always a subtle (or not-so-subtle) change in personality. Does that count? Well, for the purposes of this list, I’ve kinda decided it doesn’t. But it’s an interesting discussion to have, if you’re a big old nerd like me.

So yeah: people who have died – properly, I suppose – and then come back to life. That’s the list. No fakery, to mistaken identity, no alternate universe shenanigans; they were dead but they got better (no Chev Chelios either; sorry, Stath stans). No zombies either! Or vampires! They’re not undead; they were dead, and now they’re alive again. That’s the rule. Also I’ve seriously tried to limit comic book characters. And I’m sure there are some big omissions (like, I know there’s one from Game of Thrones that’s not on here, but that’s because I’ve not seen that far into the show yet; I know, I know). But I reckon these are the best at being back.

Optimus Prime (Transformers franchise, from about 1987): OP is the OG when it comes to coming back to life. Dying and then stopping being dead is pretty much his thing. Technically the first time he came back from the dead was in the original animation; famously being offed by Megatron in The Transformers: The Movie (1986), he came back to life a year later. Subsequent media have frequently killed him and brought him back, even in the live-action movies, but I want to talk about the comics. Because the original Marvel run killed off Optimus at a similar time as the cartoon; he’s blown up in slightly contrived circumstances, but his brain is saved on a floppy disk. Two years later he has his body rebuilt and his brain restored and he’s off to the races once more. Then in 1991, when facing down planet-eating mega-bastard Unicron, he sacrifices himself again, but this time his personality has begun to merge with that of his ostensibly-human companion Hi-Q. Hi-Q/Prime is converted/rebuilt into a new body, and he wins the war. So there you go: even in this one sliver of continued continuity – not including off-shoots or spin-offs, let alone other iterations of the overall franchise – Optimus Prime died and came back to life twice. Beat that, Easter.

E.T. (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982): not much to say here that we don’t already know from the Book of Spielberg. E.T., doddery little alien magic-man, grows sicker and sicker as he’s stuck on Earth, until in a thrillingly-edited set-piece he seems to expire, human doctors unable to help him. “I know you’re gone,” says best bud Elliot, “because I don’t know what to feel.” But then! His heart glows! His colour returns! And he positively yells, “E.T. phone hooooooome!” – and Elliot’s euphoric laugh is just devastating. The whole sequence – what is it, ten minutes? Fifteen? – is masterful in every way, from the technical to the performative to the emotional. Bloody magic is what it is.

Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 1954): Gandalf the Grey famously leads the Fellowship of the Ring across the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, where he faces off against a Balrog. After a bit of “you shall not pass” and all that, they both fall from the bridge, battling each other on the way down, before both perishing at the bottom. Gandalf, though, is not really Gandalf, but Olórin, one of the Maiar – basically a kind of angel, I guess. He is returned to Earth by the powers-that-be to complete his mission, and is promoted to Gandalf the White, supplanting the corrupt wizard Saruman. This new iteration of Gandalf is a bit more serious and steadfast, although he does retain his fascination with hobbits. Regardless, he gets a terrific death scene and a triumphant resurrection, and how it ties into Tolkien’s wider mythology is interesting.

Superman (DC Comics, 1993): comic book characters die and come back all the time; it’s pretty much a staple of the medium. I guess Jean Grey/Phoenix is probably the most famous, but they’ve all done at some point (even if, like in my Batman example earlier, sometimes they don’t actually die). Anyway, Superman died, very famously, after getting into a tremendous barney with genetically-engineered super-git Doomsday (as famously, and atrociously, depicted in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). The whole “Death of Superman” arc is interesting and entertaining as an example of mid-nineties big-panel EXTREME storytelling: as the issues tick down to the fateful scrap in Metropolis, the number of panels-per-page is reduced until the final issue is basically just full of splash pages. It’s a terrific, exhilarating rumble, really selling the heft of the confrontation. Interestingly, the comic spends a lot of time afterwards dealing with life without Superman, as a raft of imitators/wannabe successors emerge from the woodwork; these include the best-ever Superboy, Conner Kent, and Steel, who’s basically Superman meets Iron Man. Eventually, of course, Superman comes back, his body essentially having been sent to a Kryptonian day spa to recuperate; he emerges clad in black and with a mullet, so death obviously has some lasting repercussions. Overall, it’s a whopping arc with long-term consequences, and whilst it’s easy to make Christ parallels when discussing Superman, this story doesn’t really hew that way (unlike the Snyder-verse which really goes all-in on that plot point, much to the films’ detriment). One of the better aspects is how, even in death, Superman is an inspiration, which in itself has a long trail; leading, eventually, to Batman’s famous withering diss, “the last time you inspired someone was when you where dead.” Anyway, I’ve gone on about this far too long.

Spock (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, 1984): let’s start by acknowledging just how great Spock’s death is in Wrath of Khan. As a plot point within the film, as a piece of staging and performance, and as a landmark moment in this franchise, it was seminal; a death for the ages (as an aside, it’s crazy to think Star Trek as a whole was only sixteen years old when Spock died; the MCU was eleven when Tony Stark clicked the bucket). Anyway, they built an entire film around how to bring him back, and Spock as we know him is absent for much of it; a presence looming over everything as he rapidly ages, going through his Vulcan super-puberty and everything. It’s actually a rather sombre film as Kirk’s son is killed and the Enterprise blows up; bringing back Spock comes with a very real cost. Trek III is not one of the top-tier films – in the loose trilogy that comprises Khan, Spock, and The Voyage Home it’s certainly the weakest – but it’s still pretty good, often underrated. And, of course, it brings back Spock, which is nice.

Agent Coulson (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., 2013): Coulson’s death in Avengers comes as a huge shock, one of the fan-favourite characters being brutally offed in surprising fashion. In a film chock full of super-people, it’s the ordinary guy who buys it tragically. However, did any of us really think he was dead-dead? And so barely a year later he pops back up in the TV series Agents of SHIELD. However, his reincarnation became a recurring plot point; his references to spending time in Tahiti (“It’s a magical place”) becoming increasingly sinister as we come to understand even he doesn’t know how he’s back up and running. The eventual truth – Nick Fury using painful and transformative alien tech to basically bring Coulson back to life – may be a bit underwhelming, but it gave Clark Gregg a lot of meat to chew on dramatically speaking, and it underscored a lot of his character development going forward (especially when he, yes, died again, and then sort-of came back, twice).

Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 2001): full disclosure: I never watched Buffy religiously. I think I just missed it at the start and it was only when all my friends were talking about how great it was that I started tuning in more regularly. Weirdly, I think the most I watched it was around the time Buffy died and came back. It’s fascinating, really, and full credit to the show for the way they explored it; in a series full of magic, the afterlife, and the undead, bringing a character back to life isn’t too shocking. Willow, Buffy’s witchy mate, resurrects her with magic; but in an excellent twist, it turns out that she was in Heaven, and is super pissed off to be pulled out of paradise and stuck back on Earth, leading to her feeling depressed and alienated all season. That’s a great hook for bringing a character back, and leads to some meaty stuff for Sarah Michelle Geller to do.

Agent Smith (The Matrix Reloaded, 2003): do you ever feel that The Matrix has slipped from popular culture a little bit? Twenty years ago it was ascendent, rivalling Lord of the Rings for the title of “the new Star Wars”. Everyone was copying it. but now hardly anyone talks about it. probably because it hasn’t had a multimedia shelf-life comprising dozens of games and spin-off shows. Maybe the new film will change that. But I digress; Hugo Weaving is tremendous as Agent Smith in the first film, and is exploded at the end (spoilers) by Keanu Reeves’ Neo. Unsurprisingly – especially as he’s, well, just bits of code – he’s back in the sequel. However, he’s now been corrupted; he becomes, basically, a virus, self-replicating and threatening not just our heroes but the Matrix itself. This builds across two films, as Neo has to fight dozens of Smiths in the famous “Burly Brawl”, before the final conflict in The Matrix Revolutions when it seems everyone in the program has been Smithed. It offers Weaving a lot of scenery to chew on and makes for some great set-piece battles, even if the films themselves are a little disappointing.

Olaf (Frozen II, 2019): let’s not beat around the bush here – Olaf carks it in Frozen II. Okay, maybe Elsa dies; maybe Anna dies in the first film. They’re frozen, right, but I feel like it’s “magic ice” and there’s something going on there. Do they come back to life or were they ever really dead? Anyway, Elsa is effectively “gone” but we get a protracted death scene for the comic relief talking snowman. He literally fades away, slowly dying in Anna’s arms, and melts into a flurry of snow that blows away. People talk about Bambi’s mum all the time, but mark my words; “Olaf’s death” is going to be cited as a major traumatic incident for twenty-year-olds in 2030. His resurrection, truth be told, is slightly less great, Elsa just straight-up bringing him back to life, reminding us that “water has memory” to let us know that it’s the same Olaf and he remembers everything (including, presumably, dying? That’s creepy). And that, to be honest, is where I draw the line; sentient wind and rock monsters I can handle, but we all know homeopathy is bollocks.

Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, 2019): look, I hate this. But let’s deal with it anyway, because I have a funny feeling it’s going to lead to some quite interesting stories being told in spin-off Star Wars fiction. I personally feel quite strongly that Palpatine should have stayed dead. And maybe he did? We are led to believe that the Palpatine we see in Rise is a clone; there are jars of stilted Snokes floating in the background. He’s all knackered and broken, eyes blackened and fingers dropping off; clearly he’s not well. So is he really the same character at all? Is his Sith essence somehow fed into this new body, the way Prime’s mind is downloaded from a floppy disk (“run prime.exe”)? Let’s say it counts, let’s say he’s the same slimy Palps we know and love. He is, at least, a sinister presence, and like I say, the whys and wherefores of how he came to be back is quite interesting. There’s a fascinating story to be told about the rise of Snoke and the seduction of Ben Solo – a more interesting story than anything told in The Rise of Skywalker, for starters. Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian seems to be researching cloning and seeks to extract midichlorians from a Force-sensitive being; are we to conclude that this in service of making a new body for the Emperor? All this – stuff hinted at but not explored in the film itself – is, like I say, interesting if not outright fascinating. And I agree, there is a certain degree of circularity in bringing back the series’ Big Bad for the final instalment. But I still feel, hand on heart, that it undoes a lot of the victory of Return of the Jedi (as did The Force Awakens, if I’m honest), as well as throwing away all the development of Rey and Kylo in The Last Jedi. So: Palpatine is cool, his presence and backstory in Rise of Skywalker is suitably creepy and interesting, but on the whole it’s crap and they shouldn’t have brought him back. The end.

Ten people who definitely died and definitely un-died! What could be more Easter-y? Honourable mention goes to the episode of Red Dwarf where Rimmer changes history and ends up not being a hologram, only to accidentally blow himself up in the final seconds.

[ty-talks-comics]

The Boys Season 1 Review and Comparison

This was so cathartic.

In an age where we’re inundated with superhero media on all fronts with their bright colors, cheery jokes and positive outlooks, it’s easy to slowly become sick of it, feel the “superhero fatigue” as it were. Where Marvel ruins some stories with far too many jokes (looking at you Thor: Ragnarok) and DC is far too dreary and serious for its own good with a lack of levity, where can one turn to for a GOOD happy medium?

Well, in comes Seth Rogan and Evan Gold, the brilliant minds behind the amazing adaptation of Preacher with yet another brutal and slightly more cynical series. The Boys absolutely stuns not only by being a genuinely compelling series, but also by being one of the few adaptations that improves on the original medium in a few aspects.

Story

The story centers around Hughie Campbell and the titular Boys as they work to expose the horrific deeds of The Seven, a collective of the world's greatest superheroes, and the company that sponsors them, Vought American.

In this world, superheroes are everywhere. They're on breakfast cereals, TV shows, movies, pretty much every piece of media and entertainment imaginable while also protecting America from crime. Sounds familiar, huh? The kicker here is that, much like every asshole celebrity that lets the fame and fortune go to their heads, these heroes are massive cunts. They take performance enhancing drugs, routinely cause accidents that hurt or kill people, sexually harass people left and right and just lie to their adoring public like they’re children.

Unlike the books, however, The Boys team isn’t the well oiled machine that’s been taking down and blackmailing superheroes for years and the first four episodes are spent introducing the different team members.This is likely due to wanting to give people time to care about them individually and the limited number of episodes in the season. This definitely works in also retooling the characters themselves for TV since they may not have seventy-two issues of character development ahead of them

For the most part, the show follows the initial story beats of the comics with a few select differences before splintering off in an entirely new direction. Hughie’s girlfriend still gets blown apart by A-Train, he denies Vought America’s hush money which draws the attention of Billy Butcher and Starlight joins the Seven after the “death” of the hero Lamplighter. 

This also means that there's less time to focus on smaller plotlines and teams that are referenced to in passing dialogue like the Teenage Kix, a pastiche on the Teen Titans, or Payback, the number two group of superheroes to The Seven. While seeing the team take these guys down on the small screen would have been fun, I like the idea of keeping the plot focused on just the core group of antagonists. This way, we don’t have to slog through three or four seasons of small fry and get the big bads in the last few.

After the first half, fans of the comic may start to feel a little bit of the familiar, but then things start to take a drastic turn when Billy's pride and the rest of the teams sloppiness gets them all burned and branded wanted criminals. This never happens in the books because The Boys are funded and protected by the CIA, but here they’re just another group of concerned citizens that are completely in over their heads, adding to the tension and keeping everyone guessing as to what will happen for the rest of the season and in Season 2.

Themes

The original series was written during the latter years of the Bush Administration. Tensions were high and America was still embroiled in the Iraq War. The president was a simpering fool and companies were fucking people over left and right in the name of patriotism. Reality TV and the awful personalities on our screens were on nearly every channel and all of this only fueled the anger that is Garth Ennis’ pen and Darick Robertson’s pencils. It was a product of its time and it was perfect.

We’re now in the Information Age where superheroes and social media are the only things that matter in everyone’s mind, where women’s empowerment is stronger than ever and our leaders speak bombastically with shit eating grins full of lies. Rogen and Goldberg have kept the series modern and take everything to task.

Media. Marvel and DC are everywhere nowadays with some indie companies managing to scrape up their own part of the pie. The Boys makes fun of the seemingly endless cycle of sequels and the goody-two-shoes images of America’s favorite heroes. Everything is carefully managed and curated by a media team, similar to how Disney micromanages even the smallest details of their properties to make everything so sickeningly squeaky clean. 

Not only do the heroes stop crime, but they star in their own movies about themselves as well, some have sponsorships for shoes and have to compete with each other for everything. Almost everything is done for the cameras, even intimate moments whenever Vought can find a way to make it work. The heroes are never too far from the spotlight even when they want to be and oftentimes their acts can go viral without them knowing.

Sexual Assault. In the comics, Starlight is sexually assaulted by Homelander, Black Noir and A-Train in a gross scene to establish that there’s nothing good in that world. It was good for its time in its own dark way, but today there are absolutely consequences to such things as there should have been back then. In the show, Starlight is assaulted by The Deep, her childhood crush, alone. 

It’s dark and makes use of the imbalance of power as The Deep threatens to have her kicked off of the team. Soon after, Starlight comes forward with what happens to her, not allowing herself to let what happened stand and unlike in the books, The Deep gets his comeuppance. Though this also unfortunately leading to him getting assaulted as well. It’s powerful and allows for Starlight to move what could have been an image of weakness, though Vought uses this to their advantage as well, painting her a feminist icon. Best for business right?

Politics. While not everything has to be an allegory for Trump, it’s hard to say that Homelander isn’t just that. He’s what the president thinks he is, a strong, blonde haired man that the entire country loves. Homelander has the people eating out of the palm of his hands and he’s only feeding them shit. He hates the common man and will just as easily let many die if it can somehow serve his interests. He’s not above a little sexual harassment himself and he is just an evil bastard.

There’s also a subplot of military application of superheroes that I feel mirrors the discussion on the use of drones in war. Drones are absolutely deadly and have caused the deaths of hundreds, even innocents when things have gone really wrong. Even President Obama was criticized for how reckless and dangerous their use could be. The world could only imagine the hell that would rain down if superheroes were allowed to duke it out over national security.

Characters

The Boys as a comic series was an unrepentantly cynical take on the superhero genre in an established universe of heroes. The creator, Garth Ennis, didn’t grow up with many superheroes and actually felt disrespected by a few of them, like Captain America. He brought on the amazing Darick Robertson and other artists to realize this horrid world of drugs, hardcore sex and brutal violence. Many of the stories are fun and hilarious, but with the unfortunate feeling of a lot of them feeling one note due to the one dimensional nature of a lot of the “heroes” and the ever escalating level of black humor to the point of being cartoonish.

Our main character cast is absolutely fantastic. Jack Quiad’s Hughie is much like his comic counterpart, aside from being like six feet tall and not Scottish. He’s surprisingly smart with a lot of awkwardness about him. He has a good heart and doesn’t see ALL superheroes as being evil, but does have a slight sense of justice that wants to see The Seven and Vought taken down. 

Karl Urban’s Butcher was the absolute perfect casting choice. He’s got that wry British wit, the fury to capture Butcher’s rage against supes and can play a manipulator like nobody's business. His character arc is one of the few regressions that I can actually appreciate for how it's done, especially as things become more fucked because of him and how he chooses to blame everyone else.

Everyone else is a slight bit of an improvement over the comics versions. The Frenchman, played by Tomer Capon, is similar to his comics counterpart, but we’re given reason to care about him and The Female. In the comics, Frenchie and the Female knew each other prior, but I don’t think it’s ever revealed how they met or became close. In the show Frenchie frees The Female, played by Karen Fukuhara, from thugs that had been keeping her prisoner and he slowly gains her trust over the course of the next few episodes after her introduction. We see their friendship grow, learn a little bit of her backstory and get a better understanding of what she wants versus just following Frenchie around and being terrifyingly adorable.

Annie January aka Starlight, played by Erin Moriarty, is probably the second best change in character in the series. She starts out as a bright eyed, bushy tailed hero looking to do good, but after being sexually assaulted on her first day in The Seven, decides that it will never happen again. In the comics, Annie stays around in The Seven and takes the abuse for a little while before speaking out and fighting back against the rest of them. What makes things even better, not only does she challenge her uber Christian beliefs during an event sponsored by Vought, but she does so while also getting Vought to force her abuser into giving a public apology at the mere thought of her causing their stock prices to crash.

Consequently, Mother’s Milk, portrayed by Laz Alonso, one of the most layered characters in the comics isn’t made better, but the more ridiculous aspects of is character have been toned down. We don’t hear of his disabled mother and his addiction to her breast milk that fuels his own superpowers, nor is his wife a crack addict that makes pornos with their daughter. He’s simply a reliable member of the team that loves his wife and will give Butcher the truth when he’s acting like an asshole.

The series actually brings a lot of grey to most of these characters. A-Train never once shows remorse for his actions in the books, but in the show he's painted as kind of sympathetic, while still being seen as a monster for what he does and the reasons behind them. The Deep could go either way after his actions with a redemption arc or a full turn to villain, but is shown to be knowingly aware of how little regard there is for him. He calls himself a "diversity hire" and acknowledges his own ineptitude, but he's still an absolutely terrible person.

Queen Maeve may be one of my favorite changes that manages to be even more sympathetic than her already pretty great comic counterpart. She, much like Starlight, did want to change the world, but she let the apathy and jaded nature of the job take her over. She's an alcoholic that sees a bit of herself in Starlight. The change comes in how she reacts to what I think might be Homelander's most heinous act in the show. She shows far more remorse and guilt over what happens than she does in the comic, showing us a side of her makes you want to root for her and to see her get better.

The best character… dear Lord, is Homelander, played by Anthony Starr. Homelander is a bastard. The worst thing imaginable because of his sheer strength and power. He’s a sociopath with all of the powers of Superman and none of the goodness. In the comics he’s simply just another asshole. 

He’s the most powerful of the Seven and absolutely revels in the hedonistic lifestyle that he’s accustomed to while also hating being under the rule of Vought. In the show, he’s shown as being supportive to Vought, especially it’s current Senior VP of Hero Management, Madelyn Stillwell. He has something of a mommy fetish as shown with his interactions with her and later in the series actually expresses emotions over learning of his own tragedies, but instead of trying to change for the better, he doubles down on his hatred and anger to become an even bigger monster than before. 

In the comic he just wants all of the superheroes to conquer the world, but here, he just wants to hurt everyone who hurts him. He plays games like a child, threatening and revealing secrets to toy with people before absolutely breaking them. He's horrible in a very personal way and his sneering smile only makes him so much more hateable. He knows there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop him and he revels in that fact, I love it.

Pacing and Direction

Coming in at an hour for each episode, the first two to three can feel a bit slow. Getting all of the story elements to sit just right can take time, especially as new things are introduced every few minutes. This slow burn approach easily helps to build the tension before things get really crazy by episode four. By that point, the story is unfolding at a perfect rhythm, the team is mostly together, they’ve made their plans of action and it’s all so smooth.

Thankfully each episode is directed by different people to avoid each feeling so similar. The common humor and tone is kept the same, but some episodes are very hopeful almost before being met with one that absolutely makes you hate certain characters and the actions that they take. In particular, the episode where Hughie and Butcher visit a group therapy session and Butcher flies off into a rage about the weakness of the attendees as they basically lick the balls of the heroes that have maimed them was amazing. The director pulls so much emotion out of that scene and continues on as the episode moves along in a far more dramatic fashion than some of the others.

Some others lean heavier on the debauchery such as the episode where Hughie and Butcher venture into a superhero sex club and watch as these guys do some pretty amazing feats with their abilities in some really gross ways. There’s a good balance of levity and drama that makes neither feel too overwhelming.

Overall

With a great cast, impeccable acting and an unpredictability that I actually enjoyed, The Boys absolutely blew me away. I was wholly prepared to rip it apart if I felt like it didn’t do the story justice, but Rogen and Goldberg are fans and knew what we all wanted. It’s unabashedly a comic book show, but still has enough to it that people who have never heard of the series will be floored by how much they can find to enjoy.

It’s for the nihilistic and jaded comic book fan. It’s for the casual watcher who’s gotten enough of Marvel’s colorful displays of happiness and it’s absolutely for the happy person who just wants to have some fun with what they watch. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this season of The Boys. So much so that I’m aching with anticipation to re-read the comic series in preparation for Season Two. It’s unlikely that it’ll follow the plot much, if at all after the ending, but with Stormfront (as a woman) being announced as the new Hero joining the Seven in the next season, I’m excited as to who else they might pull. This first season absolutely earns a high recommendation from me.

[mcjickson]

THE CONSTANT

I think about Edith Fuller a lot. Edith Fuller, if you don’t remember—and there’s absolutely no reason you should, all things considered—was a wunderkind kindergartener who qualified to represent Tulsa in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. You know, the one for eighth graders. At 6, Edith was the youngest contestant in the history of the Bee, and as such was the darling of the media covering the event. And with good reason—as she had no idea of the relative enormity of her achievement, she carried herself with the infectious humility of a genuine 6-year-old, not a media darling. She was basically the Bad News Bears of the Spelling Bee: a scrappy little towheaded upstart that you couldn’t help but root for. She made the final round of competition but caught some brutal words early in the day, and spent the rest of the event doing insanely adorable color commentary and interviews. And then the tournament was over, and Edith went home with her family and back to being a 6-year-old. I could not wait to see her come back as a first-grader. I was so very excited to see how far she could get with another year of study under her belt, so when the next year’s finalists were announced, I immediately searched the list to find her speller number. And she wasn’t there. She hadn’t qualified. There was no joy in Mudville; first-grade Edith had struck out. I felt a slight measure of relief for whichever 8th-grader from the greater Tulsa region had pulled off the upset. Turns out it wasn’t an eighth-grader, though. It was a dapper little 3rd grader in a bow tie. Young Sal Lakmissetti had done the impossible and knocked out America’s sweetheart. I was happy for him—until I read about how it happened. One of the reasons that watching the Bee is so emotionally involving is that the tension between the spellers and their occasionally overbearing parents can be so heart-wrenchingly intense. Edith had been a respite from that—her parents seemed to have been surprised that she had developed those skills. Sal’s dad on the other hand, had gotten indignant when Sal lost to Edith in Tulsa the year before. So he hired the previous year’s tournament champion to give Sal private lessons for a year. You know, the way you do when you want your 3rd grader to trounce a 1st grader in a contest for 13-year-olds. Not for nothing, but that is basically the plot of the movie Bad Words. Sal’s dad had turned him into Chitanya Chopra. I wonder if Sal’s dad knows how to spell “autofellatio.” I wonder if Edith had been heartbroken when she lost the Tulsa bee. Turns out, the next year she wasn’t interested in participating at all. And her dad didn’t push her, because it wasn’t about him. Edith Fuller’s dad got it right, and he just let her be a second-grader and pursue whatever her enormous second-grader heart wanted. I was ecstatic she didn’t return, that she was out there getting to be a kid. The funny thing is, I’m not really obsessed with spelling per se. What I am obsessed with, however, is the raw human drama of watching painfully awkward home-schooled kids on ESPN. There’s no denying the hilarity of some of their more awkward moments. But the real reason to watch is to marvel at their bravery. I’ve heard it alleged that the #1 most commonly held phobia in American adults is a fear of public speaking. And yet year after year, some of the most sheltered kids in America gather in a hotel in DC called The Gaylord (because these kids aren’t bullied enough, I guess), and walk up to a microphone before millions and risk entire-hometown-disappointing embarrassment. Wanting to more fully understand what these kids go through, I let my family talk me into entering an adult spelling bee sponsored by the local library. After my initial disappointment that “adult spelling bee” didn’t mean it was a four-letter-words contest, I got fully enthused at the prospect of competing, and even had our friend Scott design a t-shirt for me to compete in, emblazoned with a bee illustration and the mantra that governed my participation: “Edith Fuller is my constant.” By “constant”, I was referencing what was maybe the best-ever episode of Lost, a self-contained narrative about a man searching for the love of his life across shifting time periods. The usual complications of time travel narratives were overcome by the idea that in order for him to find his true path, he had to serve as a “constant” to remind other people what their true purpose was. My true purpose in entering the bee was to try to have the kind of come-what-may attitude that made Edith shine. And that’s largely the way it went down. I breezed through the first few rounds with ease, the words got hard in a hurry, but I acquitted myself nicely. After a solid initial hour that whittled a field of about forty people down to six, I was relieved when I got thrown a softball for an umbrella-drink-loving goober like me: daiquiri. Which I promptly misspelled. I’ll never forgive myself for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, but I’m always happy to throw that t-shirt on these days. Of course, now, a couple years removed my own bee experience, it’s more evident than ever to me that when I throw that t-shirt on, Edith Fuller is a codename. A transparent alias, at that. I’m sure you have a person in your life that serves as your constant: not necessarily your partner or best friend (though it could be), but the person you go to when you need to be reminded of who you really are. What you’re really about. Who believes in you with no agenda. I’ve been lucky to be that for a few people—I was my brother Patrick’s constant, for instance. And while Declan’s always been my wartime consigliere—there’s no one more clutch in a crisis—Delaney has always been my constant. They say having kids is like living with your heart outside your body, and that has always hit me at a cellular level. I don’t talk about it often—or ever really—as it’s not something that happened to me, or that I went through, it’s Delaney's story. But for context I need you to know that when she had a debilitating mystery affliction a couple years ago, she was put through a series of tests for terminal illnesses. Those tests came back negative, but for a little while I had to confront the possibility of losing my baby girl and it nearly fucking broke me. Thank jeebus, the folks at the Mayo Clinic were able to diagnose her malady, and it’s something she had to learn to live with, and cope with, and thrive with. And she’s done all of that, admirably, but it required her to delay college for a frustrating year. Given the ways we’ve all been sidelined lately, it’s done me good to remember the ways Delaney got through her involuntary gap year with grace. Multiple creative projects. Tending to the care of small things. Finding ways to breathe through the worst of it. And leaning on the people who love her most. And I’ve treasured her as my constant like never before, and spending time with her got me through being 2x4’ed by my avowed best friend. (There’s been some good-natured conjecture by well-meaning friends as to whether the most recent playlist was indeed a break-up mix. First of all, I don’t want to knock whatever any of you have do to get over somebody, but listening to a bunch of songs that rub your nose in the loss just isn’t my thing. There’s no denying that when I sequenced the songs, I was struck by the lyrical subtext that emerged, but they weren’t selected for that purpose. In fact, most of those songs were in the playlist before I found out what had happened. But it merits a thoughtful inquest, in any case. You poor bastards.) And I guess that’s the thing. There’s something legitimately sad about when your best-laid plans and most fervent desires don’t work out the way you envisioned, especially when it was completely out of your control. (And dear readers, as you well know, most things are out of our control.) But maybe, just maybe, if you can somehow keep your eyes open for the joy you find on the detour, and have a sense of where—or more specifically who—your true north is, you might wind up writing a better story than the one you had planned. And maybe this new story was the point of you all along. I love the thought that right now, in all likelihood, Edith is doing something that's simultaneously challenging and entirely age-appropriate. Which, in a very real way, will be her trophy for not participating. I don't think Edith's done with the Bee, but I'm also not sure I would be heartbroken if she was. And I absolutely believe that, much like Delaney, Edith has more in store for us than we could ever imagine. Even in the middle of missing my people—and especially my North Dakota hussy constant—I have to say that being reminded of who I really can be has me feeling like one of the Bad News Bears myself these days, with all the swagger of Ahmad stepping up to the plate in the Astrodome: “Back up, suckers. I feel good.”

[tessatechaitea]

Doomsday’s Cock #1

Why is Rorschach on the cover of Doomsday's Cock #1?

Uh oh. Trump fans are going to be upset about this comic book. Of course, they'll pretend they're upset about comics making any kind of political commentary. But they're really just upset that the story portrays a world falling apart because the president is an obvious Trumpian disaster.

News reports indicate that Veidt's plan was exposed as The Great Lie. He's now considered a terrorist being hunted by everybody. It was Rorschach's journal that exposed the truth, a journal which disappeared not long after. I guess Rorschach did survive somehow and decided to get back to journaling. And then there he is. Rorschach has survived, reappearing to comment on how the world has gone to shit so that comic book Fanboys everywhere can fuck themselves silly.

Oh wait. Scratch that. They're more likely to rage about pandering until their heads explode.

Rorscach recruits the Marionette for some secret mission he's on. I don't remember The Marionette but I'm sure it was some villain that Rorschach nearly killed. They have three hours to find Doctor Manhattan since America has launched their nuclear missiles. The world is about to end which probably means The New 52 is about to begin. For some reason. It'll all be explained in time! Probably. I mean, it'll probably be the way Doctor Manhattan saves the world. Or something. Before leaving prison, The Marionette and Rorschach pick up The Marionette's husband, the Mime. They're the perfect team to catch Doctor Manhattan! She'll pull Jon's strings and he'll trap him in an invisible box. Even a fucking omnipotent blue naked guy can't defend against that. It turns out Rorscach is working with Ozymandias to find Doctor Manhattan to save their world. But when Ozymandias last saw Doctor Manhattan, he was leaving the Watchmen Universe to find one less complicated to live in. Or to find one that was fairly complicated and fuck it all up so that it didn't seem, at first glance, complicated at all. But like every continuity reboot, it was actually way more complicated than if things had been left alone. The issue ends with Clark having a nightmare about his prom night. I'm not sure if the scariest part of the dream was when his parents were killed in the traffic accident or when he saw Pete dancing. Lois wakes up and he tells her, "I don't think I've ever had one." Oh, um, the one refers to a nightmare. I didn't want to change the quote and I didn't want to add more dialogue. Instead I decided to write all of this extraneous and awkward crap. The night Superman has the nightmare is probably the night Doctor Manhattan arrived and changed the past because he didn't want to have to learn seventy years of DC history to understand the world he was now living in. The issue ends with a few lines from the poem, "Ozymandias," because why not? That's a pretty easy quote pull! Especially because it mentioned aliens and appeared after the Superman scene! Doomsday's Cock #1 Rating: It was huge.

[stone-man-warrior]

October 21, 2018: 11:26 am:

October 21, 2018: 11:25 am:<br><br><br> StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-21T14:26:12-0400 - Updated: 2018-10-21T14:26:12-0400

October 21, 2018: 11:25 am:

Shared with: Public

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-21T14:36:15-04

October 21, 2018: 11:26 am: Yesterday was filled with a day-long attack from the Monroe Screen Actor Guild Seventh Day Adventist Vatican Cannibal family terrorist cell. From the moment I went outdoors to greet the day, all day long, until I fell asleep in the night. Frank Beard of ZZTop mat have been killed yesterday while attacking me in my home. I am not comfortable with saying any more than that. I need a stack of Fifth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America in order to convey the truth, otherwise, I could say everything necessary to help maintain freedom and the existence of the USA if only there were leaders who would declare the war that is happening now. In the absence of a declaration of war, the Fifth Amendment is the thing that protects US American Citizens who have knowledge of war at a time when war has not been recognized by the leaders of the country. Having said that, if there is a particular person that I know, then, the following statement may mean something to that person: Bulls-Frog-Eye. Sometimes, the truth comes from some of the most unlikely places. Thank you.

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-21T17:44:03-0400

October 21, 2018: 1:59 pm: The terrorist assholes have access to the words that come out of my mouth through the existence of a implanted, broadcasting microphone/transmitter in my jaw, that was put there during routine dental work, at a terrorist controlled dental office called Southern Oregon Dental, Dr. Arragotti, who probably had been killed and replaced with the man who was portraying him, and put the implant in my jaw. The man's appearance was a white male, about 45 years of age, about 5'10' in height and had remarkably thick prescription glasses that were for correction of nearsightedness, such that the man's eyes were made tiny when looking at them through the glasses. The terrorist bastards have a radio receiver that picks up the frequency of the implanted transmitter, they record the sound of my voice and piece together recordings that are mocked up for the purpose of portraying me as something that I am not. Such a activity as capturing the sound of my voice can be used to make phone calls to others who hear the sound of my recorded, mocked together voice. It could also be used by fake State Police or fake FBI who are claiming that they are investigating me and have planted a listening device on me, or in my home. There are listening devices in my home, I am aware of the location of one such device and use it to my benefit, at the expense of the terrorist bastards. So, just now, with the use of a variety of well placed props, that are designed and placed outdoors along the path I walk everyday, to get me to comment on them verbally, are present outside right now. There will be a recording of my voice, presented to someone, somewhere, using phrases that I spoke aloud today, while walking in my driveway, that include "she moved the trailer", "that does not look like fire wood per-say, but rather more like dimensional lumber, I cant really tell from here", "This looks like Laura Ingraham showing me the bottom of her feet, that's what's going on", "wait a minute, you need to get back in the boat, someone needs to drive the boat... there ya go, now drive the boat", "Free fall, chute, free fall, chute, free fall, chute... thud, thud, thud... assholes.", "well, aren't you going to drop your load?, c'mon, drop your load asshole!". "thud, thud, thud... terrorist bastards". Those statements and more are some of the ways I responded verbally to terrorist activities that are used as a means to capture the sound of my voice through the use of the implant in my jaw. I was only speaking to my self, but aloud, but mumbling, and taking notice of conditions that have changed since the last time I took a walk. Fake, impostor State Police. Fake, impostor FBI. Fake, impostor citizens. Fake, impostor voters. Fake, impostor candidates. Fake, impostor leaders. Real torcher. Real killing. Real death. Real terrorists... not the kind we see on the television news. Not the kind we see on the internet. Not the kind we read about in news articles. Not the kind that are presented to us anywhere, on any media, of any kind. The real terrorists are white, Caucasian people. Many are bi-lingual and speak French as a primary language, English as a second language. They are Christian based terrorists, not Muslim, not Hindu, not any other religion, with only a very tiny percentage of individuals who are Jihad oriented, and those hide themselves within, and among, the Seventh Day Adventist, Christian variety of terrorists. The Crusades are as real today as they were one thousand years ago. Today, they kill in greater number, and with stronger weapons than they did in times of antiquity. The result is the same, either be Christian, CONVERT to Christianity, or be brutally slaughtered. The modern media uses deception over the airwaves and into our living rooms to portray a peaceful and even thriving social environment in the USA, when the reality is that the slaughter is happening in real life, while the charade is happening in the fantasy of the televised media, scripted, rehearsed, cast with characters, lit with lighting, scored with music, and even provided with a fake audience, who are also part of the cast. It's an illusion of a magnitude never thought to have been conceived, presented on a stage that includes the entire Earth and space. Once most people understand what I am exposing, they experience an epiphany such that their breath is taken away, and they become catatonic simply of the knowledge of the size, scope, and fact that it all happened while we watched it happen. The truth becomes more frightening than the illusion. I don't know of anyone who has survived the knowing. The words "I understand now", are almost always followed by screams and choking, because the knowing almost always comes after captivity, and not before. We need to change that, or die trying.

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-21T18:15:18-0400 - Updated: 2018-10-21T18:27:00-0400

October 21, 2018: 2:53 pm: DC Emergency Glass Repair Washington, DC <https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DCEmergencyGlassRepairWashingtonDC> The URL above belongs to Damage Control terrorist operatives at the highest levels. These are people associated closely with the Democrat political party. They may belong to a terrorist cell at the high levels called "Medical Democrats", there is such a cell, and they are responsible for the takeover of the medical industry for a variety of extremely strategically important terrorist acquisitions. For instance, the terrorists of the Screen Actors Guild need drugs of all kinds, they are powered by drugs, they seek drugs, they are addicted to and are dependent on drugs both for entertainment and for terrorist purposes and activities. The "Medical Democrat" terrorist cell are responsible for the location, and sourcing of the drugs used by Screen Actor Guild terrorists. They have completely hijacked the Medicare Part-D system of prescription insurance and in fact the whole scheme behind the Medicare Part-D prescription insurance program was devised as a means of obtaining the drugs, and killing the actual beneficiaries. This is a huge problem and targets the most vulnerable Americans on Earth. The Medical Democrats include Uma Abadine, Anthony Weaner, Hillary Clinton and the host of characters that surround those three people. There are representatives of the Medical Democrat terrorist cell who reside at 598 Jackpine Drive Grants Pass Oregon, 97526. The Medical Democrat terrorist cell includes the company that makes Kaspersky Internet Security Products. There is a person by that name of Paula Pfiefer who is a CEO or other similar rank in the company who also is the CEO or similar rank at the Medford Medical Clinic in Medford Oregon. Paula Pfiefer is a very important person for questioning, and is protected by the United States Government terrorist operatives of the Screen Actors Guild. I strongly recommend the complete investigation of the entire staff of Medford Medical Clinic, and Kaspersky Internet Security products. Also, the hospitals, doctors, and surgeons surrounding and serving the needs of the Medford Medical Clinic are also centrally important, and protected at the high levels of US Government by terrorist operatives who have infiltrated and control government. The terrorist Coup is no joke. It is not a small matter. The terrorist Coup is all encompassing and requires strong US Military intervention in order to restore Freedom, and maintain the existence of the USA. Gina Haskel, Mike Pompeo, Kierstjen Nielsen, Heather Nuart are all part of the Medical Democrat terrorist cell. That means that by default, Donald Trump is also a member. If so, then the entire staff at FOX News are also Medical Democrat terrorists cell members. The term "Medical Democrat" for the purpose of identifying a terrorist cell has been in existence since 2010, or before. I am aware of the cell for at least that long. A local person by the name of Geneva Degner who works in the field of medical imaging, MRI, X-Ray technologies can be very helpful for questioning. Tell her "Tequila" sent you. Ms. Degner is a resident of Medford Oregon, and last known to be working at the imaging department of Medford Medical Clinic, however, she is also affiliated with the nearby Providence Medical Center. Mr. Degner's terrorist name is "RINO butt" (Republican In Name Only, Nitrous carrier).

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-21T22:59:38-0400

October 21, 2018: 7:44 pm: Shots fired from a moving vehicle on Russel Road and moving North towards Three Pines Road moments ago. Five shots in rapid succession, estimated to be at the location in front of the fake pastors house associated with the Grants Pass Community Church on Russel Road about a quarter of a mile South of my location. The Fake pastor lives in a house and associated property owned by the Grants Pass Community Church just North of the actual Church. The person who is the Fake Pastor is a local attorney by the name of Christopher Mecca. If there is someone reading this who understands what was just described, I will elaborate. In a county completely overrun, consumed and controlled by terrorists, there is a church. The church has a five acre parcel next to it that is reserved for the pastor of the church. The person that resides in the church owned, tax free, and rent free "pastors residence" is a local attorney. I don't say much about Mr, Mecca on this page, but let it be known that he brings me a great deal of grief. Everyone I report about on this page is an associate of Mr. Mecca, the attorney who lives in a rent free, tax free, pastors house at a church. If someone interested in national security matters that are occurring in Josephine County Oregon were to take notice of the attorney that lives at the church, they could also find an person who is able to craft the kinds of legal documents that are necessary for terrorists to profit from their activities at the expense of the State of Oregon, the County of Josephine, the City of Grants Pass, and the USA. Legal documents are required, they need them to be processed through the Josephine County Circuit Court where terrorists killed the real judges, and put in impostor judges. Legal documents are useful in terrorism.

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-21T23:01:54-0400

October 21, 2018: 7:59 pm: The sound of the mystery electricity generator is on Russel Road tonight. It sounds close-by, seems like the generator is at 3701 Russel Road, or across the street from there.

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-22T00:45:32-0400 - Updated: 2018-10-22T00:46:24-0400

October 21, 2018: 9:37 pm: Today I explained some things about Medford Medical Clinic, their affiliation with the US SAG infiltrated terrorists who occupy US Government, and a terrorist cell known as :Medical Democrats". I need to add a bit of information that could be important and possibly verifiable. In the 1970's there was a popular television show that stared an actress by the name of Tine Daily. Tine Daily, in the television show I am thinking of, used the character name "Grear" on the television show. At Medford Medical Clinic, in the Medical Records Department, there is a woman who looks remarkably similar to Tine Daily, but uses the name "Grear" when answering the phones and introducing herself to those who go there to pick up medical records. "Grear" is grumpy, and difficult to work with at the Medical Records Department at Medford Medical Clinic. She makes it very difficult to retrieve ones medical records.

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 12/5/17

Son of Cornucopia of Briefs!

Akashic Records of Bastard Magica Instructor, Vol. 2 | By Hitsuji Tarou, Tsunemi Aosa and Kurone Mishima | Seven Seas – Last time I said Glenn was too irritating, this time the opposite may be the case. Part of that is due to the fact that this is mostly just a big battle, as Rumia has been kidnapped and Sistine and Glenn have to rescue her. This involves a pile of fights, some of which are more exciting than others. The final fight is an anticlimax, partly as the villain is dull and gives up very easily, and partly as Rumia, in order to contrast with Sistine, is also quite dull. The best part was Glenn pushing Sistine out of the building, frankly. This is an OK series if you like magical high schools, but there’s honestly better ones out there. – Sean Gaffney

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 5 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | Viz Media – As I’ve said before, the quality of this series is dependent on the amount of music depicted in it, and this volume has a LOT of music, making it easily the best volume to date. Nino can be good at playing and singing, or she can blow everyone away with her voice and emotions, but she cannot, seemingly, do both at the same time. The result is a concert that looms towards trainwreck the entire time but never quite gets there, riding entirely on the skill of the band and Nino’s desperate cries of the heart. The art here is stunning, and remains the best reason to read it. The romance, honestly, is the weak link, and you’d really like it to resolve itself but know that it won’t. Get this for the band. – Sean Gaffney

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 7 | By Izumi Miyazono | VIZ Media – The more things change, the more they stay the same. Ryu has been offered a promotion to the Washington, DC branch of his news organization, and, with encouragement from Asuka, decides to accept. They attempt to make the most of the months they have left, including a few fun dates and an outing in which Ryu introduces Asuka to his brother. He even proposes, sort of. “In spirit,” he says. But still, once he’s gone, we get essentially the same stuff as before. Vague glimpses at Asuka’s job, her brother showing up to poke his nose into her business, and, most significantly, yet more of Kamiya and his persistent angling for Asuka’s affections. It’s not bad, but it’s a dynamic that I’m pretty tired of. Still, it’s a quick, light read, so I’ll probably keep following it. – Michelle Smith

Frau Faust, Vol. 2| By Kore Yamazaki | Kodansha Comics – I must admit, I was very disappointed at the big plot twist of Frau Faust‘s second volume. I really liked the badass adult heroine, so seeing her, though the bargain she has with her demon, have her body stripped away so she looks younger and cuter strikes me as not the best bargain I’ve ever had. That said, her personality remains the same, and it wouldn’t matter if she was young or old, nothing was going to be able to stop Marion getting himself into trouble, as he possesses a thirst for knowledge second only to her own. And most of the horror in this book is given over to a creepy church with an evil priest and nun, always popular with readers. Despite the age regression, I’m still enjoying Frau Faust. – Sean Gaffney

The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Vol. 6 | By Tsunami Umino | Kodansha Comics – I expected to be happy and relieved when these two awkward failboats finally got it together, confessed they liked each other, and had their first time. And I was. The good news is that it does not in any way detract from the fact that they are still two really awkward massive failboats, even as they deepen their relationship. Because they still can’t think of it as a relationship—in particular, Mikuri is panicking at the fact that being his real wife means giving up on the income she’s been getting. Which you could argue is meant to be a comment on the sheer amount of unpaid work the average wife goes through, but I think is more meant to show that Mikuri has serious compartmentalization issues. I love this series. – Sean Gaffney

Idol Dreams, Vol. 4 | By Arina Tanemura | Viz Media – Idol Dreams has always been “problematic but readable,” and both qualities amp up in this fourth volume, as Chikage deals with her decision to date Ru as a 15-year-old. She thinks of things as an adult, so can’t really understand a teenage boy’s drives and desires, which almost leads to tragedy, and does lead to her doing something very cruel in order to “fix” things. The other problem is Chikage’s complete and total lack of self-worth. This is, after all, a woman who tried to kill herself near the start of the series. It’s so bad that she even gets “confidence” lessons from the other girls in the office. Tanemura is always readable, but I still can’t see this ending in any way other than everyone being very, very unhappy. – Sean Gaffney

Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 2 | By Rin Mikimoto | Kodansha Comics – Despite still having issues deciding how much of a comedy it’s supposed to be, this is a better volume than the first. Our heroes have gotten together, though of course given Kaede’s idol status it’s a big secret—if found out, Hinana could be in big trouble. I liked the added depth we got from Hinana here—she does initially have confidence in her relationship with Kaede, but is still a teenage girl, so lies can persuade her. She also reveals that she’s adopted, which means she feels the need to excel in school, and being around Kaede all the time is not helping, especially when he keeps trying to distract her. (The sniffing scene was a highlight). I’m having sufficient fun to continue. – Sean Gaffney

Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 13 | By Fumi Yoshinaga | VIZ Media – As ever with Ooku, time moves on, and when I first started reading this volume, I missed the beloved group of characters involved with eradicating the redface pox. Soon, though, I realized that Iesada, the first female shogun in over sixty years, is awesome, and that Takiyama, her new senior chamberlain, is likewise awesome. Moreover, her female senior councilor (becoming more of a rarity as the male population recovers) Abe Masahiro is seriously awesome. Now they (especially Takiyama and Masahiro) are as beloved to me as the other group! The moral of the story is: never doubt Yoshinaga. She even knows how to give a reader goosebumps via a dramatic reappearance of a symbolic kimono design! I’m so happy there are at least two more volumes of this. – Michelle Smith

A Polar Bear in Love, Vol. 1 | By Koromo | Yen Press – This is a cute and seemingly heartwarming manga, but its relationship between predator and prey makes me a bit uncomfortable. I think the manga artist is aware of this—we get constant reassurance from the polar bear that he does not, in fact, want to eat the seal but has fallen in love with him instead. And the fact that they’re both male is also not overlooked. There’s a lot more going on here than you’d expect in a series that’s meant to run on “ooooh, adorable animals!” Still, there’s no denying that the seal is terrified the entire time and unable to really escape for a while, and the fact that he’s slowly starting to fall for the polar bear does not really quiet my misgivings. Warily recommended. – Sean Gaffney

Requiem of the Rose King, Vol. 7 | By Aya Kanno | Viz Media – Say what you will about Kanno, she really knows how to drag out the canon scenes to serve her own interests. And serve them very well, as this is another volume of Rose King that you absolutely can’t put down once you start reading it. Margaret’s downfall will be very familiar to readers of the Henry VI plays, but that doesn’t make it less tragic. As for Richard and Henry, Richard seems to be descending closer and closer to madness, and he doesn’t even need Joan of Arc’s ghost this time around—his mother fills in nicely. Add to this Anne being ABSOLUTELY BADASS, and you have another volume of what may be the best Shojo Beat series out there that isn’t Shojo Beat. You need to be reading this. – Sean Gaffney

Sword Art Online: abec Artworks | By abec | Yen Press – It’s always nice to see a series do well enough to justify licensing the artbook, and I’ve always liked abec’s work. We get some gorgeous art here, of course, along with some insight into the process (such as Kirito being added to the cover of book seven by editorial fiat). There’s also a short story at the end by Reki Kawahara, which involves an artist who’s trying to figure out a way to paint in Aincrad, whose game nature does not make it easy on artists requiring a large canvas. There are also lots of pieces unseen by North American fans, as we get art for promos and magazines. Basically, anyone who is a fan of Sword Art Online should be getting this. It’s also out digitally, but that may not do it justice—go for the bigger print book. – Sean Gaffney

Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Vol. 9 | By Akiko Higashimura | Kodansha Comics (digital only for the moment) – I was equal parts anticipating and dreading this final volume of Tokyo Tarareba Girls, because I wanted a happy ending for Rinko and Key and Mr. Hayasaka, which was going to be impossible. That said, I’m quite satisfied with how things turned out. I won’t give away any plot details, but I loved how Rinko both changed and did not change, in that instead of saying “what if” and regretting the state of things, she’s now determined to say “because” and be grateful for events and people who have helped her grow as a person. She’s now more honest with herself and with others, and yet she’s still the Rinko who periodically gets sloppy drunk with her friends. This is a really strong conclusion that even made me a little sniffly! – Michelle Smith

By: Michelle Smith

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KEEP CALM AND WATCH MORE TELEVISION

Thaddeus Howze is a science fiction and fantasy writer, technology consultant, polymath, autistic, creator of worlds, iconoclast, humanist and occasional bastard (nobody’s perfect). Read more about Thaddeus here.  KEEP CALM AND WATCH MORE TELEVISION Courtesy of Thaddeus Howze New phrases to describe your television watching habits. #bingewatching #cringewatching #hingewatching #singewatching #fringewatching ASYNCHRONOUS, DELIVERED ACROSS THE AIRWAVES In the beginning, there was…

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